Rough riders: Design museum sandblasts interior

Lisbon – Mixing the rough with the smooth, the new Museu do Design e da Moda here boasts an edgy, tactile interior. The design and fashion museum, designed by Ricardo Carvalho + Joana Vilhena Arquitectos, is housed in a former bank from the 1950s, which was in the midst of being demolished when the architects came to it. Further sandblasting – in a process the designers described as ‘selective destruction’ – created the brutally textured surfaces of the finished interior.

Sitting within this jagged space are the many elements of the museum’s collection, from classic Eames chairs to clothing from designers such as John Galliano. Premium retailers could take a leaf from these deconstructed interiors; as we explore in our report on Alphalux, the rough approach offers an antidote to the bling of the past decade, with an exposed, challenging and ultimately more experiential environment.