Cellar atmosphere at the Wine Express Shop in Henry Coanda Airport, Bucharest, Romania
The growth and modernization of the Henri Coanda Airport in Bucharest, Romania has doubled its operating capacity, enabling advanced facilities and upper class services. The commercial areas had to fulfill the same specifications, offering the customers a unique purchasing experience. After a rigorous selection, taking into consideration the quality standards of the materials and the execution, Atvangarde Company has been chosen to fabricate the furniture for the Wine Express Shop. The Architecture Studio D3/Abstract Design has designed a space that provides a complete experience for the customers, making them feel like in a real winery. Therefore the whole concept is based on the use of materials specific to an authentic cellar: natural stone and wood.
The vast experience in using a wide range of materials and the latest fabrication technologies has allowed the furniture fabricator to bring to life the architect’s vision, finding alternatives for some materials that were initially proposed in the project, that were not feasible in the given context. For example, to reduce the load generated by the 20 mm stone that was proposed to cover the structure of the furniture a material that mimics the natural stone was used, making the back-walls easy to handle, while keeping the stone appearance.
In order to highlight the products and use the space efficiently at the same time, the shop is furnished with back-walls, gondola shelves placed in the field and a cash-desk.
The back-walls simulate the traditional storage of wine bottles in wooden crates. Every crate has a transparent plexiglas insert with LED backlighting. A distinctive detail of these back-walls is positioning the bottom bins inclined according to the angle of the customers gaze. Also, the special wines are positioned in an area illuminated by a red plexiglas insert.
Another distinctive feature is the use of 45 degrees joints to highlight the edges and the clean design with straight lines.
The cash-desk keeps the straight line of the rest of the furniture, with simple volumes. The use of the natural acrylic stone HI-MACS for the cash desk guaranteed the resistance to intensive use of the furniture, while the hygienic non-porous surface made it easy to clean and maintain.
The requirements of the architecture studio were focused on specific finishes and an exceptional quality of execution and the final result fulfilled the expectations.
