Bombay Sapphire Room Bar
Four years ago, the heads of Bombay Sapphire and the Istituto Europeo di Design launched an international contest whose participants, chosen by them they were challenged to design the cafeteria of the school itself. A place where students usually relax between classes, the meeting point between teachers and students. Although the origin of the idea itself already announced a very particular place, the result has been frankly surprising . But let's go by parts.
Those chosen to draw the line of the new space were the Germans Konstantin Grcic, the french Matali Crassett, the Japanese **Oki Sato and Koichiro Oniki (Study Nendo) ** and, the new winner, the Spanish Lucas Galan Lubascher . He maintains, with some modesty: "I have to admit that I had the opportunity to return several times to the place where we were summoned, the same place where the winning project was going to stay." Indeed this may have been an incentive, but his idea was a winner for other reasons.
Detail of the new Bombay Sapphire Room
The goal was to integrate a light structure, with hardly any artifice, in the Altamira Palace, conceived by Ventura Rodríguez in 1772 for the Marquis of Astorga, Count of Altamira The dense and solid architectural building plays a fundamental role due to its contrast with the lightness of the material of the new space. The use of glass and natural light as the basis of his approach were key for the jury. The idea is not only avant-garde due to the use of such a contemporary material integrated in stone from the 18th century, but also conceptual due to the symbolism that its novel spatial arrangement possesses.
The newly opened cafeteria, 38 square meters, consists of two spaces: as if it were two boxes, one inside the other, whose walls are lined with sheets of extra clear glass –from which all the lead is extracted–, They allow natural light to flood the entire space. The rest of the furniture with a metallic finish and the **stools by Philippe Starck for Kartell** manage to give it that light character within the rigidity of the mansion. The arrangement of the glass sheets allows the atmosphere of the space to vary constantly depending on the daylight and the artificial bluish reflections projected on them.
"If you walk through the bar, you'll almost feel like you're floating," smiles Lucas. And, something more serious, he argues: “From the first moment I knew that the material would be glass and my inspiration, a geode. I was looking for the feeling of spaciousness and constant movement. I wanted to create a bespoke, haute couture suit.” Be that as it may, it is not unreasonable to imagine one of those students, perhaps infected by the creative spirit of the school, coining a new term for a practice known to many: Will we be facing an imminent afterstudy?
Little more to say at this time of day and being Friday