Minimal Studio’s brutalist supermarket

"Plastic Box" Supermaket Akelarre, when grocery shopping becomes a design experience

Featuring raw concrete furniture designed to punish your shins, a ceiling full of dangling plastic crates that look like a Tetris game gone wrong, and LED lighting bright enough to perform open-heart surgery—this Mallorcan spot proves that 'minimalism' is just code for 'we forgot to finish the drywall'.

“The dialogue between aesthetics, sustainability, and the reasons for consumption results in a space made of reused and recycled materials, without sacrificing a sophisticated and recognizable design” Juan David Martínez Jofre

Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio

Let’s face it: most supermarkets have the soul of a DMV and the lighting of a high-security interrogation room. They’re basically corporate-branded tunnels where your only 'inspiration' is finding the shortest checkout line. But Voramar Store in Mallorca decided to 'move the needle', presumably by smashing the needle with a concrete block.

Minimal Studio founder Juan David Martínez claims they 'approached the supermarket as an art gallery'. Which is great, except usually in an art gallery, you aren’t allowed to touch the exhibits, and here, the 'exhibit' is a jar of pickles sitting on a $5,000 slab of raw stone. They decided that grocery shopping should feel less like a chore and more like a high-concept art installation. They’ve blended 'sustainability' with a 'sophisticated spatial design', which means the shelves are essentially giant concrete blocks that will survive a nuclear winter. It’s the only place where the artistic tension is so loud you can barely hear yourself asking where the frozen peas are.

Supermaket Akelarre. Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio

Supermaket Akelarre. Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio

Supermaket Akelarre. Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio

Supermaket Akelarre. Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio

Supermaket Akelarre. Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio

Supermaket Akelarre. Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio

Supermaket Akelarre. Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio

Minimal Studio replaced your standard, boring shelves with 'monolithic concrete counters'. Because nothing says 'fresh produce' like a five-ton block of stone, in the middle of a sunny Mediterranean island, the ceiling is a 'modular surface' of a thousand crates, giving you that lovely 'industrial warehouse' vibe while secretly hiding the plumbing. Even the fridge glow is 'reduced to essence', reflecting off the floor so intensely that your Greek yogurt looks like it’s being presented in a futuristic jewelry store.

Image courtesy of: Minimal Studio 

Design Monitoring Advice: We need to talk about the elephant in the room, or rather, the Cheetos in the room. This minimalist masterpiece looks great now, but we’re waiting to see what happens when the 'invasion of everyday products' arrives. The 'resilience of the concept' is going to be tested the second someone puts a giant, neon-orange '3-for-1' sticker on a raw concrete pillar or hides a leaking bag of frozen peas behind a thousand-crate installation.

Reference: Minimal Studio