Clínica Veterinaria Mediterránea · Estepona, Málaga

A turquoise dog, a lime-green cat and two waiting rooms so the two never meet. We designed this veterinary clinic in Estepona (Málaga) in 2018: a ground-floor unit beneath a residential building, transformed into a 24-hour veterinary hospital. The challenge of the commission did not lie in the room programme. In a vet’s waiting room a nervous dog and a terrified cat have to share the same space, and the whole design is organised around that incompatibility.

The brief, told by the file names

The client’s material arrived on 4 September 2018: the location, a survey of the unit revised in July, the practice logo and two folders of reference images. The real brief was in the file names: “our preferred counter style”, “display unit with light for food”, “cat waiting area”. No further written brief was needed. The client wanted an illuminated counter, products on display, and dogs and cats kept apart.

Two waiting rooms, not one

We split the waiting area into two zones with continuous bench seating, each recognisable before anyone reads a sign. One carries the silhouette of a dog in turquoise; the other, that of a cat in lime green, on the wall and repeated across the floor. Opposite, three doors numbered 01, 02 and 03 sit beneath coloured bands in the suspended ceiling. Anyone walking in knows where to sit without asking at reception.

The counter, in natural timber with a strip of LED lighting beneath its front, is the first thing you see from the door, set against light grey microcement. Each room also has its own display wall: two bays of continuous grid shelving that act as backdrop and shop at the same time. Behind that public strip, the unit is divided into consulting, surgery and in-patient areas, out of sight from the street.

An identity drawn with the premises

The practice logo was supplied by the client: a veterinary cross with a turquoise dog and a lime-green cat. It gave us the entire interior palette and the graphics for both waiting rooms. Rather than commissioning the signage separately, we modelled it as one more element of the building, piece by piece: the backlit interior sign, the exterior signs in two sizes, the vinyl graphics, the shelving and even the scales. The brief also covered the street signage: a 1×1 m entrance sign and a 150×90 hoarding. On the facade, the natural-timber band holds the sign and sets the unit apart from the residential building above, while the side ramp takes up the level change from the pavement.

Treating branding as a building material, rather than a layer stuck on at the end, is exactly what we did at Asador Iñaki on Calle Ayala (Málaga).

The design process

All the work was concentrated between September and November 2018. The first batch of renders came the day after the brief arrived, and the signage was modelled twenty-four hours later. Then six days of model development — 24 and 25 September, 9 and 11 October, 31 October and 6 November — producing 71 versions of the model and 15 render batches.

The sheer number of renders isn’t about showing off. In a small unit, a client makes better decisions looking at an image of the finished counter than at a floor plan, and every colour choice can be seen before it is bought. The same care for first impressions and for the route through a space shaped the PROMÁLAGA Teatinos Offices and PROMÁLAGA CW at the Andalusia Technology Park.

Gallery

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Project data

• Typology: Renovation and interior design of commercial premises · 24-hour veterinary hospital
• Use: Veterinary healthcare, with a product sales area
• Location: Estepona, Western Costa del Sol, Málaga
• Design year: 2018
• Status: Built
• Client: Private developer in the veterinary sector
• Studio: Klic Arquitectos
• Interior design: Klic Arquitectos
• Klic’s services: Architectural design, interior design, construction supervision, spatial identity design and signage