Silver Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2026
Plastic Box Supermaket
- A' Design Award 2026 Silver Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- CLIENT: Minimal Studio Projects SL
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 14,903
- Verification code 27EF453BA3 · Verify this award
About Plastic Box Supermaket
The project is an example of minimalist brutalism. The space redefines the shopping experience through bold aesthetics and innovative functionality. Conceived as a concrete shell with straight lines and geometric volumes, it conveys a sense of strength and permanence. The most distinctive element is the ceiling, composed of more than a thousand recycled plastic crates arranged in a modular, meticulously aligned manner.
Juan David Martínez Jofre's Plastic Box Supermaket stands as a compelling meditation on material transformation and the poetics of reuse within contemporary retail architecture, positioning itself at the intersection of sustainable design practice and experiential commercial environment. The designer appears to engage directly with questions of material lifecycle and value reclamation, elevating humble industrial plastic crates from utilitarian anonymity to architectural protagonist through their spectacular deployment as ceiling installation. This intervention demonstrates remarkable compositional intelligence, as the repeating modules create visual rhythm while their inherent translucency and perforation patterns modulate light in complex ways, suggesting affinities with both historical coffered ceiling traditions and contemporary parametric design sensibilities. The retention of raw concrete structural elements speaks to a philosophy of material honesty that finds precedent in mid-century brutalist architecture while remaining thoroughly contemporary in its integration with sleek refrigerated display systems. The monumental stone table serves as both functional counter and sculptural anchor, its mass providing gravitational counterbalance to the seemingly weightless cascade of crates above. One observes a sophisticated understanding of chromatic restraint, wherein the limited palette of warm earth tones and cool whites creates visual coherence while allowing material textures to command attention. The space invites contemplation of how design might reconcile commercial imperatives with environmental consciousness, suggesting that aesthetic richness need not depend upon virgin material extraction. Viewers might consider how their own perception of everyday objects shifts when encountered in transformed contexts, and what such transformations reveal about the nature of value itself.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Plastic Box is a minimalist brutalist project that transforms the shopping experience through a bold aesthetic and innovative functionality. Conceived as a concrete envelope with clean lines, it conveys strength and permanence. Its key element is a ceiling made of more than a thousand recycled plastic crates that filter light and integrate lighting, ventilation, and rainwater systems. Inside, steel and concrete reinforce a sober commercial language that redefines materials and their uses.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The lighting was conceived in an indirect and highly controlled manner. Light passes through and reflects off the system of 1,200 reused plastic crates in the ceiling, creating diffuse illumination that eliminates the typical glare found in supermarkets. In this way, light does not merely illuminate the space; it builds atmosphere and reinforces its scenographic character, creating a connection between the space and the shadows it generates.
- Tags
- supermarket, Plastic Box, plastic, brutalism
- Production Technology
- The project is defined by a reduced and honest material palette: concrete, steel, and reused plastic. Concrete provides brutality and neutrality; steel resolves the furniture with industrial precision; and plastic, usually hidden, becomes the architectural protagonist through the reuse of more than 1,200 crates. The ceiling was the greatest technical challenge, developed without precedents at this scale and requiring extensive prototyping, testing, and on site adjustments to assemble more than 1,200 reused elements with absolute precision.
- Design Challenge
- The main objective was to transform an everyday, functional space into an architectural experience. The client required a fully operational and efficient supermarket with clear circulation, while also seeking a space with its own identity recognizable and memorable. The program was simple: a sales area, storage, fluid circulation, and a powerful image that breaks with convention.
- Project Duration
- Completed in 2024 in Port d Alcúdia, Mallorca.
- Research
- The space was already operating as a supermarket, but it was in a completely neutral state, lacking architectural character, with standard solutions and a flat spatial reading. It was a generic container with no spatial value, which allowed us to intervene with complete freedom, starting from an almost blank slate.
- Inspiration
- The project is inspired by the idea of turning a space of consumption into an almost ritual, artistic experience. A brutalist and reduced language is used, where a single gesture defines the entire identity. This concept takes shape in the ceiling, made from over 1200 reused plastic crates, creating a recognizable and hypnotic atmosphere. The space becomes a box within a box, where function and symbolism coexist.
- Image Credits
- Fotógrafo / Leonardo Cóndor