Before our intervention, the space served only as a tourist information point; this project has made it possible to reconcile that use with that of a store of typical products of Madrid produced by artisan artists and local designers. The new elements that make up the space are related to the iconography and culture of Madrid, preventing the place from having an abstract and delocalised appearance that could be associated with any other city in Europe.
Precisely to avoid this, we have been inspired by elements that are or have been part of the city of Madrid and that have had a prominent influence, known by citizens, in the construction of Madrid’s identity, particularly the culture of encounter, social interaction, creativity and design. Aspects all of them that we try to celebrate and value this store using specific references such as corralas, barquilleros stalls, violet candies, the Manila shawl, or the glass dome of the Palace Hotel.
The dome is the most characteristic element of the space, being in four of the existing domes of the House of the Bakery. Inspired by the large glass domes of the city of Madrid, glass domes are not a particularly well-known architectural element. However, Madrid has magnificent copies.
The corrals are not only a distinctive architectural element of Madrid but one of the architectural typologies that probably have contributed to building the sociological base of a city where neighbours talked to each other, shared a communally managed space, asked for salt, got up to date, connected with the news, even with hoaxes. The project will nod to that architectural typology in the perimeter of the intervention.
The quillers traditionally carried their baskets with waffles and a roulette wheel where buyers could try their luck. The game consisted of turning a wheel that pointed at different numbers. If there were several participants, the one with the lowest figure paid all the waffles. If he was a single person, he spent a few coins and had the right to take a wafer in each play, except when he fell into the square of the nail, in which case he lost everything he won. The central part of the store, the cash register, is inspired by these travelling stalls, taking advantage of the form of sale of the wafers for the exhibition of the items for sale.
The showcase is an exhibitor that will emerge from the corner of the corral. Located below the upper level of the corral, it consists of pillars and metal beams to shape the new shelves. As a sign of identity, in the breaks, some wooden screens manufactured by numerical control and equipped with wheels to allow their mobility will appear. In addition, it will have recycled windows or made with an aged effect with a semicircular window at the top. The shelves inside the window will be made of glass, and the shelves at the bottom will be made of wood.
