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MICHELE SAEE. BUILDING INC. Café Nescafé



[in italiano]
This project addresses the question of creating architecture for corporate identity. Commercial chain operations are best known for their "rubber stamp" architecture (faux-terra cotta roofs, colored formica counters, and plastic booths). Cut and paste fast food culture provides little room for inventiveness resulting in the proliferation of generic experiences. While participating in a competition for a series of cafés for Nestle, we began to ask: How do we break out of a system where architecture plays second to logos on napkins?

To address the need for adaptability without resorting to rubberstamping, we began by developing a flexible system composed of three variables: the wrapping skin, the coffee bar interface, and the graphic ribbon. The variable components react, deflect, fluctuate, and engage the body, site, geographical forces, and commerce.

The components are in fact architectural devices that perform and operate. Not about form or figure, the components address performance, interaction, and experience. While they are unique in their inherent qualities, the components work as a system to create coherency. They don't combine through placement, adjacency, and juxtaposition. Instead, the variables interact and intertwine formally and qualitatively. Our strategy for proliferation is not one of dispersion of a generic code, but to propagate and cultivate a genetic code.

[29nov2001]


WRAPPING SKIN. The skin was conceived of and developed as an interactive device ready to fluctuate and accommodate. It is never static but always in continuous flux. By continually transforming and redefining itself, it begins to accommodate simultaneous instances in the café experience. It engages the body by folding into a bench, unfolding into a counter, following the movement of the body, which is never straight, bending and curving to deflect flow while simultaneously reflecting light.

Michele Saee vive e lavora a Los Angeles dove ha sede Building Inc. Ha studiato architettura a Firenze, poi ha svolto attivita' professionale in California con il gruppo Morphosis. Sue opere sono presenti nelle collezioni permanenti del Museum of Modern Art di San Francisco e del frAC Centre di Orleans. Michele Saee è attualmente impegnato in importanti progetti in USA e in Europa tra i quali il sorprendente Publicis Drugstore di Parigi che sarà realizzato sull'Avenue des Champs Elysées, una originale serie di caffetterie progettate per Nescafé, il Centro Culturale Internazionale HERMES a Sinalunga in Toscana.
GRAPHIC RIBBON. The ribbon is the main graphic interface containing the required branding images of the product. Instead of resorting to picture frames and posters on a wall, we proposed an architectural device that not only absorb the graphic layers but simultaneously defines micro zones, and spaces. In the same manner as the skin, it follows and redirects the flows of the café experience. Architecture and graphics collapse into a malleable hybrid.

COFFEE BAR INTERFACE. The coffee bar is the main physical interface between the product and the consumer. Unlike the other 2 variables, it is the only element that has a definite edge, a definite boundary, dividing specific zones. To soften this rigid edge condition, the coffee bar fluctuates and bends according to the micro activities within this edge: selection, pay, wait, receive, adjust, consume. It allows itself to be deformed according to the specificity of localized forces (activity). It's a container, display, interface, and boundary all collapsed into one.





Numerous tasks engages the body by wrapping, folding, unfolding and continually transforming itself into benches, counters, alcoves, platforms of wrapping skins that transform into walls, furniture, counters, and graphics that would then be transformed according to site. The surfaces, or "skins" were based on a series of studies of wrapping elements that combine together to form a unifying space. The bends and folds in the materials curve around the body, creating an environment that interacts directly with the user. 

SITE. The first group of stores will be opening in Paris, with the intention to eventually open stores around the world. Sites range from historic and civic buildings to train stations, airports, and shopping malls. The cafés must adapt to the nature of the elements that constitute the site, not just the physical boundaries.




COMPONENTS. The components that are used within the cafes are architectural elements that actually create and transform space, not just appliques. A curved glass entry canopy becomes a recognizable icon for the café entrance. The interior spaces are made up of the wrapping skin components. The skin bends and folds to become benches, bars, and lounge seats. Creating an atmosphere designed to accommodate the body. In addition, the skin separates and folds to accommodate lighting fixtures, windows and ventilation systems. The graphic ribbon ties together the space, providing a flowing sequence of messages and text.

The clients themselves wanted to break out of the food chain mold: they were looking for something dynamic and distinctive, but they still wanted to maintain affordability and create a clear identity for their stores.

Michele Saee

Saeestudio@aol.com
MICHELE SAEE. BUILDING INC. Café Nescafé



Project
Building Inc.

Client
Nestle France S.A., Olivier Bizzard

Dates
2000 project began
2001-2002 project completed
currently three of them are in construction

Materials
Laminated glass, Steel structure, Ardex floor, Wood floor, Wood cabinetry and glass display cases

Building area
a series of cafés between 700sqf to 2400sqf spaces

Consultants
structural and special glass structures: Hugh Dutton Associes, Paris France
glass construction: Gruppo Bodino SPA, Torino, Italy

Contractor
Soframs, Paris France
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