Over the course of the week we’ve been sharing a few words from the winners of each of the four categories of The Great Indoors Award: Show & Sell, Relax & Consume, Concentrate & Collaborate, and Serve & Facilitate. Last up is El Equipo Creativo, the Barcelona-based designers who scored top points for local restaurant Pakta.
How does it feel to win?
Natali Canas del Pozo: Even just being nominated was great, but something really nice happened when we started spreading the good news of the award: all the people involved in the project – our team members, clients, the restaurant staff – were so excited. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and we’ve been getting more and more excited each day.
How do you feel your project differs from its competitors?
It’s difficult to say. I suppose our project responded very specifically to the brief – a Peruvian-Japanese restaurant in Barcelona – which made it conceptually very strong. In our opinion the formal response was quite risky due to the explosion of strong, bright colours. The jury might have valued the risk we took. In any case, all the competitors deserved the prize as much as we did.
What did you think of The Great Indoors as an event?
It was an extremely well-organized and well-rounded event. There wasn’t only the award ceremony, but also some educational activities with students during the day. The connection between the event and the city of Maastricht was also remarkable. We had the chance to discover it through the eyes and projects of the students who participated.
What’s next for El Equipo Creativo?
Some new exciting restaurant projects in Barcelona and our first restaurant in the Netherlands – in Rotterdam, more specifically.
Photos Bert Janssen
About the project:
Traditional Peruvian weaving looms create the tactile, colourful walls of a Barcelona eatery. On the looms are intersecting rows of cord, which give the place its name: in Quechua, pakta means ‘union’, a term that also reflects a blend of cultures. Faced with the ‘impossibly high standards of a three-star chef’, the architects impressed the jury with a solution based on ‘a few strong gestures’.
