Design studio Davidpompa has revamped its showroom in Mexico City to include a rich collage of the local materials featured in its products, like big chunks of volcanic rock, weathered brass and copper rings, and decorative black clay.
Davidpompa has occupied its showroom in Roma Norte – a trendy neighbourhood in the Mexican capital – since 2013, but recently chose to overhaul the space to better describe the materials it uses for its lighting designs.
Throughout the presentation, the products are shown alongside raw versions of materials used to make them. These include shelves of pink stone, walls covered in circles of unfinished brass and copper, and panes of glass left at a slant.
"We have been reinventing our showroom, creating a space to experience our materials and get inspired by their essence," said Davidpompa in a project statement. "Its concept, named The Material Space, unveils the origins of our products; materials being our starting point."
"We have created a series of compositions, juxtaposing raw materials with finished products, opening a space for conversation and highlighting the relationship between them," the studio added.
The company – whose designs include a set of lamps carved from stone mined in Mexico – uses traditional Mexican materials and crafts to make its products.
The space therefore acts as "a visual exploration of the aesthetics and identities of our material," Davidpompa said. "The result is a vivid tour of our products' history and context, an experience through Mexican craft and tradition."
At the entrance is a display of designs made from Barro Negro – a black clay produced in Mexican state Oaxaca – including the patterned reception desk and pendant lights.
The monochrome palette continues with a series of hand-woven La Caleta sconces that adorn the rear wall, and matching pendant lights that lead into the next room.
The studio describes this large space as "an even more theatrical experience" with its variety materials and products on show.
In one of the corner, a display of copper tubes and pink cantera stone chunks provides the backdrop for the Ambra wall and table lamp – designs that the studio carves from the rock. Another section uses a collage of Talavera tiles to frame lamps.
There are also chunks of onyx rock, a raw brass plate, and textured wooden blocks.
With contemporary and minimal forms, these designs form a contrast to the architecture of the showroom – an ornately decorated space on the ground floor of a French-style, 20th-century building typical of Roma Norte.
It features high ceilings, with natural light flooding in through tall windows, and a number of ornate details like wooden doors and window frames, and decorative wall mouldings.
Pale floor-to-ceiling curtains form spatial divisions, and section off a moodier, darker environment at the rear. Here, walls covered in disks of roughly finished brass and copper are the setting for the display of brass pendant Cupallo lamps.
"This is the final stop where visitors are offered a space for thought and discussion about the collection," said the studio.
"An extraordinary view which sums up what the material space aims for: opening room for conversation about our materials and showcasing the starting point for our creative process."
Austrian-Mexican designer David Pompa set up his eponymous studio in Mexico City in 2013, after graduating from product design at Kingston University in London. During his studies, he designed a collection of bizarre office furniture called Surreal Minimalism.
Pompa's studio – which has another outpost in Klagenfurt, Austria – is made up of designers, engineers and makers. Its output includes furniture, accessories and tiles, along with lighting.