30 September 2008

The new Alessi Shop designed by Martí Guixé on Paris' rive gauche is situated on Boulevard Raspail, two minutes from the Metrò Rue du Bac and the shopping area of Boulevard St. Germain. Located at No. 31, the store faces the pavement with a regular display window approximately 5 metres in length that is in keeping with the overall style of the 19th century building but that, at the same time, reflects the strong design element of the entire project. The surface area inside measures 80 sqm and has remained faithful to the complex and quite rigid original building plans  with the three areas leading into back which are connected by narrow corridors to create a continuous path widening and narrowing as you go along. The impression one gets is of a highly dynamic space that encourages visitors to discover it by following the path dictated by the walls, conceived as a long single ribbon running along the irregular perimeter of the store area. The clean and continuous band in the shade of red lacquer runs along the bottom of the walls. It is both a unifying horizontal element  and a feature that acts as a vertical break between the wooden parquet floor and the pure white of the ceilings and walls, which host a complex system of varnished cantilever shelves with a marked designer feel. The lamps on the ceiling are in keeping with the same designer style and the hints of coloured light enrich the display items thus creating an unexpected game of reflections on their mirror polished stainless steel surface.

“I first met Martí in 1998 when Fernando Amat advised me to invite him to spend a week in Crusinallo to see if we could transform into mass-produced industrial products some of his quite amazing and brilliant, if paradoxical, designs. Back then nothing concrete emerged from the collaboration, but since then I’ve nurtured the hope of doing something together. And that opportunity arrived when we needed to design the second Alessi shop in Paris (after the shop designed by Alessandro Mendini in Rue Bossy d’Anglas in 2003), this time on the Rive Gauche. I think that Martí’s design for the shop in 31 Boulevard Raspail is a great attempt to show the great panoply of our products in another light, with a dash of the quirky humour that is his trademark, depriving them for a moment of their designation of mere “goods”.”

Alberto Alessi

Martí Guixé (1964)
Formed in Barcelona and Milan as an interior and industrial designer. In 1994, living in Berlin, he formulated a new way to understand the culture of products. Guixe started to exhibit his work in 1997, work that characterizes on the search for new product systems, the introduction of design in food ambits and presentation through performance. His non-conventional gaze provides brilliant and simple ideas of a curious seriousness. He is based in Barcelona and Berlin and work as a Designer for world wide companies. Recent publications: Marti Guixé 1:1, 010 publishers Rotterdam (ISBN 90 6450 441 5), Martí Guixé Cook book, Imschoot Publishers (ISBN 9077362045) and Don´t buy it if you don´t need it. All Marti Guixe´s Camper Commodityscapes. (ISBN 13 84 609 9135 0). Exhibitions at MoMA (New York), MuDAC (Lausanne), MACBA (Barcelona) and Centre Pompidou (Paris). Ciutat de Barcelona Price, 1999 and National Design Price of the Generalitat de Catalunya 2007.