The European Institute of Design, a professional school whose mission is the training of designers with different backgrounds and levels of preparation, includes a program for interior designers, a course which aims to provide the student with specialized training in commercial interiors.
Over the academic year 2009 - 2010, the only design type we took into account was commercial islands located at an airport. Based on the metaphor of the commercial island and its location in an airport environment, the course received the title of ‘Flight to the islands’, taking advantage of the student projects proposed within the commercial space in the new terminal of the Aeroport del Prat in Barcelona.
One of the most characteristic features of this Mediterranean airport, is to serve as an airlift to the Balearic Archipelago.
After completing the various training courses, IED presents the results taken advantage of the facilities, as a commercial storefront, give façade to the building in which the school its current headquarters located in Barcelona. With this, the exhibition of the students’ work becomes a project of a special nature, (a middle way between an assembly of window dressings and an exhibition).
It cannot be visited as an exhibition project, but the exhibition concept was derived from the shape of a project. In this sense, basic psychological factors played with the viewer’s curiosity chasing any passerby who passes before the window. At this point, we resorted to traditional folded map used in selecting a trip dedicated to those resort islands worldwide. Uniting various island maps and using the paper folds, a curtain was drawn covering the entire glass surface of the display case. Finally, the glaze paper was perforated by a series of circular holes located at different heights according to users. With this resource, the result was extremely successful as the obvious appeal of an experienced travel map or evoking places you want to visit. And on the other side of the illusion of flying, there were the real islands, commercial islands designed by students of the third year of interior design, formalized through models and projections, transporting the viewer to an unexpected world. The public space of the street is transformed into a lively urban showroom by exclamations of surprise of all who passed by.
