OLIVOMARE Restaurant - London

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT:
"OLIVOMARE" is the last born belonging to the well known London brand OLIVO - by now an important presence in the aristocratic neighbourhood of Belgravia - and is a restaurant serving seafood. Apart from his name, such peculiarity is highlighted by the formal and decorative language adopted here to focus on its aspect using more or less clear references to the sea world and environment.
The most explicit among them undoubtedly is the wide wall that characterizes the main dining room, entirely covered by a large cladding featuring a pattern inspired by the works of the visionary artist Maurits Escher, in which each single portion of colour is laser cut out of a sheet of opaque laminated plastic and then juxtaposed on the vertical surface exactly as if it was a huge jigsaw puzzle. To counterpoint it, in this same room, from a channelling recessed in the fake ceiling, drops down a linear sequence of tubular luminescent ?tentacles?, spirals and twists of tubular nylon mesh evoking a stray shoal of jellyfishes or of sea anemones , while someone could vaguely recognize the meshes of fishers? nets in the wide lozengy glazed partition dividing this room from the entrance lobby. With regard to this space it should be said that it allows to access both the restaurant and the upper floors, and this through a huge panel split into mobile and fix sub-modules, integrating the necessary doors and taking up the colour scheme of the decorated cladding in the main dining room. In order to make appear this last one wider than it really is, the partition wall existing between it and the entrance lobby has been knocked down and replaced by a full height glazed partition supported by a rather thin frame (yet perfectly fire and smoke proof), which allows the best possible visual integration of these two spaces.
Other important features of the main dining room ? apart from the tables and the chairs ? are the upholstered white seat, entirely suspended and supported by stainless steel brackets, and the Corian made bar counter, on the side of which nine large holes hold a stock of cutlery, while a pendant supplies the light needed by its working top.
Besides the bar area is the opening of the staircase leading to the kitchen, located in the basement. In some alcoves next to it have been located some cabinets containing whatever waiters might need for their service.
The floor of the whole premises is made of just a simple flow of industrial white opaque resin, while the skirting ? when not joined to vertical surfaces through a rising curve ? is an ?L? shaped aluminium profile recessed along each wall and step of staircase.
In the small dining room at the rear (flooded by natural daylight copiously dropping down through a wide skylight expressly open in its roof), the cladding of its only continuous wall ? which also includes a large curve ? is characterized by a wavy relief meant to evoke the sandy surface of the beach when moulded by the wind. This surface has been finished with a special paint performing a ?peach skin? effect. In order to emphasize the sculptural quality of such mouldings, a continuous linear light has been recessed into a perimetrical gap of the ceiling.
On one of the few smooth walls of this room, a flush door opens on the cloackroom (toilets lobby), where the intricate branches of a coral reef close-in around any visitor coming from the bright and open adjacent room. Such decorative pattern is obtained by engraving a double layer (white and red) of thick opaque laminated plastic glued onto either walls and ceiling, and its entanglement - when combined with the ?hidden? doors giving access to the toilets - adds a sense of momentary disorientation to its aesthetical surprise.
Inside the toilets a wide frameless mirror panel, fixed at some distance from the wall, stands above the Corian made sinks and the taps, hiding soap dispensers and electric handryers.
A sea of white colour has been used to enhance and link all these elements together, flooding all surrounding parts, from walls to ceiling, from the resin floor to the Corian made bar counter; a white sea working in this environment as an undifferentiated neutral background that intentionally disappoints any predictable expectation for blue colour.
The shopfront has been redesigned in order to match the existing one at the adjacent premises ? where the delicatessen shop Olivino, that complements the restaurant, is located ? and it has been painted aubergine colour, so that it can hold a dialogue either with the grey ?pietra serena? slabs of the external pavement and with the colour scheme of the interiors? decoration.

STATEMENT OF INTENT:
My aim was to design a contemporary interior, yet referring to the op-art. I wanted it to talk about the sea world to customers, but I wanted it to do it with a fresh and updated language. I wanted to stay cool and ironic, sophisticated yet simple.
My strongest effort was to make these premises look larger than they actually are.
I wanted my client to have a new restaurant in which his customers could feel a connection with his two other ones I previously designed for him and with the delikatessen shop next door; a fish restaurant not ?smelling? fish but ?tasting? it, an appealing yet relaxing interior.

Born in Cagliari( Sardinia,Italy), he eventually moved away from there to pursue his studies at the University of Architecture in Florence, in which city he lived until 1989. Here, apart from collaborating on various professional projects, he establishes and carries out - between 1982 and 1985 ? the design practice and production company ?Atelier Proconsolo?, under the auspices of which he participates in various exhibitions and trade fairs, both in Italy and abroad. Since 1985 he works as an associate consultant (for Product and Interiors Design) at the firm ACME Consultants (Association pour la Cr?ation et les M?thodes d?Evolution), based in Paris, taking part in the development of products for firms such as Gaz de France, Essilor (a leader in the world of spectacles), Fiat-Iveco and Paris Airports, amongst others. In 1990 there followed a collaboration with the Belgian architect Pierre Lallemand, at his architectural practice ?Art & Build? in Bruxelles. In the course of 1991 he carried out, under his own auspices, his first assignments in England, before returning to Cagliari , his birthplace, where he opened his own office and began working in the field of interior design and architecture. In 1995 he undertook a new project in London. Then, from 1996 until 1998, he was back in Bruxelles, where he had been summoned by the architect Steven Beckers to collaborate on a project for the reconstruction and refurbishment of the Berlaymont Palace, the historic seat of the Council of Ministers of the European Community, and so undertook - working together with a specially formed international equipe - the supervision and coordination of the aesthetic and formal language for the interior design of the entire building, the construction of which was recently completed. In 2006/2007 he carried out the design of two new commercial projects in London. On November 2007 he was in Moscow where he gave a lecture about ?Innovation in public spaces interiors?. Mainly based and working in Cagliari, he continues his professional career most particularly in the fields of private residences and of commercial space as well as working on overseas projects. His designs and works have been reported on in several specialist books in Italy, England, Japan, Spain, Germany and the United States and in some of the most important national and international trade magazines.