Movistar Arena

Unlike most gastronomic projects, where the type of user is well defined from the start — the

, whether by age range, by the kind of food offered, by location and opening hours, or even by the price of a cover — in this project none of those variables was fixed. This is a space used before the Arena's shows begin, and it will be used every night by a very diverse group of people, depending on the show and the music, all there for a premium gastronomic experience ahead of the performance.

There is one variable common to every one of these users: a passion for music. From there comes the project's most important premise: the attempt to "freeze music", to turn that abstract, ethereal, fleeting emotion into an envelope that can be geometrised and built.

From this idea we studied the geometries of sound waves, looking for patterns that would let us achieve an interior envelope giving identity to the space by alluding to musical movement — loose and organic on the one hand, highly methodical and mathematical on the other. We soon understood that the project had to be resolved with only two elements: sheet metal and light. It is resolved through a single continuous piece, made of metal ribs and scales that together draw dynamic undulations, creating an envelope both vertical and horizontal that runs the 640 m² of the space and resolves its different situations of use. Developing this element proved highly complex technically, in order to achieve the lightness and fluidity intended. The effect of light filtering through the gaps produces movement and a richness of shadow and reflection that delivers precisely the variety sought. The complexity of this element coexists with a large main bar which, against the dynamism of the envelope, is a single piece — monolithic, still and emphatic — resolving the gastronomic proposal in functional terms. Both elements speak to each other and coexist through the warmth of their lighting.