When IQOS sets up its lounge in the Pyrenees
Grandvalira, the leading ski resort of the Iberian Peninsula, attracts a demanding international clientele every winter. In the El Tarter area, at two thousand metres, the IQOS brand chose to set up an exceptional event terrace, conceived as a brand venue as much as a dining spot.
For this high-exposure address, IQOS turned to Vondom and entrusted the fit-out to Ramón Esteve, one of the most prolific in-house designers of the Valencian brand. The brief: to create a space that is at once a lounge, a restaurant and an events platform, able to support a music programme with DJs and a refined food service.
The Vela sofa at the heart of the scheme
The so-called "chill out" area structures the whole project. At the centre, the modular sofas from the Vela collection, designed by Ramón Esteve, form a long linear seat facing the peaks. Their prismatic geometry creates a powerful horizontal silhouette, in direct dialogue with the lines of the Andorran landscape.
The modularity of the Vela is an operational argument here. Depending on the configuration of the event, private party or open to the public, the modules can be rearranged in a few minutes. The resort's technicians can switch from a DJ set layout to table service without heavy intervention.
Ulm added for more intimate areas
On the edge of the chill out area, the Ulm collection completes the scheme with single sofas and armchairs. Ramón Esteve designed this line with more enveloping forms than the Vela: the backrest rises, the seat dips slightly, and the invitation to settle in for a long time is explicit.
The high tables and stools from the Frame collection, again designed by Ramón Esteve, punctuate the whole to offer a standing area, suited to short conversations and to moving between counter service and the main terrace.
Resistance to an extreme climate
The choice of furniture was far from random. At 2,000 metres, the constraints are real: regular overnight frost, heavy snow, intense UV at altitude when the sun is out, and daily temperature swings that can exceed thirty degrees. Most standard outdoor furniture deteriorates quickly in these conditions.
The rotomoulded polyethylene used by Vondom in Beneixída answers precisely this equation. The pieces keep their colour despite the radiation, do not crack because of freeze-thaw cycles, and tolerate the load of a layer of snow without deforming. For a seasonal venue that must be operational from the first snowfall, this is a decisive criterion.
Furniture as a brand tool
Beyond function, the IQOS terrace illustrates an increasingly common use of outdoor furniture: becoming an element of the brand experience. Visitors do not simply consume a service; they settle into a space that says something about the brand's universe.
At Verano Design, we see this use multiplying on premium projects. High-altitude hospitality, luxury brands, seasonal pop-up stores: the boundary between functional furniture and visual signature is blurring. The Vela, Ulm and Frame collections by Ramón Esteve for Vondom are particularly well equipped to answer this kind of brief.
