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Mania das Plantas
Mania das Plantas
Maia, Portugal
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Mania das Plantas
Maia, Portugal
In Portugal, the vast majority of gardening centres are designless spots that offer plants and their related tools in an unpleasant and confusingly space, either as a small unprofessional retail shop or as a big impersonal surface….
‘maniadasplantas’ (plants’ mania) is a family project created in 2006. Six brothers and their parents associated themselves to pursuit an old family wish and create a new concept for gardening centres. This new concept is based on a simple but comfortable space, where clients have special attention and are free to spend time in the centre shopping, having a coffee, reading a book or seeking answers and advices for their gardens. The final purpose was to provide at the same time professional help in a personal style.
Plaren was asked to design both the architecture and the concept design for the first maniadasplantas shop, located in Maia, a rural suburb of Porto (10km distant from Porto’s city centre). Our goal was therefore to create a trendy space with a strong appealing image, giving special focus to store indoor display and a consonant landscape outside. We wanted a centre where clients felt agreeable to spend their time shopping but also enjoying nature and the gardening centre itself.
To accomplish this desire of a trendy design image, and since the client had asked us to work with a low budget, we opted to use colour to differentiate maniadasplantas from all the other gardening centres. The obvious colour associated with these shops is green used in several shapes and tones. To have a truly different image we chose bright red to use on the entire structure, as it creates a strong contrast with the green landscape and the green plants both on the inside and on the outside. Red should be present everywhere!
Keeping costs low, our proposal included a stove/hot-house made in tubular steel and revested in red pvc, divided by standard metallic red shelves creating two spaces: a public bigger area for indoor plants and gardening tools and pots; and a smaller private area for storing stock and receive merchandises. We therefore reduced construction costs having only a small area that had to be constructed in stonewalling (imposed by national legislation). This included five rooms for the back office, 3 WC (ladies, gentlemen and physically handicapped people) and a room for agriculture-chemicals, all painted entirely in red.
To display indoor products, we were forced to find a solution that could be changed accordingly to the products exposed, i.e., which could have different shapes and sizes to fit all exposure solutions. Being inspired by big supermarkets that have all the bulkier items disposed on pallets, we designed small red pallet ‘islands’ through the shop, each of these islands with different products exposed at different heights (for instance, bonsai and palm trees).
For the floor, we proposed the use of concrete finished with mechanical brush that would accentuate the product red ‘islands’.
Two ‘cultural’ areas were created to attract clients to the shop: a specialised library and a ‘café’. This last space would be the stage of some music concerts, poetry recitals and gardening workshops, besides serving hot drinks so we opted to locate it near one of the exterior entrances having the outside view as scenery.
On the outside, we had a big concern to create small and ordered niches, in harmony with the surrounding landscape. We used a plastic fabric to cover the floor, making it pleasant to walk outside even on rainy days.
‘maniadasplantas’ (plants’ mania) is a family project created in 2006. Six brothers and their parents associated themselves to pursuit an old family wish and create a new concept for gardening centres. This new concept is based on a simple but comfortable space, where clients have special attention and are free to spend time in the centre shopping, having a coffee, reading a book or seeking answers and advices for their gardens. The final purpose was to provide at the same time professional help in a personal style.
Plaren was asked to design both the architecture and the concept design for the first maniadasplantas shop, located in Maia, a rural suburb of Porto (10km distant from Porto’s city centre). Our goal was therefore to create a trendy space with a strong appealing image, giving special focus to store indoor display and a consonant landscape outside. We wanted a centre where clients felt agreeable to spend their time shopping but also enjoying nature and the gardening centre itself.
To accomplish this desire of a trendy design image, and since the client had asked us to work with a low budget, we opted to use colour to differentiate maniadasplantas from all the other gardening centres. The obvious colour associated with these shops is green used in several shapes and tones. To have a truly different image we chose bright red to use on the entire structure, as it creates a strong contrast with the green landscape and the green plants both on the inside and on the outside. Red should be present everywhere!
Keeping costs low, our proposal included a stove/hot-house made in tubular steel and revested in red pvc, divided by standard metallic red shelves creating two spaces: a public bigger area for indoor plants and gardening tools and pots; and a smaller private area for storing stock and receive merchandises. We therefore reduced construction costs having only a small area that had to be constructed in stonewalling (imposed by national legislation). This included five rooms for the back office, 3 WC (ladies, gentlemen and physically handicapped people) and a room for agriculture-chemicals, all painted entirely in red.
To display indoor products, we were forced to find a solution that could be changed accordingly to the products exposed, i.e., which could have different shapes and sizes to fit all exposure solutions. Being inspired by big supermarkets that have all the bulkier items disposed on pallets, we designed small red pallet ‘islands’ through the shop, each of these islands with different products exposed at different heights (for instance, bonsai and palm trees).
For the floor, we proposed the use of concrete finished with mechanical brush that would accentuate the product red ‘islands’.
Two ‘cultural’ areas were created to attract clients to the shop: a specialised library and a ‘café’. This last space would be the stage of some music concerts, poetry recitals and gardening workshops, besides serving hot drinks so we opted to locate it near one of the exterior entrances having the outside view as scenery.
On the outside, we had a big concern to create small and ordered niches, in harmony with the surrounding landscape. We used a plastic fabric to cover the floor, making it pleasant to walk outside even on rainy days.
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