Beyond homes
Restaurant and retail space design
A place is not furnished: it is designed around the service. How many seats are really needed, how the staff moves between the kitchen and the dining room, where the counter ends, what those who enter through the door see. I followed the transfer of the Santa Monaca restaurant to its new location in Gallipoli, and this service was born from that work.
First the numbers, then the aesthetics
A beautiful place where people work poorly is a problem every day, at every service. We start from the truly accommodating seats, from the staff routes, from the position of the counter and kitchen passage, from the waiting spaces. Only then do you choose how it should appear, because those choices must coexist with the requirements on exits, toilets and accessibility.
The identity can be read in thirty seconds
Anyone who enters gets an idea of the place before reading the menu: from the colours, the materials, the light, the type of chair they sit on. The project serves to make that first impression coincide with the cuisine that then arrives at the table. A small room is not a limitation: if it has character, it becomes the reason why people book.
Inside and outside they have to talk to each other
In Salento the outdoors is the season. Dehors, platforms, umbrellas and external seats must be designed together with the room, not added later: same materials, same color idea, resistance to sun, salt and wind. A well-kept exterior is often the first contact with the customer who passes by on foot.
The construction site of a venue has its own times
We work backwards from the opening date, not forwards from the day work begins. This means deciding early, ordering furnishings well in advance and concentrating noisy work out of season. A delay which in a house is a nuisance, in a club is a lost season.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the state of the premises, but the real constraint is not the construction site: it is the delivery times of the custom-made furnishings, which can exceed two months. For a seasonal opening we think starting from the opening date and working backwards, putting the decisions that block orders first.
Almost always yes, and often more than one: it depends if the intended use changes, if facilities and toilets are touched, if public land is occupied with an outdoor area. I check the situation before drawing anything, because that determines what can really be done.
Partly. It is possible to work in batches, concentrating interventions on closing days or in the low season, but it must be taken into account that some processes require an empty room. It's a choice to make at the beginning, because it changes times and costs.
First step
Let's start with a site visit
Raccontami cosa hai in mente e discutiamone insieme: un primo sopralluogo è il modo migliore per capire come dare forma al tuo progetto.