Page 97 - AIT0124_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Plantea Estudio, ES-Madrid
Bauherr • Client Veja, FR-Paris
Standort • Location Calle Barquillo 44, ES-Madrid
Nutzfläche • Floor space 340 m 2
Fotos • Photos Alva López, ES-Barcelona
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 126

VEJA STORE

IN MADRID

The French sneaker brand Veja successfully proves that
high-quality, trendy design can definitely go hand in
hand with social entrepreneurship, inclusion, fair trade,
recycled, natural and organic materials. The store that
has been designed by Plantea Estudio for Madrid’s tren-
dy Chueca neighbourhood is just as “basic” in terms of
the materials used as are the Veja sneakers.

W e are the “sneaker generation”. That’s how it will one day go
down in the annals of footwear fashion. The comfortable trainers
with the quiet soles are all the rage around the globe. From the world
of sport, they have made it to the executive floors of established offic-
es. When Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion had founded
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Floor plan their sneaker brand Veja in 2005 – yes, it was almost 20 years ago! – they
wanted to do something fundamentally different. Namely, sustainable
trainers – from the extraction of raw materials to production and distri-
bution. Veja, the brand with the V logo, produces in Brazil, where the
natural rubber for the soles is also obtained. The company works with
recycled plastic, organic cotton and together with local cooperatives.
The money that other companies spend on advertising is channelled
into higher wages and production costs at Veja. The Portuguese veja
means something like “look!”. Because transparency is writ large in
the successful green company. And sustainability is also a must for the
stores. Last year, a Veja brand store opened in Madrid’s trendy Chue-
ca neighbourhood. The local architecture firm Plantea Estudio pains-
takingly restored the shop on the corner of Calle Barquillo and Calle
Fernando VI to its original structure. Load-bearing brick walls, wooden
Grundriss Untergeschoss: Lager, Sozialräume • Basement floor plan: storage rooms, social spaces beams and columns emerged. The rooms in the V-shaped floor plan
are a proud five metres high. Plantea Estudio enthuses about “the solid
quality of the permanent” and its “vulnerable side”, which is evident in
the scars of time. The rooms are “powerful and calm at the same time”.
The architects wanted to emphasize this. The raw elements define the
atmosphere: bare brick, rough spray plaster and acoustic plaster, cement
screed, red cobblestones in the entrance area. A shop like an empty
shoe box! Plantea Estudio integrated as little furniture as necessary into
it. Heavy and light are in balance. Massive concrete blocks cast in in-situ
concrete serve as counters, displays, benches ... The walls are flanked by
long, illuminated shelves made of slender steel profiles. At the centre of
the shop: a repair service. The store reflects Veja’s company philosophy
Fassaden • Facades – sustainable, minimalist, timeless – with absolute credibility.

AIT 1/2.2024 • 097