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Restaurants: The Latest Architecture and News

Distinctive Restaurants: 5 Refurbished Dining Spaces

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Renovating a space for a gastronomic purpose can be one of the most interesting challenges for an architect, due to the freedom of design that tends to characterize these projects. It allows us to play with cladding materials, lighting, and furnishings to create unique spaces that are both attractive and functional for both the restaurant team and the diners.

We dived into our project library to select 5 restaurants that took advantage of their renovations and complexities to create distinctive spaces, presented by ICEX e Interiors from Spain.

Ross Barney Architects' CLT Design for McDonald's Expands the Possibilities of Timber Construction

Ross Barney Architects' CLT Design for McDonald's Expands the Possibilities of Timber Construction - Image 1 of 4
© Kendall McCaugherty, Hall+Merrick Photographers

In an effort to reinvent an iconic American fast-food brand, McDonald’s U.S. has announced a new direction for the corporation, beginning with rethinking the restaurant’s current archetypal design both in its interior eating spaces and exterior urban landscape. A primary example of this commitment can be seen in the recently completed design for McDonald’s Global Flagship in Chicago by Ross Barney Architects.

The structure, which fills an entire city block in the heart of Chicago, was envisioned as a hallmark example of both the architect and the corporation's shared commitment to environmentally sustainable design. Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), an essential material for the project, replaced many of the commonly-used building materials such as steel, concrete, and plastics that have a larger environmental footprint.

In Southern California, Outdoor Dining Changes the Hospitality Landscape

"The explosion of outdoor dining is both a survival tool for restaurants and a welcome cultural shift that may be here to stay", states Jessica Ritz, in her article originally published on Metropolis. In fact, the author explores hospitality trends that have emerged during the pandemic in California, mainly outdoor dining, and that are likely to last or be present for a long time.

Xiang Restaurant / PERSIMMON HILLS architects

Xiang Restaurant  / PERSIMMON HILLS architects - Interior Photography, Restaurant & Bar Interiors, Kitchen, Arch, Table, ChairXiang Restaurant  / PERSIMMON HILLS architects - Interior Photography, Restaurant & Bar Interiors, Arch, Table, ChairXiang Restaurant  / PERSIMMON HILLS architects - Interior Photography, Restaurant & Bar Interiors, Arch, ColumnXiang Restaurant  / PERSIMMON HILLS architects - Interior Photography, Restaurant & Bar Interiors, Door, Facade, Arch, ColumnXiang Restaurant  / PERSIMMON HILLS architects - More Images+ 9

ISSEI Restaurant / Studio Kota

ISSEI Restaurant / Studio Kota - Interior Photography, Restaurant & Bar Interiors, Table, ChairISSEI Restaurant / Studio Kota - Interior Photography, Restaurant & Bar Interiors, Stairs, Handrail, LightingISSEI Restaurant / Studio Kota - Interior Photography, Restaurant & Bar Interiors, Arch, Lighting, ChairISSEI Restaurant / Studio Kota - Interior Photography, Restaurant & Bar Interiors, Facade, BeamISSEI Restaurant / Studio Kota - More Images+ 10

  • Architects: Studio Kota
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  200
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2021
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Bogamas, Class International, Dulux

Winners of the 2020 Prix Versailles Announced

The annual Prix Versailles awards, created in 2015 to promote a better interaction between the cultural and the economic, announced the 2020 world winners celebrating 24 projects in the categories of Airports, Campuses, Passenger Stations, Sports, Shops & Stores, Shopping Malls, Hotels, and Restaurants.

New York's Open Restaurants Program for Outside Dining to Be Made Permanent

Part of New York’s Recovery Agenda, to keep the city safe and healthy, the Open Restaurants program established in June of this year was extended year-round, to be made permanent. In fact, Mayor de Blasio has allowed restaurants to use heating and enclosures, and expand seating to adjacent properties with neighbors’ consent. This extension will also apply to Open Streets: Restaurants, “which currently offers restaurants expanded space on 85 car-free streets citywide on certain days”.

7 Design Guidelines for a Safe Post COVID-19 Transition

In order to ensure a proper transition into post COVID-19, architects, public health experts, and engineers are generating design guidelines to provide people with new secure, and efficient resources. Finding a balance between optimizing operations and keeping people safe, the strategies tackle the built environment that surrounds us, from restaurants and outdoor dining, to streets, offices, and retail.

Addressed to city officials, owners, and employers, the tools developed help to reopen the world, while reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission, promoting social distancing standards, and enhancing wellbeing. Discover in this article a roundup of design guidelines securing a safe post coronavirus transition.

Rockwell Group Releases Design Strategies for Outside Dining post COVID-19

David Rockwell and his team at Rockwell Group proposed an open streets initiative, a template for outdoor dining, in order to help bars and restaurants reopen post-pandemic. The design strategies illustrate practical solutions to make everyone feel safe.

Serres Séparées Proposes a Socially-Distant Dining Experience in Amsterdam

Renovated recently, Mediamatic ETEN, the restaurant of the Art Center Mediamatic in Amsterdam, has created a new safe dining experience entitled Serres Séparées, taking into account required social distancing measures. Putting in place private and intimate “quarantine” greenhouses, or chambres séparées, people can reconnect and dine outside in a safe environment.

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MASS Releases Spatial Strategies for Restaurants in Response to COVID-19

MASS Design Group has released a guideline for restaurants in response to the coronavirus pandemic, to help these business reopen safely, viably, and vibrantly. Based on world health recommendations, the drafted protocols aim to keep both staff and customers safe, as well as facilitate operations.

Vilnius, the Capital of Lithuania, Opens its Public Spaces for Cafes, to Help with Physical Distancing

The Lithuanian capital Vilnius has decided to allocate its public spaces to bars and cafes, to encourage the reopening of restaurants under required physical distancing measures. Turning the outdoor space into one vast open-air café, the city is taking new safety measures to step into the next phase of the lockdown.

World Winners of 2019 Prix Versailles Awards Announced

The world winners of the Prix Versailles 2019 were announced at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, celebrating 12 projects in the categories of Shops & Stores, Shopping Malls, Hotels and Restaurants.

The world jury was composed of David Adjaye, Kazuyo Sejima, Francesco Bandarin, Iris Van Herpen, Philippe Starck, Alondra de la Parra, Ferran Adiá and Thomas Vonier. Read on to see the selected projects.

Snøhetta Completes Europe’s First Underwater Restaurant

Snøhetta has announced the completion of Europe’s first underwater restaurant. Situated in Lindesness, on the southernmost point of the Norwegian coastline, the “Under” scheme serves as both a restaurant and a research center for marine life. Open to the public on March 20th, the half-sunken scheme forms a 34-meter-long monolithic break in the surface of the water, before resting on the seabed five meters below.

Situated at a point where sea storms from the north and south meet, and where marine species flourish in both briny and brackish waters, the Snøhetta scheme places itself at a unique confluence. Designed to fully integrate its marine environment over time, the scheme’s rough concrete shell will gradually transform into an artificial reef.

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Fast Food Slowed Down: What's Behind the All the Redesigns - and Is It Enough?

Some restaurants don’t need a review to get attention. You might know them for their longevity, their presence, or even just their advertisements. But most importantly, whether it’s their grand luminous logo, or the building’s prominent architecture and color palette, these franchises are more or less the same (the menu, the music, the interior design…), wherever you are, be it London, Lima, or Lahore.

Recently, however, a few of these places have begun to shift away from the “architectural stamp” that they use in all their branches, hiring design firms to rebrand their restaurants - and by extension, their image. This bespoke approach can result in outposts that are atypically site-specific, understated, and individual. For users, it may be a point of curiosity; a reason to revisit what you think you already know. For the brand, it's an attempt to cater to evolving tastes (culinary and otherwise) without having to alter the core product.

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