PROJECT TEAM: Carmelo Zappulla, Nacho Toribio
Reinventing applications for existing materials:
Whenever you design an installation for a public event you have to contact materials suppliers in order to build it and, if you have no budget, the best you can do is to borrow something that you can give back in good conditions. In our case, the company who provided the materials gained huge visibility for a very low cost. It is indeed quite easy for a Beer Brewery to lend 2500 plastic beer crates to build an installation having in return its name showcased everywhere at the event and in the media.
Catwalk:
Generating maximum visibility is the main aim of a fashion show, and organizing catwalks is one of the regular activities of ModaFad in Barcelona. Every six months a multidisciplinary jury selects the best fashion designers recently graduated in Spanish design schools and allows them to showcase their work in a fashion show in front of clothes manufacturers, fashion critics and designers. The following day they set up Merkafad, a fashion market open to the public where the designers can sell their products. Both events always have a great public attendance.
Shared exclusivity:
The seats at a fashion show are usually reserved according to guest importance from the first to the last row, and it is not possible to attend the event without invitation. The main aim of our project was to open the event to a wider public: the catwalk crosses the Fad exhibition hall, runs outside through a large entrance gate into the square and finally goes back inside through another entrance. There are rows of chairs, just tiered benches made of beer crates on both sides of the catwalk.
Plastic bricks:
Beer crates are modular and could be easily transformed into seats due to their size and proportions. You do not need glue, mortar or specialized workers: through plastic straps and simple assembly instructions they can be tied up to form a staircase, a stage or a bar. The crates used for the fashion show are later dismounted and reassembled overnight to formmicro-stalls for the Merkafad, the designers market. The following day the crates will be already on delivery trucks, full of beer bottles.
