Tipsy Tales

By Teresa Simon

Photography: Diego Opazo; courtesy the architect

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“A tasting room can help sell wine and build brand/ product awareness.” Using this as the basic premise, architect Fran Silvestre designs Vegamar, a wine shop, where both sales and tasting are paired on the same footing.

Located in the main shopping district of Valencia in Spain, the 12,300 sq.mt. project aims to convey the quality of the displayed products, while it works simply and effectively on amplifying the space in tandem with the experience.

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A simple grid-like pattern is effected overall with the alignment and straight lines of the furniture, the lighting and the spatial layout. Dark, glossy panels are chosen for vertical surfaces and their tone and reflections blur the spatial limits of the establishment, making it seem much larger than it really is.

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The colour of the material also reflects the colour of the displayed wines. The vertical surfaces accommodate inbuilt storage space and allow for a regularization of the available geometry.

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The boutique store is visibly bifurcated into the front display units, and has the wine bar and tasting ritual relegated towards the back. Given that these are the only two functions that the architect had to accomplish, Ar. Fran plays with lines and light, where horizontal lines define the wine display and long recesses of fluorescent linear light on the ceiling, are duly complemented with a mirror overhead that optically doubles the perception of space.

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Adding a touch of melancholy, akin to the variety of wine, dark flooring, black lacquer interspersed with white translucent panelling, a suspended ceiling and a series of glossy vs. matt surface finishes following a monochromatic vocabulary, realize a warm, non-intimidating ambience that could make a novice as comfortable as a wine connoisseur. A highlight is the subtle sense of sophistication via some clean-lined back-lit furniture.