BRAVE DESIGN

Breaking away from the paradigms of what a traditional pizza restaurant should be, Colombian design studio Cruz de la Pava experimented with a design of curved lines and warm textures in Ibagué, Tolima.

This is a pizzeria whose gastronomic offer, as well as its design, are completely unconventional. “The client’s needs —a gourmet passionate about good food— were very clear: to create a calm space with a twist of contemporary design,” says Camilo Cruz, co-designer of the project along with his partner, architect Felipe de la Pava.

In addition to aiming for innovative interior design, the spatial requirement played a key role within the project. “It is a small space with a polygonal shape. A façade with a terrace, which we took advantage of to create a dynamic inside this polygon where everything revolves around this unusual form within classical architecture,” adds the studio. “Although the areas are somewhat sectioned, we sought to convey through the furniture and objects a concept of cosmocenter: an order based on things rather than space itself,” they add.

Being mostly an open space, everything had to be functionally ordered within the architectural composition. “We wanted to break away from the rigidity of traditional dynamics in a restaurant regarding design objects,” says Camilo Cruz. For this reason, elements like the sink, the pizza and bread kneading table, and the ingredient bar are exposed. In the same way, this familiar and somewhat relaxed functionality contrasts sharply with glamorous touches provided by materials such as bronze mirrors, curved furniture, walnut wood slatted paneling, velvet wallpaper, and the sandy texture coating on the walls. This eclecticism, fluctuating between familiar and eccentric, is a hallmark of this Bogotá-based design studio.

Typology: Hospitality

Location: Ibagué, Colombia.