Architect：Angelo Luigi Tartaglia;Armando Tomasi

Location：Frankfurter Tor 7, Germany; | ;

Project Year：2015

Category：Restaurants

A city that in the latest twenty years has been the interest focus of the young European generations collective imagination. A city that from the unification has seen frenetic increase of demand for housing and, in despite of the political and sociological evolution, is still one of the cheapest city in Europe. The unemployment rate is high in it, due to its politic than industrial inclination, the city cannot guarantee employment to thousands of young people coming from all over Europe. Our Client is young too and he decided to undertake an unique initiative, creating a restaurant that could bring in Berlin the tastes and the flavours of Mediterranean food along with the image. The idea was to arouse colours and stylistic features, mainly in the kitchen, with a taste of all natural elements inspired by the Mediterranean Sea. Oil, conserves, wines, bread, pasta, meat, vegetables, all products that weekly arrive from the Mediterranean basin.

So the image of the restaurant has been characterized by elements drawn from remembrance and that arouse the concept (broadly speaking) of the Mediterranean Sea. The building is located in a popular area and exactly in a large square with two twin buildings, from the austere character of the old regime. In one of them (mainly in the glassed commercial basement of one of them) is located the restaurant that stands out from a distance with its large advertising sign. Before proceeding to design it, a great attention has been given especially to the study of colours. They refer to the green of the vegetation, the yellow-orange of the sun, the blue of the sea, the clear white of the Mediterranean basin atmosphere and almost all the houses white painted, especially those lime painted in the islands.

At the entrance a glass box creates a decanting air hallway. In it a metal and glass showcase contains food products, which can be purchased. On the top of it, internally, a large lemon tree from Sorrento (Italy), served for irrigation by a wooden blue colour ladder. Once through this passage you are greeted by a reception desk, on which behind (on the whole wall) stands a huge image of the sun whose rays are made of wooden elements and LED and fluorescent lights. Glancing up, you're hit by a huge chandelier made with dishes, pots and utensils or cutlery. The bar counter (on the right of the entrance) work as a filter between the large windows on the main street and the interior and in fact the exhibition of the bottles, as well as the coffee machine, are facing the street to stimulate the curiosity and invite pedestrians to come in the restaurant. This bar counter has the front side made to accommodate objects and bottles for sale. The counter service is made with wood and Corian backlit strips. Behind two big steel barrels contain different wines for glass pouring. At the side of the bar area there is a fish and chip area that serves street food to the pedestrians. The open-kitchen, only for dishes preparation, faces the dining room on the ground floor while the rest of the preparation is made in the back rooms. The tables, both the social and the individual ones are made with painted natural wood.

The social table is a 760 cm long and can accommodate twenty-four people. Deliberately designed to stimulate the ground floor socialization deriving from getting snacks, drinks , coffee and lunch. Its top is made with Carrara marble that arouse the old kitchen tables and has inserts (cut with pantograph) to make a huge yardstick so the owner can knows unambiguously the position occupied by each customer, marked by the big numbers of the yardstick itself. Above the table, to emphasize its length, is placed a lamp made with conserve tinplated cans, mounted in an elliptical way with inserted a system of fluorescent lamps . On the ground floor, a wooden wall (refer to a section of sky between the Mediterranean clouds) contain historic phrases about food by writers and poets and include touch for self order. In the room next to the kitchen has been obtained another dining area, especially useful for people with disabilities.

On the main wall of the staircase are shown slogans and images about food. On the same wall, on the first floor, there is a huge image of the Mediterranean basin with a long description of its origin, written on the water. The tables at this level have a solid wood top designed with brushed coloured numbers and covered with a thick layer of polyester. The green painted walls on the first floor have sets of service shelves with coat hangers, which on top accommodate many black and white pictures of the Mediterranean basin. At the table's height painted metal strips act as purses support elements and wall protection when moving tables. Also on this level there is another touch-screen wall and the dumbwaiter landing that is served directly from the kitchen at the ground floor. Complete the intervention a series of polychrome pillars covering pre-existing concrete and metal structures. Some of them, thinner than other, were positioned to close the space between the structures themselves.

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