Interior for Monpacie by Sanina Arch Club. History hidden in the walls

Architect
Sanina Arch Club
A type
showroom
Status
implemented
Year
2023
Size
92 m2

When working on architectural projects and space design in Lviv, there is always the possibility of running into a historical adventure. Escape from this fate is the charm of an ancient city. The story about the interior, created by the Sanina Arch Club office for the Monpacie store, begs for a comparison: the city of Leo still hides (sometimes literally within its walls!) many secrets. Just like in the original box with Montpassier lollipops, there are many interesting flavors.

New interiors are born in the plane of intersection of three coordinates. The first of them is the place itself, with its character, history, and morphological features. The second is the owner's vision of this space and its functions. The third is a deep understanding and creative alchemy, which is carried out by architects and designers with the involvement of previous components.

The new Monpacie showroom, the interior of which was worked on by the architects of the Sanina Arch Club bureau, is located in a XNUMXth-century residential building. on Kropyvnytskyi Square. The well-known Lviv landmark, the Catholic Cathedral of Saints Olga and Elizabeth, is very close by. The corner building has an interesting history: at the beginning of the last century, a branch of the Royal Holland Lloyd company, which operated sea transportation between Europe and South America, was located here. Later, numerous shops operated on the first floor for decades, the last of them, already in our times, was a bakery. Prosaic exploitation and typical repairs erased the features of the individuality of the space, but already at the stage of preparatory work, the architectural designers had a feeling of a certain secret that an old house can keep.

Guided by intuition, the team decided to involve restorers who performed an inspection of the premises. Assumptions were confirmed: in the process of sounding the ceiling, specialists of the Lviv restoration workshop "Garda" discovered a fragment of paintings from the XNUMXth century. An ancient fresco by an unknown artist was released from under layers of lime and paint from Soviet times. Unfortunately, only a small part of the ceiling painting with an area of ​​about six square meters, located near the main entrance, has survived to this day. However, it could have been lost forever if the paintings had not been discovered during the reconstruction.

The discovery gave impetus to a deeper understanding of the project, the work on which went beyond purely interior solutions. "After studying old photos of the building, we realized that, implementing the project, we should bring back to life the original ideas of the architect from the XNUMXth century," says architect Alina Sanina. The team planned restoration work on the facade of the building.

The initial task for the Sanina Arch Club team from the customer was to convey the company's leisurely philosophy. Create a space where you want to stay longer and enjoy the creative process. Monpacie offers a myriad of colorful beads, hardware and accessories for needlework. Taking this into account, the interior of the new store should not contain other, excessively bright, distracting accents.

The message embedded in the first sketches that Alina Sanina created for Monpacie: "To create a space where everyone can slow down, hide from the city bustle and immerse themselves." The new showroom has become an inclusive space for creativity, where you can "meditate" on handicrafts during master classes, leisurely choose materials for future products and communicate with craftsmen.

In the process of restoration of the facade, the architects recreated arched window openings bricked up in Soviet times, and wide wooden window sills, and installed external lighting in the shutters. From a trivial space, the space turned into a "showroom with a view" - the Neo-Gothic church of St. Elizabeth is located literally opposite the shop, on the other side of the street. The area near the windows for visitors has become one of the favorites, it is nice to linger here with a cup of coffee.

The shop premises consist of two halls where materials are presented, and a separate cozy room with a comfortable table for conducting master classes. Studying the behavior of buyers, the team paid attention to how important it is to preserve the "airiness" of the space, because when choosing materials, small manipulations with beads or tools, freedom of movement is necessary for the craftsmen's hands. In the part of the hall near the main entrance, above which the mural is located, a coffee area is equipped, it has become a "warm" accent in the room.

Rooms with radial zoning seem to "flow" into each other and are combined into a single space by transition arches with plaster rounding. According to the architects, this technique gently balances the space and accumulates energy. The rounded shapes used delicately echo the character and rhythm of the paintings that were found by the restorers.

"The deceleration we are hunting for appears from the details of space," says Alina Sanina.

The color palette of the new premises consists of neutral shades of gray and beige, natural tones of wood, stone, warm or dark metal, which is used in furniture accessories and trade equipment. In the decoration of the walls of the room, there is also a reddish brickwork - fragments of the walls have been "opened", revealing their primary structure. Such a background best shades the diversity of the assortment presented in the showroom and fills the space with warm, earthy energy.

"We put a piece of ourselves into the projects," says Alina Sanina about her attitude. In the specified interior, this approach materialized not only through the level of interpretation of ideas for a commercial space, but also through curiosity, delving into the context, the desire to return spaces to their lost history and authenticity and introduce them to the audience. There is a special value in this.

Author of the project: architectural bureau Sanina Arch Club, Alina Sanina

Restorer: restoration workshop "Garda", Iryna Girna

Photo: Mykhailo Lukashuk

Text: Mila Yermakova-Feruz