![El Camion Restaurant / LLONA + ZAMORA Arquitectos + Fernando Mosquera - Table, Chair, Beam](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/31a2/28ba/0d0e/f000/055e/medium_jpg/stringio.jpg?1424970647)
- Area: 220 m²
- Year: 2009
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Photographs:Michelle Llona R
Text description provided by the architects. On the Panamerican Highway, nineteen kilometers south of Lima, there is a mandatory rest stop for truck drivers, which include a gas station, rest areas and food services. EL CAMION is located on one of the corners of this rest stop, in an area of 22.5 x 10m, where it is unfeasible to park. Surrounded by trucks, with constant movement, there is always a new landscape. The restaurant is locked up between trucks; hence the project looked for the creation of an “interior”, providing patios in which truck drivers could rest after extended working hours.
![El Camion Restaurant / LLONA + ZAMORA Arquitectos + Fernando Mosquera - Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/3178/28ba/0d0e/f000/0556/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1424970650)
The project proposes a main volume of 20 x 2.5m and 6m in height, that achieves the desired intimacy, while establishing a formal dialogue with the surrounding elements. A big, yet light container emerges within the rest of the trucks in the parking lot. This main element configurates the image of EL CAMION: a wickerwork box that rises over the trucks, visible from the highway. The restaurant´s interior is organized through a sequence of enclosed smaller volumes, interspersed by voids: toilets, patio, an enclosed dining hall (yet to be built), patio, and kitchen.
![El Camion Restaurant / LLONA + ZAMORA Arquitectos + Fernando Mosquera - Table, Beam](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/31a6/28ba/0d0e/f000/055f/medium_jpg/stringio.jpg?1424970656)
The materiality distinguishes two systems. First, a system of reinforced masonry painted white for the smaller volumes. Second, a system of Guayaquil cane for the container volume. The box rises up to 6 meters, using the maximum length allowed by the cane. The structure is solved though porches braced by canes in its surrounding, and steel tensors in the interior and roof; all of these bracings are located in the upper section of the space—a table-like structure. The joints between canes, columns, beams, and bracings are made with bolts and fasteners. Moreover, rigidity in the knots is assured by infiltrating concrete in the canes.
![El Camion Restaurant / LLONA + ZAMORA Arquitectos + Fernando Mosquera - Beam, Steel](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/3187/28ba/0d0e/f000/0559/medium_jpg/stringio.jpg?1424970660)
After the structural armature, a series guides for the wickerwork are placed with a cane of lesser width. The alternated horizontal displacement of the wickerwork produces a lattice that allows for glimpses of both the interior and exterior of the dining hall.
![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/31b7/28ba/0d0e/f000/0563/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1424970699)