Barcelona have claimed a big slice of central presence in the city as they've opened their brand new this 1,900 m2 store on the former site of Hotel Motecarlo on the famous La Rambla. It's the fifth store to be 100% managed by FC Barcelona and one that is in the heart of the city and tourism trade.
The Barça Store Canaletes is located in the most touristy and iconic street in the whole city, is the fifth that is 100% managed by FC Barcelona, following on from those at the Camp Nou, in Passeig de Gràcia, in La Roca Village and at Barcelona Airport Terminal 2.
Barça Store Canaletes is at number 124, La Rambla and its 1,900 m2 are spread across three floors offering all your usual merchandise. But this shop is particularly special both because of its location and historical concept as well as its design concept as a venue for Barça experiences, the aim being to foster innovative ways of using new technologies in the retail business.
Juli Capella of the Capella García studio of architects led the project to redesign the space, which takes its inspiration from such decorative elements as ceramics, so typical of Catalan buildings, and iconographic motifs from the local traditions of Modernisme and Noucentisme, while respecting the decorative details of the original building, together with columns and different items of wooden and marble artwork.
Visitors to Barça Store Canaletes will be received by the first team players in hologram format on a huge show window in the form of a dressing room as store acts more as an experience for fans than an outright shop.
The ground floor is fully dedicated to menswear and first team kits, with a central space surrounded by LED screens showing images of the Camp Nou as a mosaic is put together, with the crowds making a wave or celebrating a goal. This dynamic audiovisual surround feature means that while fans are shopping, they are also transported to the stadium and made to feel part of its atmosphere and the emotions experienced there. This area is completed by an imposing replica of Canaletes Fountain, an ionic part of the Barça imagery that could not be left out of a place like this.
The first floor contains the women’s collection and the other sports kits. The children’s section is in the basement where kids are able to enjoy games with a giant LED screen that detects movement and represents a small football pitch together with a miniature replica of a Camp Nou bench.
The building itself was constructed in the late 19th century, and from 1945 was used as the Hotel Montecarlo. Back in the 1920s it was the offices of a newspaper called Las Noticias, which ties in with some of the earliest celebrations of Barça victories in the city. In the days before radio and television broadcasts, fans used to gather in Las Ramblas outside these offices and those of another paper called El Sol, where the scores were written on a blackboard as they came in. If Barça won, the celebrations took place there and then.
Another coincidence is that the Soler Gymnasium, where Joan Gamper founded FC Barcelona on 29 November 1899 in Carrer de Montjuïc del Carme, stood just 200 metres away from the new Barça Store Canaletes.
The new FC Barcelona Store is number 124 on La Rambla, Barcelona.
