ÓPTICA GALVÁN

Gonzalo Viramonte

• Architects

It is a corner site in the city of Buenos Aires, with a neighborhood-scale character on one side and the traffic of a major avenue on the other.
The building where the interior intervention takes place is a heritage property..
Our initial approach to the optics project was based on the concept of layers—superimposed layers: the diffusion and reflection inherent to the materiality of optics, particularly glass.

photo_credit Gonzalo Viramonte — Gonzalo Viramonte

We explored the depth of the material and its ability to blur the sequence of spaces.
In this sense, we appealed to the reflection and diffusion of spatial situations.
The only rigid, solid characteristic is the pre-existing structure. This condition engages in dialogue with a material completely foreign to its historical context. The encounter and overwriting of these materials generate new narratives.

The display strategy, on the other hand, does not vary between the storefront and the interior. From the outside, one can peer through the shop window and begin to understand that the exhibition takes the form of a path—one that is suggested at first, and then completed inside, where that former edge becomes a perimeter of reflections and refractions.
A central ring set at three meters high acts as the generator of the envelope and all internal situations. The display of lenses extends along the entire perimeter.
Toward the interior, a work area is placed behind a translucent panel that also serves as a display surface. The furniture is made of recycled plastic, with abstract geometric forms arranged almost intuitively along the space defined by the upper band.