A sculptural ceiling for a Restaurant in Madrid

 

We started this 2022 with an express project by Tattoo Contract.

The challenge was to design a sculptural ceiling that would create an intimate atmosphere in the dinning area of the Tucana restaurant in Azca, Madrid.

Concept

We had to generate an inverted topography that enveloped the diners and transported them fully into the culinary experience.

We use references such as caves, sea beds, or skies.

 

 

Materialization

Several different options were considered and finally, working with the architects and the property, it was decided to use gold and silver anodised aluminium tubes.

The position of the light sources hidden between the tubes increases the sensation of inverted topography that we were looking for.

The diner will be in a cave, concentrating on enjoying the menu.

 

 

The ceiling surface was divided into a series of circular modules of different diameters. Each of these modules would be structurally the same but compositionaly different.

The apparent irregularity of the ensemble is not such. This decision facilitates the management of fabrication and assembly, which is particularly important in projects working to tight deadlines.

 

Another aspect that had to be coordinated in record time was the acoustic absorption of the space. Our metal sculpture needed absorbent elements next to it to prevent the sound wave from reverberating and being distorted by the irregular geometry of the piece. Absotec did an impeccable job manufacturing acoustic panels tailored to the structure that supported the installation.

The installation was designed considering the shape, the lighting, and also the acoustics of the space. Only that way the diner can feel in the cave, purely concentrated on enjoying the menu.

Installation

Despite the fact that we were the ones who assembled the piece ourselves, we did not fail to generate the step-by-step instruction document that saves us so much trouble.

To generate this document we have to simulate the process step by step in 3D. In this way we detect design errors. It also helps us to identify the critical aspects of the pre-installation that we need to coordinate with the site team before installation. Ivan from Tattoo made everything very easy. It was a pleasure to work with him, Pablo and the rest of the team.

The Result

The result is an elegant and welcoming space that is the perfect setting for the magic to happen at Tucana.

Images by Melón Yubari 

An art installation for Adidas Barcelona

Adidas recently opened its new Flagship Store in Barcelona, a space destined to be the largest shop in Spain and the brand's reference place in the city.

The Valencian team of PIM PAM studio in charge of the decoration of the store thought of us when it came to executing a sculptural lighting piece to preside the main staircase linking the two floors.

 

 

 

Concept

We were particularly excited about this project as it turned out to be the first project in a visitable space in our city.
The setting could not have been better: a modernist building by the architect Enric Sagnier on Barcelona's Paseo de Gracia. Adidas wanted to create a contemporary space with a design that would hark back to the famous Catalan architecture and its best ambassador, Antoni Gaudi.

 

 

It was also a pleasure to participate in a project with such a clear commitment to local culture. In this article you can see the different ephemeral performances that took place during the work. Behind the covered walls, there are works by urban artists from the city.

https://barcelonasecreta.com/flagship-adidas/

 

La nueva ‘flagship’ de adidas rinde tributo a Barcelona, con Gallery Session de Morad incluida

 

Materialization

The chandelier is placed around the central column of the spiral staircase leading to the first floor. The radially arranged transparent coloured glasses generate dozens of new colours by overlapping each other. The central column covered in white ceramic reflects the light from the chandelier. Finally, a large circular screen by Led Dream integrated into the design welcomes visitors.

 

Assembly

The assembly was a big challenge. A very heavy piece mounted on a staircase under construction.

Once again, we developed our step-by-step assembly instructions to avoid unpleasant surprises.

The work was successfully coordinated in record time with LED DREAM, ADQA, PIM PAM studio, and Adidas.

 

Result

Now our friends can see one of our installations live when they walk aorund the centre of Barcelona!

 

 

An abstract guitar for the new Hard Rock Hotel in Madrid

How we turned a concept into a huge real sculpture

In early 2019, our friends at Rockwell invited us to be part of a project in which we were to shape a huge sculpture inspired by the iconic Hard Rock guitar. They wanted to integrate a large sculptural piece in the central courtyard of the renovation project they were carrying out to transform a downtown Madrid office building into a Hard Rock hotel.

 

The purpose

The design concept of the new hotel was based on the Movida Madrileña. A cultural phenomenon of the 1980s resulting from the great wave of freedom that invaded the country with the arrival of democracy.

 

The guitar became a characteristic symbol not only of the Hard Rock brand, but also of the Movida Madrileña, a cultural movement whose most popular aspect was precisely music.

On a functional level, this piece had to be predominant in the space without reducing the natural lighting coming in the building through the patio, it had to catch the eye of the guests to avoid crossed views between rooms, and its maintenance needed to be able to coexist with the life of a hotel that never closes.

Conceptualization

The building to be transformed is structured around a large interior courtyard that was originally exposed to the open air. In the renovation project, the courtyard is covered so that the hotel lobby takes over this space and its large upper volume that most of the rooms overlook.

Rockwell wanted to hang a large sculpture there that would subtly represent Hard Rock's iconic guitar symbol.

 

 

When we were invited to participate in the project, we set ourselves two challenges:

The work of Jaume Plensa with his deformed volumes, the anamorphic installations of the Swiss artist Felice Varini and the linear sculptures of Rafael Soto helped us to shape our work.

 

 

Finally, in such a musical and festive environment, light could not be missing. After considering the possibility of illuminating the piece from the façade of the courtyard, we opted to integrate a subtle dynamic lighting that would make the piece dance and adapt throughout the day to the natural light of the courtyard and to life in the hotel.

Materialization

After different design proposals, the team jointly decided to build only the mast of the guitar with its strings and headstock, and the line that defines the silhouette of the body.

 

 

The mast is placed vertically at the back of the courtyard and the silhouette represents a deformed volume. To achieve this volume, the characteristic curves of the guitar are drawn on a plane with a double tilt. From this inclined plane we hang, vertically, the more than 200 tubes that generate the volume of the case.

The curve that defines the silhouette works in this sculpture as the main structure. Its intersection with the tubes is different for each one of them, so the design of the hanging mechanism becomes certainly complex.

We had to find a way for the tubes to be identical (only different in length) to facilitate their replacement in case they were damaged during assembly. Thus, the piece that serves as a joint between the structure and the tubes had to be parametrically designed and digitally manufactured, adapting exactly to the intersection between the tube and the structure at each point.

To achieve maximum lightness, the tubes fall freely under their own weight and are gently tilted until their centre of gravity is aligned with the hanging point. This way, tubes of different lengths create a double curvature surface in the form of a floating ribbon.

 

The slot that allows the tubes to be hung by sliding from top to bottom also allows the light that runs around the perimeter of the silhouette to enter the interior of the tubes and make them glow.

The integration of the light into the piece was a new challenge. In addition to finding a place to run the wiring, we had to ensure an easy maintenance of the elements that would likely need to be replaced.

We dispensed with placing electronic equipment in places that were difficult to access and with making connections in the body of the sculpture, as these are usually the most problematic points.

To support the entire piece, a structure had to be designed at the level of the walkway that crosses the courtyard.

We wanted to find a regular arrangement of the beams that would dialogue well with the regularity of the structure of the building itself. Despite the irregular shape of the guitar's plan projection.

Assembly

Although we carried out the installation ourselves, we did not neglect to develop the detailed installation instructions that characterize our work. These eminently graphic documents depicting the individual assembly steps help us to plan the installation much more precisely.

Since it was a large but lightweight piece, the best way to assemble it was clearly to lift it. The sculpture would be assembled from top to bottom and lifted as assembly progressed. Once the structure was in position and the silhouette tubes had been hung one by one, the last step was the horizontal bracing by means of cables that cross the courtyard in the short direction and prevent the assembly from oscillating.

 

 

Result

The guitar is the protagonist of the central space of this new hotel.

The observer first sees the guitar when approaching the reception desk. It is precisely from there that the piece appears with seemingly normal proportions. Once you walk around it or observe it from the rooms or the roof, you discover the complexity of the shape and the details of its materiality.

 

Digital and artisan, the perfect match

 

When we think of craftsmanship, the first thing that comes to our minds is the hands, the people behind the work, the impossibility of exact repetition, the value of the unique.

When we think of parametric design and digital fabrication, we think of machines, of perfect and fast execution, of impossible shapes.

They might seem opposite worlds but in fact, they have many points in common; they have much more to do with each other than either of them with classic industrial processes such as stamping, injection or extrusion.

Classic industrialization requires repetition. Each process requires a specific machine and each design requires a costly mould or specific tool. This means that the high cost of tooling and design fine-tuning has to be passed on to a very large number of parts.

Artisan and digital processes are much more flexible; in all of them, the only variable that increases the price is time. A craftsman can make 20 identical parts or 20 different parts in one day and the cost will be the same. A numerical control machine can make 20 of the same or 20 different parts in a day and the cost will be the same. Generally, it is not necessary to manufacture expensive tools or moulds only for a specific process. Hands and CNC machines are very versatile because in both cases there is intelligence, either human or artificial, behind the process.

At Atelier Mel, we have embraced this combination since the beginning of our career, and it is in this field that we have developed all our work.

It is a combination that allows us to tackle very complex projects, evaluate options in a very agile way and always materialize unique solutions. Without technology, we would need much more time and without manual processes, we would lose versatility and the intrinsic value of the artisan techniques.

Uniqueness comes together with exclusivity, with the ability to customize the design for the person who will own the artwork. With the combination of manual and digital, we fulfil this objective in an optimal way that allows us to be competitive.

Thanks to digital technology, we can determine the design variables and play with them during the design process. We can push the 3D model to the limit and virtually test all solutions to minimize the number of physical prototypes. During manufacturing, we can accurately handle numerous parts, and we can make sure that the assembly process is easy.

This combination is ideal for both handmade and digitally manufactured pieces. A unique handmade piece is perfectly complemented by digitally manufactured add-ons. These add-ons can be adapted, at no extra cost, to the irregularities of the handmade piece or to the unique configuration of standardized pieces. At the same time, a digitally manufactured parametric design will almost always require elements that are fabricated with other techniques and, in this case, making these parts manually is often the best option.

Above all, this combination of techniques makes us free. When repeating the same design is not a great advantage, the team is completely free to explore new paths that take us to a different place each time, to the right place for each of the projects.

Glass Clouds - An art installation for the Royal Victoria Shopping Mall

 

Our story with Royal Victoria Place starts back in 2016 when Ian Howard, founder of Inox Lighting, came across our work in a magazine in Dubai. He had a big refurbishment project on his hands and, after seeing our work in a magazine, he thought we could help him make an impactful proposal to his client.

Objective

Ian wanted to freeze the flight of birds, butterflies or tree leaves in autumn and place it under the skylights of the Royal Victoria Place.

Haskoll Architects of London were developing a project to renovate a shopping centre located in a neoclassical building. They wanted to create a unitary image of the space and at the same time differentiate the transition areas so that the visitor could easily find its way around.

They wanted to introduce a unique artistic piece that would characterize the project.

Concept

From the very beginning, it was clear that our coloured handmade glass pieces would fit very well with the selected concept. It was a question of finding the best way to make them float over the aisles of the shopping centre.

Using our Duna collection as a starting point, we studied how to maximize the apparent volume of the composition. To do this, we generated a thin three-dimensional frame made of shiny metal that would reflect the colours of the glass to multiply its presence.

The hexagon is the perfect shape for populating a surface with the minimum number of edges. By starting with a hexagonal shape, we were able to minimize the structure that supported the glass pieces.

In order to generate organic shapes that are characterized by their irregularity without neglecting the need to optimize manufacturing, we deformed the hexagon, turning it into a pyramid and grouping it into clusters of 9 elements.

A single irregular hexagon arranged in different ways forming groups of nine elements, generated a structure that gathered in space at different heights and with different inclinations, made it impossible to perceive repetition.

Materialization

When defining the structural system for this project, maintenance was a key aspect to consider.

While ensuring easy cleaning of the piece, a system had to be designed to lower and lift the parts so that the skylights were accessible without endangering the work.

Instead of hanging each of the pyramid groups individually from the skylight structure, an intermediate structural element had to be introduced to allow movement in a simple way.

To make this intermediate structural element as light as possible, we had to minimize the number of hanging cables. Thus, we had to introduce a backbone that would reinforce the cluster of pyramids so that they would not deform when hung by only two points. This backbone had to be resistant without compromising the aesthetics of the piece.

Thanks to this integrated structure, we were able to reduce to a minimum the number of crossbars of the mobile ellipses that support the ensemble. This way the structure would not shadow the glass clouds.

 

Another great challenge of this project was the distribution of the colour, the management of the manufacture of the pieces, and the generation of documents that would allow their correct installation. 

The glass pieces, like pixels in an image, draw more intense colour curves in space. This means that the colour distribution cannot be random but must follow a specific order. There were more than 3,000 pieces of colour arranged in a precise place. All this data processing could be done in a simple way thanks to the combination of grasshopper and excel.

Finally, the direct sun exposure of these structures required the introduction of a flexible element that can absorb the uneven expansions of glass and metal.

Transport and Assembly

Just like in every other project, in the case of the RVP we had to find a way to pre-assemble as many parts as possible in Barcelona under the supervision of our technicians. Outback Rigging was in charge of the assembly on-site, and we had to make the work as easy as possible for them. So, we divided each module into three parts that would fit into custom-made boxes that would fit into a trailer.

Due to Covid-19, our team could not be on-site to supervise the assembly work, but thanks to the previous assembly work and the detailed assembly instructions that we always develop, Outback Rigging did an excellent job with only our remote assistance.

Result

The coloured pieces populate every walkway in the mall. In most cases, they float under the skylights, but sometimes they are also clustered on walls or individually suspended under opaque ceilings.

This is an ideal location for our handmade glass pieces, because thanks to the natural light and the sky as a backdrop, they can be perceived at their best.

See more pictures here.

If you have a concept in mind call us, and we will help you turn it real.

contact@ateliermel.lavitoverda.net

+34 93 631 58 25

 

We are launching a new brand image

We are really proud to share our new brand image with you.

The renowned agency espluga + associates has been in charge of helping us reflect the evolution of our practice.

 

In its beginnings, Atelier MEL, embarked on a deep study of artisan glass techniques to create a set of modular collections of three-dimensional illuminated mosaics. This was the first step towards the development of the capability to conceptualize, design, and build complex and unique art pieces in a great variety of different materials.

 

 

This rebranding effort started with research to understand the company and employees, customers, target prospects, and competition. Based on this research we defined a positioning strategy, messaging, logo, tagline, and website that differentiate us and explain how we can help our clients turn their ideas into reality.

 

 

The new graphic appearance and communication strategy focuses on the two fundamentals of our brand: Engineering and Art. It is characterized by the same principles that define our work as designers: modularity, neatness, geometry, contemporaneity, finesse.

 

 

A complete reconceptualization with the aim of communicating the ability of our multidisciplinary team to offer a complete service; from the conceptualization to the installation of unique art pieces.

Browse through our new web site!