auditori pop-up store

The Auditori de Barcelona requires a mobile shop to be temporarily installed in the lobbies of the building’s various halls. A permanent shop is not needed, but the Auditori produces its own cultural products that it sells on occasions with high public attendance.
It is necessary to design a support system for this temporary and ephemeral sale.
The Auditori has 4 halls and multiple lobbies with different characteristics. The installation of this sales support must be adaptable in form and size to this multiplicity of spaces.

We have designed a shop configured from the flexible aggregation of mobile and foldable cabinets and partitions.

1. Continuity and Contrast:
   The building’s lobbies, especially the main hall lobby, are generous in space and interior volume. They have a very distinctive character, given by the compositional structure of their interior walls (padded panels framed in a concrete grid) and the warm materiality of the wood.
   We were particularly concerned with finding the right “tone” for the object to be created and its formal and material relationship with these powerful spaces. We opted for a dual strategy of continuity and contrast. Continuity in the essential compositional mechanisms of the Auditori, combined with chromatic contrast. This approach gives us confidence: the shop is specific to this building and relates effectively to it, while also being able to be freely placed in the space and stand out enough to attract music lovers beyond the concert hall.

2. Small Space Within a Large Space:
   The partitions define a cozy, human-scale interior area within a large, sometimes changing environment, while simultaneously forming an object of sufficient size to be recognizable from the outside.

3. Mobility and Transport:
   The partitions and cabinets have wheels and fold for easy movement. The elements are modular, 40 cm wide, folding to a maximum width of 80 cm to be transported by elevator between floors.
   Assembly and disassembly are quick. Hinges connect modules, upper braces fix positioning, and through-screws join the partitions.

4. Flexibility:
   Partitions and cabinets fold into various positions. This allows multiple aggregation forms and thus a variety of spatial configurations. By adding or removing elements, the shop’s size can also be adjusted.
   The folds in the partitions additionally serve a structural stabilization function, acting as buttresses.
   The cabinets can be folded and locked, keeping the shop installed but closed.

5. Versatility:
   The cabinets serve both as product storage and as display counters or sales desks. They include a display case to showcase the cultural products produced by the Auditori when the shop is closed.
   The partitions have magazine racks on their “interior” side, acting as vertical product displays. On the back, they support posters and have racks for brochures and program leaflets.

6. Low-Tech:
   The shop had to be very economical. It is constructed from pine wood slats and industrial laminated panels (spruce plywood). A white glaze treatment subtly reveals the wood’s texture while hiding the knots in the industrial panels, allowing the shop to stand out within the wood-finished interior spaces of the building.
   Mechanisms, hinges, locks, and wheels are all low-tech.
   The partitions include double-position braces on the top to fix placement at a 90º angle for stability, and also to secure the partition when folded for easier transport.