Pharmacie de la Gare. A healthcare supermarket

It is an indisputable fact that building aesthetics are closely related to function. Spaces are designed to meet widely differing requirements and adopt many different compositional solutions. They must maintain a delicate balance between the exterior, with its function of communicating with the outside world, and the interior, which must fulfil specific design requirements.
Shopping centres are generally imposing buildings with large display areas, often divided into zones with highly distinctive characteristics.
However, the Pharmacie de la Gare in Roissy-en-Brie, just outside Paris, hardly excels for its spectacular architecture. With its simple, linear external profile, subdued colours and discreet materials, it is conspicuous only at night when it is lit up by vivid green neon lights. And in spite of its very large floor space, extending over more than 1,000 square metres following the recent renovation project, it also does not stand out for any particularly prestigious compositional solutions, unique finishes, bold colours or novel contrasts of materials and textures. Instead, the originality of the project lies in such aspects as environmental quality, variety and breadth of product offerings, low pricing and an all-hours service.
The internal distribution layout is divided up into well-organised display areas that offer customers an exceptional variety of medical items ranging from beauty creams to food supplements, from baby products to personal hygiene, from over-the-counter medicines to homeopathic remedies, from cosmetics to veterinary products, and of course prescription medicines.
Integrated into the Roissy railway station, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Pharmacie de La Gare is a kind of healthcare supermarket capable of handling very large quantities of medicines. And according to a survey conducted by the newspaper Le Parisien, it offers prices that are up to 40% lower than other stores, naturally attracting a very large clientele who are prepared to travel in from many miles away.
But perhaps the most distinctive feature of Pharmacie de la Gare is the solution adopted for the floor covering, which consists entirely of Citylife porcelain tile from Ceramica Panaria in a 60×60 cm rectified size and pale colour. Laid over the entire floor using a colour design that enhances the sense of space, the ceramic tiles boast a characteristic that is closely associated with the building’s function – Microban antibacterial protection, the integrated silver-based technology that eliminates up to 99% of all bacteria from the surface and guarantees lifetime protection.