CASA NORBERTO
type: bookstore
area: 5,600 sq. ft.
location: Plaza Las Americas - San Juan, PR
year: 2017
A'GACI
type: clothing store
area: 10,000 sq. ft.
location: Plaza Las Americas - San Juan, PR
year: 2016
store designer: Amir Taj
Ponte Fresco
type: restaurant
area: 1,500 sq. ft.
location: Plaza Las Americas - San Juan, PR
year: 2015
Graffeati
type: restaurant
area: 1,200 sq. ft.
location: Garden Hills Plaza - Guaynabo, PR
year: 2012
graffiti by http://sofiamaldonado.com/
bell suspended lamps by: www.axolight.it/europe/en_GB
Dolce Gusto
type: coffee shop
area: 1,200 sq. ft.
location: Del Rio Shopping Mall - Caguas, PR
year: 2012
The owner of Dolce Gusto approached us with one idea and one image. He was a first-time owner and entrepreneur with the desire to open an Italian bistro and cafe.
The site is located inside a 1,200 square feet locale at an open mall development in the city of Caguas. His inspiration for the idea was a photograph his father had taken many decades ago while drinking coffee in Tuscany.
Our challenge was, with limited resources and a small site, to recreate the ambiance of afternoon peace and leisure captured in the photograph. This image is not only a capsule of frozen time, but also of memories and emotions. We developed the design by de-constructing the palette of colors, textures, and perspective to then re-assemble them as a modern interpretation.
Magritte
Located at a 1,000 square feet locale at Plaza Las Americas Mall, Magritte is a popular chocolatier and candy factory in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The owners asked for a complete renovation after twenty years of operations. Their desire was for a fresh, modern look that improved their capacity to showcase the production, on site, of their delicious assortment and collection of sweets.
The new design is wrapped with an exterior screen of
tempered, colored glass. The facade frames the factory
area and invites the casual spectator to approach and partake of a continuously flowing collection of caramel fruits, chocolates, candies, sweets, and truffles. And besides the intimate moment of a particular patron enjoying the production work at Magritte, the new exterior establishes a more dynamic experience for the flowing traffic at a blind corner in the mall.