This project by FLEXOARQUITECTURA consists of the refurbishing of a well-known restaurant into a pizzeria in the Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona. Due to the continuity of the restoration activity, the current urban regulations did not allow any considerable changes to the organisation of the original, only some punctual modifications, such as the demolition of certain partition walls, the replacement of technical installations, new acoustic adaptations and the implementation of an interior floor and wall coverings.
The original premise offered three distinctive zones: the entrance area, the corridor with access to the bathrooms, kitchen and private facilities and the space at the back, built beyond the regulated building depth of the residential building to which it belongs.
The proposal refuses, from the beginning, to fully perceive the totality of the interior volume through a panopticon construction and, on the contrary, it’s based on a double strategy. One on side, it emphasizes the specific geometry of every single space, understanding the pizzeria as a linear sequence of distinctive connected rooms. On the other side, in order to equip this concatenation of continuity, it arranges the materials in horizontal stripes through the pavement and ceiling in order to accompany the customer until the end of the premise.
The 30 meters in depth of sequence that separates the entrance from the space at the back, are defined by a triple split horizontal division, from the floor to the ceiling, comprised by chestnut plywood boards and black formica benches, that deform themselves to generate private spaces, a stripe of wood boards overlaid with green formica of vertical joints, and the suspended ceiling that hides the technical installations, solves the acoustic constrains and it deforms differently in each space to embrace the customer in various ways.
Throughout the visit some unexpected connections are established between adjacent rooms with the use of different resources: circular and triangular die-cut walls, mirrors located in strategic spots, intense red recesses that announce passages or bottle racks and black terrazzo wet bars that, giving continuity to the floor, are defined as stony altars from where the clients are served.
Design and info © FLEXOARQUITECTURA
Images © José Hevia
