© Adrià Goula
- Architects: El Equipo Creativo
- Location: Passatge de Pere Calders, 2, 08015 Barcelona, Spain
- Neon Design: Alex Trochut
- Area: 500.0 m2
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Adrià Goula
© Adrià Goula
From the architect. An “oxymoron” consists of completing a word with another that has a contradictory or opposite meaning. As the name of the place lets us intuit, our client wanted to create a place that played with the duality and the mixture of opposites: man – woman, white – black, day – night. At dusk, in addition to food and drinks, a burlesque show would be offered to give way to an atmosphere of partying and dancing.
© Adrià Goula
THE PROJECT
The place is an old warehouse of preserves, was a space with a great personality at a structural level, which we wanted to put in value by painting it in intense red in a way that unifies the different zones of the space.
© Adrià Goula
The concept of design is based on the opposition of elements, where all the pieces have their counterpoint. Four large neon lights welcome us on arrival from the four corners of space, almost square in shape. Contrast in pairs of two, they send us a clear message in the form of oxymoron: Never – Again, Peace – Force, Holy – Hell, Public – Secret. The starting point is clear.
© Adrià Goula
Two arches frame the central space at double height and serve as background to the two large bars. Next to the white arch in front, the bar “El Mama” is a bar 360 degrees, more diurnal and cozy, with details in wood and a lot of vegetation. At the opposite end, the cocktail bar “El Papa”, on the black arch, is the nocturnal counterpoint, metallic and industrial.
© Adrià Goula
On the sides of the bars we propose structural platforms at different heights, connected with a large gateway-stage, creating multiple routes through space. These platforms, once again facing each other, generate more private areas, reserved for events, and even a “secret bar”.
© Adrià Goula
© Adrià Goula
The different levels, benches and bars, frame what from a certain time of night will become the center of all looks, the dance floor.
© Adrià Goula
We play again with the idea of opposites with the materials. Polished woods on walls of worn original paint, ceramic mosaic pavements with Mediterranean air next to wood and dark or industrial metal plates. The contrasts are infinite.
© Adrià Goula
Floor Plan – Section
© Adrià Goula