The fact that it is a relatively small space where the short distance between the two entrances could let one foresee that people might leave the space without even feeling it since even from the outside you could see perfectly well what was going on beyond the other glazed façade, caused us to go for a careful approach.
The desired output was obtained by using one main coating as if it was a ‘booth’. One same coating for pavement, walls and ceiling, made out of different qualities of black ceramic tiles, producing a braking pace, that is to say, perpendicular to the circulation in between façades where some events were happening in a succession.
In ‘Clínica do Pão’ (Bread Clinic) the concept is simple and evidences all the other decisions that were made. The house of sandwiches space is interpreted as a clinic where you can heal hunger. When arriving at the clinic, the patients wait in the waiting zone (white ‘booth’ lined out with the rest of the space both in width and in height. On one side the recess effect holds a sculptural element in stainless steel – magazine and newspaper racks. On the other side the opposite effect, coming out of the alignment, a bump that helps creating the feeling of a vestibule for the public w.c.’s entrance. Nearby this wall a few black volumes lay on the floor working as seats while people are waiting for their turn to be served on the operating table (suspended white steel table with a light-box on top) where the curatives are served, delicious sandwiches in aseptic butler’s trays. All the different areas of the space are conceived in the light of this concept. This way, the space is structured in functional areas as if it was a real clinic: waiting room, operating table, sterilizing products area (kitchen and preparation area – stainless steel box) and rubbish and contaminated products zone – a red cylindrical volume as w.c. affirmingly contrasting to evidence its nature of infected area.
To summarize, a different concept from the usual was seek without offering or producing strangeness.
