Play of shapes, textures and contrasts for Mietis

Founded by Maria Fontanellas in 2017, Mietis is a young luxury brand that focuses on detail and color to work with leather, offering unique and personalized pieces. To reflect the essence of the Manufacture, taking shoppers into a very distinctive fantasy world, Maria enlists the Evvo Retail office to design her flagship store in the Poblenou district of Barcelona. The latter brings together the new technology industries of the 22@ zone, as well as design schools, universities, commercial and service spaces embodying contemporary character.

To begin with, Evvo Retail came up with the idea of ​​preserving the essence of what the original walls had been, having part of their history written on them, while building a space stamped with Maria’s universe, so to transform it into its own little world. A world to share. In this way, part of these partitions is preserved with its own “wounds” and its character directly linked to the idiosyncrasy of the neighborhood. The architects wanted to show that the new intervention grew like layers on top of each other, respecting different moments of time. The already existing volumes inspire them in terms of distribution. They decide to reproduce them, in order to create other zones in the general area, producing a combination of full and empty. In terms of formalization, they create an environment similar to Maria’s universe, using the curved configuration of the arch as a plastic element, and apply it to the skylight at the end of the shop, an important piece for improve the brightness of the place. They then propose to separate from the original wall, leaving a gap where the light is presented as a different object and, at the same time, functions as a separator between the architecture of the building site – symbol of yesterday – and the filter formed by the three arches. With the same intention, they define the openings of the desk and the mirror of the central part. This curved shape of the arches can be perceived differently depending on the angle or perspective from which it is viewed. The contrast between the corrugations of the sheets and the fall of the curtain cord is attractive. Here, the curved aspect is emphasized again, playing now with its concave and convex parts. To top it off, the importance of the treatment of colors and decorative details and the final tool directly from Maria’s hand imbues all of that magical touch very close to her way of seeing life and creation.