The “South Wing” (Asa Sul) was the first residential zone to be built in Brasília´s original plan. The local commerce typology in that zone is defined by two stories buildings connected to each other side by side along the commercial streets between the “superquadras” (superblocks). They face the street in one side and the residential superblocks on the other side. Lucio Costa´s idea was to connect both sides through the buildings. However, over the years the most of the owners shut themselves away from the residential area, closing their “backsides” with fences or blind walls, turning their facades exclusively to the street. 

The main goal of this project is to recconect both sides. The idea was to extend the street into the restaurant itself and to bring inside some elements of the surrounding urban environment. Therefore we explored the idea of using simple, low cost materials normally found in the streets around. Our intention is aligned with the chef´s: To cook interesting and unexpected meals using mostly local ingredients.

A new pedestrial axe connects both facades and organizes the tables and services on the ground floor. On the second floor we perforated “views to the sky” on the roof, which allow the space to be open to the sky during Brasilia´s long dry season. The kitchen is located underground. All the walls were built using exposed ceramic bricks. They act as “white canvases” on which local street artists were invited to work. All the floors and ceilings were built in exposed concrete.  The main feature of the project is a “second skin” that we created used elements of pre-fabricated steel mesh that is normally used as fences. In this case we used different patterns of the same mesh to create a multipurpose element that covers the facades and part of the ceiling. On the internal and external facades it is double layered, providing support for vegetation to grow, marking the passage of time and protecting the interior from excessive sunlight, while keeping much of its transparency. On the ground floor it works as a ventilated suspended ceiling,providing access to most of the restaurant installations.