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Colvin Florist Project/Román Izquierdo Bouldstridge Studio

About Román Izquierdo Bouldstridge Studio

Román Izquierdo Bouldstridge is an architectural studio that has projects in many diverse areas, from urban planning and architecture to interior design and objects. Their artistic experimentation and research is mixed with their professional practice in each and every project.

The studio takes into consideration the daily experience of people, seeking a balance between functionality, relationship with the environment and beauty of spaces created to be lived in a natural way.

The communication with the clients is a very close one, from the design process when the company tries to understand the client’s needs and expectations to the final details. The studio applies innovative tailored solutions and paying special attention to detail.

Román Izquierdo Bouldstridge is graduated in the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB). His professional career starts in the Japanese studios Tetsuo Kondo Architects, Junya Ishigami+Associates and Kengo Kuma and Associates. He founded his own studio based in Barcelona in 2014.

About Colvin Florist Project

Reinterpretation of a field of flowers with pathways under the shade of the trees

Located in the Eixample district of Barcelona, this project involves the conversion of a space that formerly housed a bank office into a florist for the startup Colvin. The inspiration for the design was to reinterpret a field of flowers with pathways under the shade of the trees. The natural and the man-made fuse creating a new atmosphere has been created.

The first aim – recover the high ceilings and brick walls

The first intervention was to reveal the formal and material potential of the existent space by recovering its high ceilings and brick walls. The false ceiling was removed to show the wooden beams and the plaster-work was peeled back to uncover the brick walls. A new layer of fire-resistant mortar was projected, homogenizing the ceiling and structural reinforcement beams with the same rough texture in order to provide fireproof structural protection. Finally, the new continuous pavement, the existing walls and the high ceiling were all painted white; focusing on the contained space, not the container itself. This material abstraction of the boundaries gives rise to a new perception of light and material impermanence.

Flexible spatial relation between the florist spaces

The florist program consists in an exhibition area where customers choose the bouquet, a semi-open workshop where florists create the composition of flowers to deliver and privates areas such as the storeroom, cold room, office and toilet. The flexible spatial relation between these spaces is solved by sliding doors systems that vary according to the degree of privacy required. The combination of fixed and mobile glass doors with wooden frames, together with the sliding oak doors, allows users to visually or acoustically separate the activities from the street to private rooms.

An environment that encourages people to explore flowers in a natural topography

The second intervention was creating a new form of environment that encourages people to explore flowers in a natural topography. A new sensorial scenery merges with the old constructed forms, stimulating the feeling of nature with the sight, smell and touch. In this way, abstract nature understood as the artificial space full of light highlights the presence of living and concrete nature.

The perception of a great-height-space is enhanced by the tree trunks verticality, or its artificial analogy, the sculptural cast iron column. In addition to this, two large mirrors visually duplicate the space, giving customers the experience of seeing themselves reflected in a field of flowers within the city.

The colorful bouquets in unique bases are displayed at the eye level in Colvin Florist Project

The exhibition area’s functional needs are met by an innovative flexible system formed by a series of wooden prism volumes. These custom-made trunks have different diameters and heights, displaying the colorful bouquets in unique bases that raise the flowers at eye level. Following the same aesthetic concept, wooden prisms also serve as a tea table for the waiting area, a cash desk and tree pots; achieving different functions with the same simple repeated element. These elements, apparently placed at random, completely fill the space in an organic and dynamic way while creating clusters that origin the circulation areas. The aim of the project is to invite each person to find his own way to get lost and interact with flowers by experiencing this new natural environment.

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