Winner in the category Food Hall with the project Eurovea Food Hall, Bratislava – Slovakia
1. Can you tell us more about your Design Firm?
Reify is a brand that belongs to Sonae Sierra. It´s the business area that have the services for Real Estate. The Conceptual Design & Architecture is the department responsible for the design. We started designing shopping centers 35 years ago in Portugal. Then we stablished in several countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and America. We have done projects for more than xx countries.
2. What does “design” mean to you?
Design means creating something that answer to a necessity and brings beauty to that product.
3. Can you describe your design style and its main characteristics?
Our Design Style is defined by the compromise of the function, the economics and the beauty of the product. Besides he traditional functions and beauty, we add the economics. We have that vector always in our mind. The products that we create should have economic sustainability. We focus in the needs of our clients.
4. As the winner of the FoodInSpace Design Awards 2024, what does receiving this award mean to you, your company and your team?
For me was the international recognition of our work, when you are competing with projects for all over the world I think the level of quality and difficulty increase.
5. What was the biggest challenge for your winning project/projects?
The biggest challenge was the competition that was very good and with some very nice projects. We were conscient that our project was very good and have the quality to be one of the best. Receive an award like this it’s always challenging and grateful.
6. In an increasingly global world, how do you balance local identity with international trends in your design work?
We are used to work in different geographies, from Colombia to China and our first approach it’s to understand the local identity of the places and how we can bring international trends to our projects without jeopardize the local one. We think that sometimes people want to have completely different approaches to the projects and have disruptive project that will have positive impact. We try to avoid the word “trends”, because the trends “comes and go” and what we wont with our projects is that they become part of the local identity!
7. Are there any other topics you would like to talk about that were not addressed in these questions?
We consider that in a project a good design it’s not the only part for the success if it. Only a great and aligned team can make a successful project. The client it’s a fundamental piece, if they are not aligned with the designer and the team, it’s complicated to achieve great projects. In this case of EUROVEA we had the client always in our side with an “open mind” and trusting in our project.
Thank you for the interview!
Find out more about Reify. and its projects!
