Project: Simultaneo restaurant in Hotel Plaza
Interior Design: El Equipo Creativo
Partners: Oliver Franz Schmidt, Natali Canas del Pozo, Lucas Echeveste Lacy
Team: Daniel Trujillo, Mónica Daza, Paco Vargas, Rafaela Aranzaens, Yesica Peña
Architecture: ARQ Socis
Engineering: PGI Engineering
Construction: Martinez Otero
Lighting: MMaslighing
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Completed 2023
Photo Credits: Adria Goula
Courtesy of El Equipo Creativo
Brief & Concept
Strategically located in Barcelona’s vibrant Plaza de España, Hotel Plaza has embarked on an exciting transformation of its ground floor. The goal is to create a new Lobby, Bar and Restaurant that will become a gastronomic and cultural space open to the entire city.
Located at the base of the majestic Montjuic Mountain, the city’s largest urban park, the design of the new space aims to seamlessly blend Montjuic’s natural beauty and Mediterranean charm. To achieve this, the existing slope between the entrance and the rear restaurant area creates stepped platforms with organic shapes. These platforms invite guests to explore them, evoking the feeling of ascending the mountain in front.
Bar
The platforms create undulating paths around the new circular Bar, which becomes a node of centripetal energy, almost like a new roundabout that engages with Plaza de España.
With its prominent formal presence and visible position from the entrance, the Bar becomes the focal point that invites visitors to enter.
The materiality in this area seeks to recreate the ambience of a garden, with warm wooden ceilings resembling treetops. A natural and neutral colour palette accentuates the vibrant green of the ceramic Bar.
Lobby
The hotel’s reception is discreetly positioned on the initial access level yet remains peripheral. This area is designed with vibrant and artisanal ceramics composed of three-dimensional pieces specially crafted for the project. The aim is to establish a dialogue with the bar counter while capturing the freshness and greenery of Montjuic Park.
Restaurant
As we venture further into the project, we reach the top level, where we are greeted by a spacious area bathed in intense natural light, thanks to its new translucent greenhouse-like roof.
Underneath this radiant Mediterranean light, we have created a true garden within the city.
Large planters fill the space with greenery and freshness. Their organic shapes serve as benches, creating undulating pathways and even a small, elevated stage.
Through this careful arrangement, diverse areas and intimate corners are crafted for seating, each ideally suited for specific occasions or times of the day. This thoughtful configuration enables Simultaneo Restaurant to fulfil its functional requirements as a spacious and versatile gastronomic and cultural space where multiple activities can coexist throughout the day, from breakfast to evening cocktails, from business meetings and family gatherings to conferences and concerts.
