EFEEME arquitectos uplifts bakery façade in argentina with smooth iron and wooden props

‘San Cayetano’ gets rebranded by EFEEME arquitectos

‘San Cayetano’ is a traditional bakery located in a busy central street in the Argentinian city of Villa María, Córdoba. This family business, now in the hands of its second generation, sought to generate a new brand image that falls within a broader sector of the industry. EFEEME Arquitectos took on the rebranding of ‘San Cayetano,’ seeking a disassociation from the typical bakery-style to create a space that oozes closeness and quality. ‘We were inspired by the morphological structures of cereal storage silos, an element that we could associate with the origin of the main input of the item to create our aesthetics and with a strong identity,’ share the architects. 

The resulting design by EFEEME Arquitectos (see more here) reflects and summarizes trade, product, and architecture — combining a traditional environment with a contemporary and minimalist aesthetic. On the one hand, the exterior reveals an attached façade wrapped in smooth iron and wooden props, a material mix that offers a striking light and shadow play with the passing of each hour. Such an intervention echoes the wire aesthetics of the interior, ‘dematerializing the limits by using light as an aesthetic resource‘, notes the studio.

On the other hand, the architects used circles of translucent Piedrafina to make up the interior ceiling. This flexible and natural stone coating was incorporated in such a way as to make each stone sheet appear distinct from one another. Furthermore, both coating and indoor lighting are distributed regularly across a 40x40cm metal grid linked by means of wooden props of different lengths, ‘seeking to generate a spatial perception of movement and dynamism through the multiplication of horizontal and vertical lines.’ Finally, for functional distribution, the team built a unique piece of furniture in the corner of the bakery that combines a counter, a box, and a display of fresh products made with lacquered MDF.

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project info:

name: San Cayetano 

location: Villa María, Córdoba, Argentina

completion year: 2022
built area: 45 sqm
architecture: EFEEME Arquitectos 
lead architects: Flavio Diaz, Marina Alves Carneiro
photography: Gonzalo Viramonte | @gonzaloviramonte