Coletiza

The client was actually a collective of four independent entrepreneurs who wanted to share the same space.

At first sight, the collective don't have a lot in common: a tea store, a fashion store, a design store, a pizza restaurant and a school. However, they all share the idea that collaboration is key to our society.

So, if you look that from a different perspective, you could say that our client was that idea.

Australis Plantas (@australisplantas) - tea and plants store;
Outfit4You (@outfitcwb) - fashion store;
Ôda Design Club (@odadesignclub) - design store;
Madá Pizza e Vinho (@madapizzavinho) - pizza and wine restaurant;
A Grande Escola (@agrandeescola) + Humans At Work (@humans_at_work) - school and personal development.

The brief was, basically, to rethink everything: the position of each store, the display of products and the shopping experience as a whole. The main problem they were facing was the lack of unity along the building, making clients confused about what was happening there.

The main challenge was to integrate the whole experience. As their moto talks about collectivity and collaboration, simply being side by side was not enough.

Add to that, a very long building - 50 m long, 7m wide - naturally split in 5 sections that divides and segregates the whole space. Different from a shopping mall, there were no displays, no corridor, just open rooms attached to each other.

From the beginning, our goal was to design an element that could wrap the whole space, creating a bond between the stores.

The solution, was to build a conductive wall that smoothly runs through all spaces of the building. This simple element creates a visual continuity to the space that forms the whole identity of Coletiza. A ribbon that wraps this new universe.

From a functional perspective, this wall serves not only as a highlight display for products - that are showcased in built-in niches - but also as a plan articulator, that creates fully functional spaces as the wall gets more distant from the original side wall, creating support rooms, such as deposits and changing rooms.

The beige tone was chosen to set an elegant background for any item, from any store. Highlighting the design and the color of each and every item.

Together with the tea store, the fashion store is the one that receives the clients right when they enter the space. Here, the ribbon wall was used to create some small niches for highlighting small objects such as purses, cosmetics and jewelry, and one bigger niche for a clothes rack with selected itens.

Without noticing, this wall is also a little bit distant from the back wall, creating a storage room for both stores.

The store also counts with a second room that hosts the shoes, some seating space and also the changing rooms. The colors inside those rooms are a great surprise for those who open the curtains.

Here, the ribbon wall was designed to fit bigger niches that creates six design box for the owner to explore some compositions with their selection of design items. In addition, to create more space to showcase products, we’ve designed some moving wooden boxes with different heights to explore the floor space of the room.

The following room is a blank canvas. Sometimes used as an art gallery to value local artists, sometimes to host events like talks with designers, and sometimes hosting pop up stores.

The design for Madá was developed a little bit later during the project of the whole operation. This venue is owned by the famous local chef Beto Madalosso, who decided to venture into the pizza world in a "hidden" location - there are no doors to the street, the entrance is made only through the stores during the day, or through a small private alleyway at night.

While keeping the same scale of the ribbon wall to define the height of the kitchen and the mezzanine above, the materiality of this section shifts to a more rustic appearance. The beige well-finished ribbon wall turns into a flexible exposed steel shelving that defines the space of the restaurant. The exposed bricks are now left unpainted and lots of seating spots emerge under some few vintage lamps.

Yet, the ribbon movement still happens here and creates the space for the small kitchen of the pizzaria, completely open to the seating area through a high bench. Creating a wonderful spot for those who like to talk with the chefs and feel all that pizza show.

Arthur Brizola
Franco Faust
Gabriel Schneider
João Gabriel Küster Cordeiro
Lucas Aguillera
Thiago Augustus