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Architects: Luis Carbonell
- Area: 86 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Camila Cossio
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Manufacturers: AutoDesk, Adobe, Gastrox, McNeel, un rayito de sol
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Lead Architect: Luis Carbonell
Text description provided by the architects. Materia was developed in a commercial shop in La Condesa, a meeting point and a transit hub with a great offer of coffee shops, and contains the vibrant urban image influenced by different artistic currents through the years, such as Art Deco. The premise of the Bakery comes from the intention of feeding based on raw materials, seeking to eliminate the perception and predisposition that traditional bakery is the opposite of a healthy and beneficial diet. Inside the kitchen, they intend to work under a methodology with an approach focused entirely on the ingredients and their processes, favoring superfoods through cooking methods that enhance their best qualities, offering products that eliminate the guilt of eating a tasty pastry.
The design approach that would house this thought was established in the same way: raw material as raw material. Architecture is made from its most basic elements, expressed crudely, arranged one above the other, and, in some cases, treated experimentally. Wood, steel, and concrete are the protagonists of the assembly in the adaptation of the space, providing solutions for the use and separation of rooms. Those materials are complemented by two color schemes: brown and terracotta inside, alluding to the earth, the warmth and shelter of clay and fire; in contrast, on the outside, the olive green plays with the vegetal palette through the windows and towards the trees on the sidewalk. From the outside, the façade is contained within the urban image in its horizontal spread. It uses a pattern that arises from the graphic exploration of the baguette shape, abstracted and applied to the pattern of the ironworks. It plays with the French-style motifs of the area, and then folds in, opening all the thresholds, inhaling that exterior, and exhaling the smells of the kitchen to the outside. The pattern appears again on the inside, translated into the clay tiles, creating a visual focal point behind the display and sale area.
The rest of the spatial elements are saturated by new furniture. The walls become exhibitors and carriers of products. Some move and rotate to separate or open the space but still exhibit the merchandise. The rest become tables or chairs, utilitarian and versatile pieces. The columns acquire other functions as well, becoming high tables, racks, and display boards, or they maintain their initial function: acting as supporting structure that carries the weight of the central concrete table: the buffer element, a piece that distributes the space around it, drives the traffic around its perimeter, making it flow through each space and each microenvironment resolved within the small shop. This piece was conceived with Arch. Kobayashi, seeking a formal result as a part of the exploration process itself, allowing it to take shape by the forces of gravity in play with the concrete and the flexible formwork. Materia ends up being the natural expression of its elements, pieces placed and superimposed on each other, exposed to processes and gravity, and arranged between themselves, the spaces, and the activities which they host.
