Project: Rocco Cantabria
Architects: ARQMOV Workshop
Principal architects: Fabio Correa Martínez, Eduardo Micha Mizrahi, Gabriel Merino
Design team: Patricia Pérez, Christian Rodriguez Santa Ana, Oscar Osorio Santos, Maricruz Pérez Mendoza, Daniel Miranda Rendon
Engineering: Martín Corral
Location: Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Project size: 445 m2
Completion date 2018
Photo Credits: Rafael Gamo
Text and photos: Courtesy of ARQMOV Workshop
The project is located in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. It is a city that borders Texas, United States; and therefore has characteristics typical of a border city. The inhabitants of both sides, live in the “twin cities” as one, where two cultures are syncretized.
Rocco Cantabria had to be a restaurant – bar that could not be classified into a particular style, as well as feel like a standardized space. As a design premise, we started with the idea of a restaurant & bar space; warm, elegant, but not pretentious or exuberant; where each corner has been made to measure, highlighting the particularities of the interior.
The space available to work in interior design was a double-height box of glass with a concrete waffle slab and columns. A stripped area, modern and in which we should maintain the attractiveness of the views towards the outside, but protecting the interior from the direct incidence of sunlight.
The Kitchen and restrooms areas couldn’t be rearranged because of the exhaust pipes that were fixed, and it gave us a limited design area for the dinners The service support area was concentrated on a 95 m2 mezzanine. The outdoor space with 84.66 m2 has a capacity for 32 people, while the interior has 273.44 m2 and houses 104 people.
Returning to the idea of elegance, but without falling into ostentation, we resorted to working with particular elements reminiscent of Art Deco’s decorative style. Examples of this are the logo printed on glass in the bar, the curved and polished black granite surfaces of the bar and staircase, the geometry of lines of the floors, the treatment of the ceiling from chromium-plated elements of copper, etc… This relationship between the modern/industrial expression of exposed concrete and the details that allude to another time is attenuated by the use of wood as a symbol of neutrality and as the main raw material in the interior. As for the color, a neutral palette was used that makes the place an elegant and sober interior.
To create different areas within a free floor, we used some furniture as part of the architecture itself, allowing us to create small cozy spaces. All the materials and textures utilized in the interior design, conclude in a pleasant place that seeks to delight us with Mexican cuisine.
Concerning to lighting, two different experiences are lived; during the day natural light passes through the glass of the facade and contrasts with the effect achieved once the sun goes down. At night we have warm, soft, and subtle LED lighting to set scenes of meeting and comfort. Some elements, such as the bar, are accentuated with a guiding light that accompanies its travel both in the ceiling and in the base.
Rocco Cantabria provokes in users a unique spatial experience, in a place with different environments. Although we created a unified environment, it is possible to live it and use it in many ways.
