“Spectrum”, the Gancedo Space at Casa Decor 2020

 It is for this reason that this year’s event holds a very special meaning for the company, which has not missed its appointment with this Exhibition since 1992. Boasting the name “Spectrum”, the Gancedo space provides the gateway to the Exhibition and, at the same time, a decorative homage to all those lovers of interior decoration and design who visited “their home” for 40 years, up until April 2019, bidding them welcome to Casa Décor 2020 and inviting them to come and see their new Flagship Store at Velázquez 38 after their visit to Casa Décor. 

“Spectrum”, the fabric rainbow at Casa Decor

For Gancedo, the designer Eli Gutiérrez has planned “Spectrum”, an installation comprising 23 bands of colour in different fabrics that enfold and embrace us as soon as we step into the entrance hall of the building. To achieve this, she has taken her inspiration from a spectrum: a band of various colours which forms when sunlight passes through a prism and is allowed to come together again on a white screen, just as happens naturally with a rainbow. Eli has created an attractive metaphor, simplifying development, a blueprint for the future of the brand. In her spatial installation, the arrow of time joining Gancedo to this space fragments, like a white light, into a greatly enlarged rainbow. In it the brand is no longer this place but rather a living, varying, open project, the blueprint for a future teeming with new colours and unlimited textures. A “threshold to wellness” wherein we can all choose our colour and take ownership of the emotions aroused in us. 

Natural fabrics

The textiles employed in the installation belong mostly to the Gancedo “Chromatics” collection. Basically, natural fibres, textured, figured velvets, chenilles. But also, pure linens, wools, flame retardants…A free, multifaceted, vibrant, contemporary palette, so characteristic of the practice of this designer.  Honouring its pledge to the  #CasaDecorSostenible, the entire installation has been designed to allow the fabrics, once taken down again, to be reused as material for different purposes, minimizing the environmental impact of the project. At the counter, the commitment to natural material stands out: the new Japanese raffia paper from the Gancedo Nara Wallcovering collection. 

The designer

Born in Valencia, Eli Gutiérrez has undergone training in London, Milan and Paris, where she collaborates with different ateliers including Patricia Urquiola, Philippe Starck and India Mahdavi. Since 2016 she has had her own studio – in Valencia and Paris – where she pursues product design, interior decoration, installations and concept creation. Sensitivity to colour, materials and textures lends her language a distinctive character. Together with the quality and authenticity of the materials with which she has worked, they render the project created by the designer for Gancedo utterly unique. Rather than being an isolated case, this collaboration demonstrates Gancedo’s clear commitment to international design, acknowledging and opting for this designer’s creative talent and clear track record. 

This was the entrance to the space

For this year’s Casa Décor 2020 event, the textile company chose the hallway which houses the entrance and the ticket office: a space with a circular layout, 37 square metres and with three entrance doors. In this case, the designer Eli Gutiérrez was tasked with creating a differentiating, contemporary project. In the 70s, the basement, lower and main floors were remodelled by the architect, Francisco de Inza (1929-1976), resulting in the magnificent corner site which housed the Gancedo shop. This Madrid architect, closely associated with the family, took charge of the transformation of this part of Velázquez 21, giving it a facelift, not only in terms of the architecture created on different levels, with the elegance of its brick arches and brilliant use of wood, but also in the practicality of the shelving design, giving rise to a hitherto unheard-of manner of exhibiting fabrics. Amongst other things done to effect the transformation of the space, a false ceiling was installed with spotlights around the sides and a great decorative light fitting in the centre. The original floor and the marble staircase were covered with flame retardant woollen fitted carpeting which plays with colours to delimit the staircase visually from the rest of the space, and the walls with 23 bands of colour in different fabrics. In addition, the steel and glass railings were replaced with wooden wall panels varnished in navy blue and the counter was placed to the left of the sole entrance door.