Store With A Gap
building in Medellín’s El Poblado neighbourhood into a porous, mixed-use extension of the street.
Rather than replacing the existing structure, the project reworks it through subtraction and overlay: a portion of the front is carved away to create a small pocket of public space at street level, extending the pavement into the site and opening the building to the neighbourhood.
Three programmes are stacked across three levels — retail, a dance studio and a café — and allowed to overlap and reinforce one another, sustaining varied patterns of occupation from morning into evening. Public areas are expanded and reorganised to take advantage of Medellín’s mild climate, with outdoor seating dissolving the threshold between inside and out.
A perforated, translucent metal screen wraps the street façade, forming a covered interstitial zone between pavement and interior. The layer mediates light, movement and visibility, calibrating the transition from public space to the retail and café spaces within.
Inside, the existing structure is left largely intact and strategically reworked. Finishes were stripped to expose the building’s original fabric, keeping the spaces raw and flexible. Loose furniture and custom millwork reorganise the plan while introducing a new graphic and environmental identity.
Circulation is organised as a continuous sequence across all three levels. At the rear, the former basement patio is lifted to street level, producing an uninterrupted ground plane that links front to back. Below, the dance studio occupies a more intimate, grounded volume wrapped in wood and defined by a softly curved ceiling that rises towards a large skylight, drawing daylight deep into the building.
Rather than erasing the old, the project overlays new uses and spatial conditions, turning a private building into a shared urban resource.
