Llibreria del Born

Barcelona, Spain

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CAMS 2022

Llibreria del Born

Barcelona, Spain

Firm

Baliza Norte

Type

Commercial › Retail
Cultural › Cultural Center

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2013

BUDGET

$10K - 50K

Photos

Adrià Goula (7)

This bookshop is located inside a superb cast iron infrastructure of the 19th century, a local fresh market recently transformed into a cultural centre.

The market building was inaugurated in 1876, and was used as a market until 1971. Its commercial activity trascended the building itself and afforded a special personality to the whole neighbourhood. Photographers of those times captured the market activity -piles of crates, fruit sellers, trade...- remaining in the collective memory until the present day.

The building has been recently refurbished and transformed into a cultural centre. The bookshop is, functionally and organizationally, the part of the building most directly related to its former function. We wanted to pay an homage to its former commercial activity, which is part of the collective memory, and evoque a feeling of the old market, linking memories of it with the brand.

The shop design is based on crate unit (110x55x70 cm.), creating a modular system that provides a multitude of stacking combination and compositions. These crates are the base system for all the furniture, retaining their original structure without denying their identity. The crates were manufactured by a packaging company, using standard details. Their character was preserved avoiding to transform them into overly neat pieces of furniture, keeping them as rough as the former crates used in the market.

The graphic identity and the signposting, collaboration with Estudio Roseta y Oihana, are based on a typeface of clean lines, basic materials and light, integrated with the furniture and emphasizing the interior design concept. The current corporate logo, "Bestiari" is adapted to the shop aesthetics.