Last Wednesday, November 6th, a hundred professionals attended the Interior Design & Retail Forum Valencia held at the Hotel Balneario Las Arenas. The event, organised by Grupo Vía, was attended by Estudihac, Huuun, Janfri & Ranchal, Grup Idea, Nogales Interiores, Nonna Design, Dobleese and Culdesac.
The event, hosted by Hotel Balneario Las Arenas, was sponsored by Tarkett, ABB and Airzone, and brought together eight professional firms from the interior design and retail sectors to share their latest work in the commercial field and analyse changes and trends in the sector.
From Estudihac, its Creative Director Jose Manuel Ferrero, described the way of working in his firm in which they seek to act as a tailor making tailor-made suits for visionary clients based on four points such as the art of design (creating concepts and a story), definition of style (unique projects that besides being elegant have a fun and different touch), creative essence and the inspiration of sport, music and travel. Ferrero exemplified this methodology with some of his latest works, such as the hotel Bahía Príncipe in Tenerife, the cheese bar of the hotel Melià Sarrià in Barcelona, Valresa’s presence at Milan Design Week, the Xanverí restaurant for César Anca in Madrid, the Levantina space at Cevisama, Iberdrola’s concept store in Valencia, Porcelanosa’s showroom, Solán de Cabras’ space at Mercedes Madrid Fashion Week and the work for the perfume shops Linda flies to Rio, among others.
For his part, Miguel Lozano, Managind Director of Huuun, analysed how they work in their firm in the field of retail with a 360º circle that goes from conceptual design and interior design, to project management and even branding and marketing. Lozano highlighted the importance of working on operations and strategy in the field of retail but always looking for the sensory experience and providing the rational part with a more creative point where they work on the connection with the brand through people, aromas, furniture, music, technology, layout, materiality/colours and communication. In this sector, at Huuun they have helped move brands online to physical spaces where they offer humanization and contact with the client (Singularu, Waynabox or Flamingueo) as well as moving from off to on for clients such as Cottet and Istobal. The challenge for interior designers, according to Miguel Lozano, is to help brands to be different, to welcome and build loyalty and to contribute to selling more and better in a context with a different consumer who is more impatient, knowledgeable, experiential, aware, healthy and digital.
Architect Juan Ranchal, Project Director and Founding Partner of Janfri & Ranchal Studio, shared three recent works of the firm that share the desire to give each work a soul and tell different stories rooted in the building and/or its surroundings and with personalized solutions. This is how we got to know the work in the Blanquerías Hotel (which is located in the former headquarters of the PSOE, and although it was not a significant building, the project reflects the history of the street where it is located with the importance that the tanners’ guild had as well as other references to the Carmen and Mediterranean neighborhoods), the new Hotel Palacio Balier (a project to equip and condition a building that has already been refurbished, in which we have sought to highlight the existing architectural elements and to focus on luxury, elegance, history, black/white, art deco and international language as the axes of the interior design) and the future San Vicente Market (the conversion of the old Espacio Vila, which recovers and enhances the historic building for its new use as a market with 25 stalls and an event space). Ranchal defended the importance of dedicating a lot of time to the project phase before starting the work with very detailed infographics and faithful to the final results.
From Grup Idea, Théophile Dreyus, Head of Business & Communications, and partner Juan Guaita, Business & Development Manager, claimed the importance of offering a 360º service in which they imagine, design and build the projects, from their offices in Barcelona and Valencia. Thus, on the one hand, they presented the work for Étam with its establishment in Spain with 30 stores and with its Flagship Store in Barcelona that has as its moodboard the image of a Parisian apartment from the entrance to the fitting rooms; and on the other hand, they narrated the work process for the Victoria’s Secret store in the Bonaire shopping centre in Valencia (with the concept and layout set from the USA but adapted to local regulations) and for Hollister in the Lagoh shopping centre in Seville (with hyper-developed plans from the USA and a very hard work process).
For their part, Beatriz and Marta Fernández Nogales, founding partners of Nogales Interiores, spoke about the importance of democratizing design and offering solutions to the ordinary client by making interior design not just a job but a passion, as they treasure their more than 15 years of experience. In their presentation, they showed the work done in Casa Patio, a ground floor house from the beginning of the 20th century in a village: with a small budget they improved a very old, deteriorated and humid house to open it to the patio and adapt it to the new needs, putting in value the old elements such as beams, hydraulic pavement or a stained glass window and with the kitchen as a link to the house. They also reviewed the work done for an Optician’s in Chiva: solving the space without any work, developing furniture and lighting to measure, serenading the space and betting on a large multipurpose counter as the heart of the project, which also presents flexible displays and a wall with white tiles and backlit wooden shelves to display the product. The success of this work is the balance between getting an attractive, practical and commercial space that the client could assume its budget and finishing it in time.
From Nonna Design, its founding partner David García-Nieto, explained the methodology of his firm, which is born from previous experience in the development of custom furniture. The first step is to listen to the client and to know their expectations in order to fulfil the functionalities when defining the space and the distributions (the great cornerstone) and then to define the concept and the thread, as well as the technical documentation in detail for the
Origianl text from : Grupo Via