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Architects: FGMF, Projeto de Perto
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Rafaela Netto
Text description provided by the architects. We participated very deeply in the conception process of the FEED butchery, taking part not only in the elaboration of the architecture, interior design and visual identity, but all the way to the very products we all handpicked to be sold at the shop. This store is the brand’s flagship and has in its objective the presentation of a very high-level alternative for the traditional meat consumption. The concept is to surpass archetype of the high standard butchery and depict the headquarters of a very large distributor that aims to meet the clients’ families’ meat demand, from day-to-day life to special occasions. In this sense, the shop portrays a new concept, the costumer’s introduction to the FEED world – a company that ranges from the genetic control of the special Bonsmara cattle through the creation, feeding, slaughtering, cutting, marketingup to the recipes and accessories needed for the adequate preparation of the food. FEED’s intent is to be present in the costumer’s daily life, and not just to sell its products every now and then.
Thus, tasked with the responsibility of creating a building that presented an alternative philosophy in buying meat, we have worked to undertake the project of an unconventional store that promoted the approach of the clients with the whole FEED production and management cradle. The flagship should be welcoming and fun – not only to gourmet chefs and meat-lovers, but also to any kind of curious and interested parties or anyone that contemplates a better eating life.
We decided to create an entrance hall with double-height ceilings that could be a pleasant parlour for the costumers as well as presenting a shifting panel that shows some FEED-related images and photos through the large glass showcase in the façade. This space that links the street with the store aims not to exhibit products, but to invite costumers to come in and experience FEED.
Beyond this hall lies a long line of refrigerated exposition cases designed by our offices that showcases the various cuts available. At the opposite side, long shelveswith several different lit niches exhibit complementary products for the cooking of the “FEEDstock”, such as spices, sauces and more. The restrooms, service rooms and cashier are located behind these conspicuous space-defining shelves, which also work as a counter.
The very core of the store is occupied with a zenithal-lit area protected by a tree whose trunk is actually inside the very store, sided by a bromeliad vertical garden. This space also hosts the cut area (the butchery itself), where specialists work in loco in large pieces of meat requested by the clients in a broad glazed workstation, bathed by the sunlight. The link of an aseptic environment protected by the glass with the gardens, tree an sunlight that breaks with the traditional ideal of a meat shop is positively unusual and contributes to achieve the new concept FEED seeks to introduce.
The back of the store hosts a large double-ceilinged pergola that opens itself below a vast fig treetop. This gourmet area is equipped with an open semi-industrial kitchen where cooking classes, product tastings, small events and meals are held, and it’s one of the ways the store approaches its products to its clients’ daily cooking after the sells are made. The fig tree is lit during the evening, creating a very welcoming scenery.
We also created wooden crates with FEED’s logo as table bases, coffee tables and exhibition stands that, aligned with a mix of contemporary and modern furniture, create different kinds of spaces to relax and to experience the kitchenware that is sold at the shop. This mix of raw and painted crates, signed design furniture, a carefully controlled lighting and the cement and wooden cladding create the FEED atmosphere – a new kind of meat shop: different, ironic, fun and contemporary.
