Nine hundred clear glazed, fine bone china, fish in Barcelona. It must be Friday.

When someone asks you  to do an installation for a restaurant in one of Barcelona’s most iconic shopping centres you know it needs to be special. When Scabetti were approached by Watatsumi, a Japanese restaurant  in Barcelona’s iconic Las Arenas shopping centre they produced this wonderful “Shoal” sculpture made up of the aforementioned  900 clear glazed fine bone china fish, give or take a few.

Scabetti are longtime friends of Modenus. The creative forces behind Scabetti are Dominic and Frances Bromley who’s work in handmade Bone China is legendary all over the world, yet rooted in tradition of English China production in Dominic’s native Staffordshire.  “Bone china is such a beautiful material with a strong English heritage. It has different qualities exhibited in different lighting conditions. It’s translucency when cast very finely, is most appealing and has really been the inspiration for our move into lighting design.”

And if your idea of a shopping centre is a strip mall beside a highway which looks a lot like the other endless strip malls beside those other endless strip malls – have a look at this. Les Arenas the Barcelonas had their grand opening a few months ago after lengthy struggles in permitting and the project being put on hold due to the recession. The former bullring with an obvious nod to the architecture of Gaudi is a spectacular new landmark that features the largest dome in Europe with an observation walkway that offers 360° views of the city.

Maybe this could be the start of a ‘fish on Fridays’ series? And maybe we could do a series on shopping centres which don’t offend the eye? Your views are, as always, appreciated.