HI-MACS® Essential light for Oakley

Offices without personality, utilitarian flooring, suspended modular ceilings and rounded columns covered with plasterboard. These were the characteristics of the space that architects from the studio Machado Ranzini Arquitectos found at 39 Juan de Austria Street in Barcelona. The challenge? To transform it into the brand new showroom, OAKLEY.

The Studio’s first decision was to empty the space and leave only the essentials: the structure and wall coverings. From that starting point, the main concept was to create an open space where boundaries were blurred, without doors or walls, multiple paths for multiple uses, the simulation of infinite space and light as an integral part of the interior architecture.

“The research for the perfect material that fills all these needs was long and complex, but we finally found the Solid Surface HI-MACS® - an acrylic stone with the ability to be thermoformed, with the rigidity of rock and the incredible ability to be translucent. The boxes were lamps, giant satellites in motion!” says Sebastian Machado.

Two stunning “floating” satellites of different size - rounded light-boxes made out of backlit HI-MACS® Opal - were placed in between the columns, creating independent spaces dedicated to different uses as functional space organizers. The rounded shape of the light-boxes – the main focal point of the showroom - was inspired by Oakley’s brand logo, which are completely suspended and separated from the ceiling, floor and walls.

The Showroom of 350sqm space - with its irregular floor plan - is completed by a reception, bar area and an office.

The use of HI-MACS® Opal – from the lucent range - allowed the architects to play with the translucency, without an obvious light source, creating a soft diffuse light effect coming from inside the material.