Rue De Berne
Type Hospitality – Restaurant
Client private
Location Geneva, Switzerland
Photos by AUTHOS
Designing a strong identity restaurant within a very low budget is not an easy task to achieve.
Located in the city center of Geneva, in Switzerland, the location is divided into two main rooms linked by a corridor. The space was in a very poor condition and the was no money to restore the walls or the floor.
AUTHOS architecture and hospitality studio was commissioned to create a concept and design a project that would fit the clients needs. Three materials were selected to build : iron bars, natural stone and delicate fabric.
Stone, Fabric, and Metallic Bars into Architecture and Hospitality
Every plane surface was designed in stone. To ensure the quality, Authos select the blocks out of which the furniture is made personal in the carry. The table tops and the bar showcase delicate veins of fossilised shells.
Benches were designed to accommodate the restaurant’s guest. Bespoke fabric was chosen to display a harmony between the different materials.
A kitchen directly facing the dinning
The dining area faces the bar. Strange green plants -who look like salads!- add a warm feeling of belonging.
The kitchen is distributed to be an efficient working space with everything at hand: the prep faces the clients to create an interaction. Guests and staff are at the same level without barrier.
A Smiling Identity
Not only the designed and the concept were created by Authos, but they also created an identity according to the mood: having in mind that everyone needs to smile now and then a weird dinosaure was chosen as the mascot of this low budget restaurant in Geneva.
The name “L’instant”, literally the instant, was transformed to become this funny dinosaure who welcomes every guest in the toilets and on the menu.
One Color and Details
Yellow is a soft and warm color. Discreet, it allows to emphasize the work of the detail, omnipresent in each design.
We can thus appreciate the stone in all its states, both massive and all in smoothness, marrying the forms of the steel structure. Pushing the attention to detail even further, the industrial lighting fixtures have been specially designed for the restaurant to complete its singular atmosphere. Nothing is left to chance.
Strait Lines to keep the Low Budget!
The challenge was to build the restaurant giving it a strong identity, a feeling of intimacy but maximising the tables and seating.
Raw interconnecting iron bars hold the huge main table who can accommodate up to 10 guests. Along the wall 2 people tables provide intimacy thanks to the soft adjoint benches.
The rawness of the stone and metal is softened by the warm color chosen to cover the walls and ceiling.
Special lamps were select to enhance the warmth and project a cosy light.
A huge shelf was placed in the dinning area to optimise storage and display pickles !
Toilets Designed to Surprise You!
When it comes to design, toilets it can be very boring…
Breaking with hospitality standards and architectural perception, Authos decided to give a very metallic feeling to the toilets! The aim here is that when you have washed your hands, you come back to the table and tell your friends “go to the toilets, it’s amazing!” This drastically different ambiance borrows the metallic identity of the iron bars to multiply it all over! The toilets itself are 100% purple painted and adored with worksite lamps. This strategy ensure a weird feeling of intimacy and impacts all the guests!
Delicately industral!
Noble and industrial materials meet in a delicate way to propose an interior that is both chic and casual. Steel tubes, arranged in scaffolding, host thin stone slabs creating a diversity of furniture ranging from simple shelves to bar counters. Each element that makes up the atmosphere has been thought out and made to measure in order to offer a tailor-made experience to users. The duo tables offer a moment of intimacy while the high table emphasizes sharing. The height of the bar counter has been specially designed to emphasize the proximity of the chef/consumer in the manner of an Omakase.