Casa Amigos Restaurant by Paco Lago Interioriza

Project: Casa Amigos Restaurant
Architects: Paco Lago Interioriza
Team: Paco Lago, Toni Albaladejo, Alejandro Picatoste, Julia Naranjo, Elisabet Valenzuela, Ana Albarracín, Alba Urbano
Location: Málaga, Spain
Year 2019
Text and Photos: Courtesy of Paco Lago

How to create a restaurant where everything revolves around the bar? The owners of Casa Amigos had in mind a restaurant concept understood as an open space in which the client was the center of the experience and they wanted to transfer to the space the feeling of sharing a table with friends in your own home, where food is not what matter the most. A multipurpose space in which they had room from live music to a sponsored event or a wine tasting. A place where you can meet friends, in which eating good is another element in the Casa Amigos experience.

This business idea was a creative challenge when designing the space; The place had to strengthen and integrate the bar as a key element that articulated the discourse that the owners had in mind, who, coming from the world of nightlife, knew well the importance of the bar as a differentiating element in a place.

We propose different conceptual spaces that move the client through the social pathway inside a house (dining room, living room, living room and even terrace). That way the entire project had that homely and relaxed atmosphere that we were looking for. To get this, organic materials were considered when designing: fabrics, exposed brick, ceramics or wood, with Mediterranean colours that transmitted that feeling of home, a place to enjoy good food in a pleasant environment without the rigidity and conventions of a traditional restaurant.

Located in the Historic Center of Malaga, it is placed in one of the most traditional streets of the capital, next to a square without traffic. Designed as the first step of an expansion business, the Casa Amigos project started with the premise of having a tight budget and very tight construction times, so we had to refine the previous design and programming of the work to successfully carried out a project that we are very proud of.