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 

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/

 

 

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!

 

 

 

Atelier Mel launches four models of glass mosaics, ready to shine at your home.

SEE THEM HERE

Are they a lamp? a wall art piece? What do you think?

When Atelier Mel took its first steps, it did so by launching four collections of handmade glass mosaics. We created a series of modular systems that could be adapted to each space to provide a unique solution to each client. 

Today, after almost eight years since the creation of the collections, and with the intention of bringing our pieces closer to domestic scale projects, we are launching four pre-designed models that are ready to travel to their new destination.

One model for each of our modular collections.

Three color palettes for each model

And the possibility to integrate LED light on the compositions

100% hand-made in Spain

You can place your order on our website.

Don’t miss the special prices during Black Week!

 

 

 

 

 

How a failure made us improve our working methodology by introducing 6 simple changes in the process.

The project

In 2018 we had the opportunity to do a large ceiling installation for a Hilton hotel in Boston.

We worked hand in hand with Lori Kramer to shape a focal piece in the lobby bar. We had to create an installation that would simulate the optical illusion of sunlight rays illuminating the gloom.

 

We subdivided the ceiling surface into 5 irregular pyramids with a point of light at the vertex. These pyramids were formed with colored glass slats that got gradually darker toward the central light spot.

 

Each of the pieces composing the metal substructure on the ceiling was different and had to be numbered to ensure a correct installation. The assembly process was simple but very precise because each piece was unique and irreplaceable.

We focused our attention on the tough part of the design. All the special pieces were designed, manufactured, numbered, and packed correctly, but we made a major mistake.

The mistake

There were two very simple pieces that served to join the portions of the structural radios that held the glass slats. The design was correct, the quantities of these pieces were calculated correctly but due to a human error, the necessary quantities were interchanged without anyone noticing the error in time.

We shipped all the material to Boston and sent our team of assemblers from Miami. Everything was going well until we ran out of one of the joining pieces. Almost 4000 kilometers away and with the installation already underway, we had no choice but to stop the installation at step 11.

Due to this tiny mistake, we lost several thousand euros, we became for the first time the cause of a delay, and it placed us on a very complicated position in front of our client.  

 

The learning

With a lot of effort and the collaboration of our suppliers, we were able to manufacture the missing parts very quickly. We traveled from Spain to complete the installation only a few days after having to stop it. 

This stressful and costly experience at an economic level was a great lesson that forced us to establish new work protocols. We understood that despite being a team of people who individually can make mistakes, as a team we had to find a way to ensure we are able to react on time.

These were the changes we introduced in our process:

• Automate error detection: Always introduce checkboxes in spreadsheets that automatically detect errors.
• Name the person in charge and also the supervisor of each task. One person can make a mistake but two people making the same mistake is unlikely.
• List the most sensitive processes. Anticipate which are the parts that can be easily damaged during shipping and assembly and look for a mechanism that allows us to react wherever we are.
• Always make extra parts of small components that can be lost on site.
• Use as much as possible standard assembly parts that can be purchased on-site wherever we are. Only make a special part if the advantage over a standard part is too great.
• Count all the components when preparing the shipment and do this task with enough time to remanufacture missing or defective parts.

Our job consists of manufacturing unique parts, which, at the end of the day, is like making prototypes every time. The level of demand is high because we only have one chance, and the result has to be perfect. We can never replicate a design but we can replicate a process and we must ensure that each project, each iteration, serves to replicate the learning and make the result better and better.

 

 

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.

 

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

 

This project that began in 2016 was the first opportunity for my team to make a foray into the world of sculpture design. A field that allowed us to confront a greater formal and conceptual freedom and also complexity.

The Objective

This project was born out of a new collaboration with the European architects’ studio Rockwell Group.

The Rockwell team in Madrid was working on the design of the common areas of the new W Hotel in Muscat, the capital of Oman.

On the rooftop terrace of the new building located at the seafront we find the Siddharta Lounge, a Hindu-inspired space where visitors can relax and enjoy the incredible views.

As a focal art piece in this space, Rockwell thought of working on the three-dimensional reinterpretation of a traditional symbol of Hindu and Buddhist culture, the mandala.

Mandalas are representations of deities and paradise with circular drawings composed by a radial repetition of equal elements.

Conceptualization

The most obvious way to translate this two-dimensional symbol into a three-dimensional object was to project it onto a semi-sphere and complete the geometry with two identical pieces. A static piece that reproduces a single symbol.

As great lovers of geometry, at Atelier Mel we immediately began to investigate different polyhedrons that would allow us to decompose the shape so that a radial repetition of the same elements, this time applied in three dimensions, would result in not just one mandala, but several, depending on the observer's point of view.

The piece would be viewed from different heights. First from the entrance where the observer would be standing, and then from a seated position, where the observer would be resting on the sofas arranged around the sculpture. The third point of view would be the zenithal view, not because the observer can see the piece from above but because a hidden light at the top of the piece would project a new mandala on the floor.

We looked for the right dimension of the sphere and the geometric decomposition that would allow us to obtain a different mandala for each of the points of view in which the observer can be located.

Materialization

When deciding on the construction system, we always take into consideration that the complexity and therefore the price of the parts to be manufactured increases as we add degrees of curvature. A sphere is an object with double curvature. There is no possible section in which a sphere results in a straight line. To decompose the shape into flat portions we again had to resort to polyhedra.

The structure chosen for the sphere was composed of pentagons and triangles with a size that was ideal for both shipping and assembly. However, it was still necessary to provide the piece with a greater degree of richness of detail considering that the observer could even touch it.

Breaking down the geometry of the modules into small planes was a complex geometric exercise that simplified fabrication while creating undeformed reflections of the landscape by means of mirrored flat pieces always perpendicularly oriented to the center of the sphere.

Simplifying the construction system also eliminates the need for prototyping. If you do not prototype a unique piece, if the prototype is only virtual, you directly reduce costs by 50%. This is an advantage we usually cannot do without.

With regard to structural design, the biggest challenge is to create sufficiently robust pieces by integrating the structural solution into the overall design concept. We always try to avoid applying structural solutions that are dissociated from the original shape, thus avoiding the appearance of elements that only have a structural function.

In this case, the actual subdivision of the sphere into pentagons and triangles is generated by the disposition of six rings arranged in different directions. These flat section rings are the structure, the fixing points of the modules and they also hide the electric cable that powers the light that illuminates the piece from the top. All the components form part of a whole in which the hierarchy of elements is not perceived.

Transport & Assembly

With a vocation to provide our services internationally, it is essential that the design is conceived from the idea of minimizing the number of components to be assembled on site.

One of our greatest challenges is always to try to ensure that our presence on site is not indispensable. This requires a lot of synthesis in the design. We face the great difficulty of making everything look easy. Moreover, it is only by synthesizing that we can achieve elegance.

Our team of designers is present at the pre-assembly in Barcelona to detect and correct all possible errors in the piece and to ensure a rewarding experience for the team in charge of the installation on-site.

It is very important that the piece is easy to assemble, not only because this means that it is not essential to send a team from the other side of the world with the extra costs and coordination difficulties that this entails, but also because a piece that is easy to assemble is also a piece that is easy to disassemble and maintain.

Result

As a result, we obtained a three-dimensional Mandala that plays with reflections, shadows, transparency, and the different points of view from which we can observe it. 

If you need help to translate your artistic concepts into real pieces we will be happy to do the journey with you.

 

 

 

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!