G4 GROUP

WORKFLOWS THAT MATTER - G4: Group5:21

G4 Group is an architecture, interior design and engineering studio of 190 professionals from 28 nationalities, with offices in Barcelona, Madrid, Turin, Dubai and Hong Kong, from which it works for clients all over the world. What sets it apart most is that it integrates every phase of the project within a single team: architects, interior designers, engineers, designers and 3D developers, among other profiles, who enrich each commission.

In this 34th edition of Workflows That Matter we talk to the two partners who shaped G4 Group, the architects Ernest Boronat and Ferran Tortosa. They tell us what characterises a multidisciplinary team of almost 200 people, how they bring the context of each place into their retail and hospitality projects, how they get a commission under way and what role their network of collaborators plays in choosing materials.

G4 Group: architecture, engineering and design in a single studio

The studio is based in the Gràcia neighbourhood of Barcelona and works in three fields – architecture, engineering and design – covering everything from analysing the client's needs and brand through to detailed design, site supervision, project management and quality control. Boronat and Tortosa also run, alone or with other partners, several companies linked to the group, such as CN Ingeniería, G4 Italy, Design Four Dubai, G4 Visual and Neew Architects.

According to the studio, its services fall into three areas:

• Architecture: concept development and design, permits, detailed design, interior design, planning, 3D visualisation, lighting studies and BIM services.
• Technical architecture: project management of large building projects, site supervision and control, legalisation, quality control and health and safety coordination.
• Engineering: building and services engineering projects, energy consultancy and audits, energy certification and legalisation of installations.

Its portfolio is concentrated in retail and hospitality. The projects it publishes include stores for Louis Vuitton in Vienna, Dior and Lucid in Oslo, and Adidas and Lego in Barcelona, as well as the Hotel Paxton in Barcelona (2021): a 9,300 m² hotel in Poblenou for Barcelona Resorts, for which G4 Group was responsible for the concept, the architecture and engineering detailed design, site supervision and project management. During our visit to the studio for this instalment, the team presented that project to us, and we have devoted a separate Workflows Project article to it.

What characterises G4 Group

As a multidisciplinary team of almost 200 people, what do you think are the distinctive traits that characterise G4 Group?

Ernest Boronat: “The fact that the whole team works the way it does internally in the office makes creativity flourish at a very high level. We manage to make projects work and create them including all the fundamental aspects, because in the office we have architecture, engineering, construction, visualisation… in other words, all of this is in-house, which allows us to provide a complete service tailored 100% to the needs of each client. It's one of our strengths and something I'm pleased to say: of all the clients we've had over the last 20 years, I could say that 95% are still with us. That sets us apart; it means the work is done well and the result is good.”

Ferran Tortosa: “Our team, on a human level, is one of the most important things, because it's the added value of any working group. G4:group lives, draws inspiration from and receives from the team, it conveys all that spirit and you can see it in each of the projects. And in terms of work, the experiences that different cultures and people bring you are very enriching, and they allow our projects to convey that.”

“Of all the clients we've had over the last 20 years, I could say that 95% are still with us. That sets us apart; it means the work is done well and the result is good.”

— Ernest Boronat

Retail and hospitality in different parts of the world

What are the distinctive features of your projects in different parts of the world?

Ernest Boronat: “We specialise in retail and hospitality, two fields that allow us to make the most of our experience. The ability to express and reflect the surrounding context is crucial in any project, backed by a solid brand foundation. Today, however, what people are looking for is for the space created to reflect the surrounding place and culture, so that visitors instantly perceive their geographical location: ‘I'm in Norway, I'm in Paris, I'm in Shanghai.’ For us this brings great value because, as an international company, we have developed projects in many places around the world. That has given us a conceptual richness and versatility that we then apply wherever our services are needed.”

Ferran Tortosa: “At G4:group we are a team of 190 people spread across our offices in Barcelona, Dubai and Italy, with a wide diversity of talent interacting with one another and enriching our work. We also collaborate with external consultants such as Matter, who give us the support we need to move our projects forward.”

Listening to the client before designing

Given that the flexibility to adapt to each client's needs is essential, what are the main considerations you take into account when starting a project, given your focus on listening to and contextualising the client's requests?

Ernest Boronat: “The way the project takes shape also depends on each client, since they all have different requests. I think one of the characteristics that defines us is that we have the flexibility to listen to what the client really wants; we like to listen and we like to contextualise. That's how we like to be. We don't impose any kind of rules or anything, because we have so many different activities and backgrounds that we can respond to that level of requirements.”

Ferran Tortosa: “As soon as we talk to the client, we get that first insight into the ideas they have and the reasons behind them. Based on that, we hold a discussion in which we choose which team is right for the project, according to its personality, its characteristics, the team leader and a leadership style that fits what the client is asking for. That's where we start working on how we can do it; we use the resources we have and the ideas start to come, we put them down on paper, they move to the computer, we see them as images, we look for materials and it starts to take on that feeling and materiality.”

“The ideas start to come, we put them down on paper, they move to the computer, we see them as images, we look for materials and it starts to take on that feeling and materiality.”

— Ferran Tortosa

The network of collaborators and the choice of materials

How does your network of contacts and collaborators influence the initial planning phase of a project, especially in aspects such as material selection?

Ferran Tortosa: “In that respect, you need a network of contacts that can reinforce what you're thinking, from lighting to materials, which then takes shape in the final phase. That network of collaborators has to give you the know-how where they tell you: ‘Right, that flooring is perfect, that material is important,’ and that stays with you throughout the project. We've worked a lot with Matter on some projects, which has given us extraordinary support that many teams appreciate, because of how easy it is for us to see, touch, find out prices… As architects, we feel supported and that's a very good feeling, and for our teams it's important when there's a good feeling.”

G4 Group stands out for fostering a collaborative, positive atmosphere within its team, where multidisciplinarity is valued as a fundamental pillar of excellence in every project.

G4 Group at Matter

Our conversation with the studio goes back further. Ernest Boronat was one of the speakers at the second Best Practices Matter, held on 20 January 2021 and devoted to successful business strategies in architecture practices. There he explained that G4 Group's specialisation in retail came about by chance, thanks to satisfied clients who continued to place their trust in the two partners when they founded their own company, and that its structure – with a technical engineering department since 2008 and a rendering department since 2018 – answers one question: what does the client want.

In July 2023, the G4 Group team also took part in the Retail Workshop ‘Light and materiality’, which we organised at Matter Barcelona together with the Retail Design Institute of Spain. As Ferran Tortosa points out in the interview, seeing and touching materials is part of the process: if you are defining the materiality of a retail or hospitality project, we invite you to do so at the Matter Materioteca.