Parapharmacy

Satisfying functional as well as aesthetic demands is not exactly easy for the pharmacy business, at least not in architectural terms. Things are apparently different in South Tyrol. Here, in a new building in the centre of Eppan, pharmacy has been built that actually meets the highest design standards. Due to the limited floor area, a thrifty, well considered use of space was essential for the executing architects from Monovolume. The concept therefore has its origins in every pharmacy’s holy of holies, the pharmacist’s cabinet, whose lines penetrate all the furnishings. Shelves around the edge of the interior were used to create copious presentation areas, whose horizontal lines embrace and visually enlarge the space and provide a setting for a tailormade Corian counter, which seems to float as a dynamic focal point on a band of light above the white marble terrazzo floor. Due to its unusual size for a village pharmacy, this simultaneously enables appropriate consulting activity and maximum discretion, while the unusual, highly curved shape prevents it from having too powerful an effect. Pivoting shelves were tensioned between floor and ceiling and present niches for displaying selected products on the side facing the window. Their height was determined such that they restrict the view from outside without lessening the generous feeling of space or amount of light entering the building. In order to direct the attention of customers to the mostly colourful products, the entirely white furnishings made from painted MDF retreat into the background. Balanced lighting throughout allows the pharmacy seemingly to disappear entirely behind its products.