ST. CHARLES
In Munich’s old town, an apothecary unfolds its palette of herbs and elixirs. Our wall—carved from local gravel and river stones—stands softly behind the remedies, holding them in a quiet embrace.
CONCEPT
We were asked to craft an earthy surface for the Saint Charles store that could hold its own yet let the products take centre stage. To achieve this, we sourced gravel and stone from the Isar riverbeds near the Karwendel mountains, hand-picked, sieved and washed. Integrated into a thick mineral plaster, these aggregates create a rough texture that harmonises with the dark steel shelving and warm wood, highlighting the apothecary’s natural elixirs rather than competing with them.
FOUNDATION
The base for this surface is a fibre-cement board capable of supporting the weight of a coarse plaster system. A bonding undercoat anchors multiple layers of cementitious lime plaster enriched with Isar pebbles. Once applied, this scratch coat is raked back to expose the stone and to ensure a durable structure.
MOTIF
The motif lies in the exposed aggregate: stones of various sizes from the Isar and the Karwendel massif embedded in the plaster. When the surface is scraped back, these pebbles emerge like a stratified riverbank, their colours and textures echoing the apothecary’s philosophy of working with nature’s own regional materials.
DECAY
The final act of raking reveals both fine and coarse stones. This process creates a tactile relief that changes with light and touch, inviting the hand and eye to linger. Though rugged in structure, the surface remains soft in presence, reflecting the store’s calm ethos and the earthbound origins of its products.
"A wall where stone and earth reveal themselves: rough texture, natural rhythm, tactile presence."