Hospitality Design - August 2011 - 39

sketchbook

perspectives

HOME COOKING
In multicultural Malaysia, house styles—like cooking styles—are diverse, but all have one thing in common: the kitchen is the heart of the home. This idea is at the core of the design concept for Makan Kitchen, a new restaurant in the Doubletree Kuala Lumpur that offers a cohesive blend of Malaysia’s most popular cuisines. Developed by Blue Plate, a standalone Photo by Christopher Cypert studio offering specialized restaurant design solutions within Wilson Associates, the restaurant provides an authentic sense of context through three interactive dining experiences in settings that reﬂect both the well-known Malay, Chinese, and Indian as well as the exotic Kristang, Nonya, and Iban cuisines. “The point of departure was a celebration of all foods Malaysian,” says Dan Kwan, senior vice president and managing director at Wilson Associates. The design, he says, also included “a nod to all of the mothers in Malaysia.” The result is a series of rooms that feel like “‘mums’ kitchens,” says the designer, each reﬂecting the diversity of architecture, “races, creeds, and yummy foods” of this unique part of Asia. Working with Jean Luc Fourier, senior vice president of food and beverage concepts for Hilton International, the design team introduced a thoughtful mix of Asian design elements, like lighting inspired by Chinese lanterns, screens that echo traditional Iban tribal tattoos, and colorful rustic doors typical in Malay Kampong village shops, merging them with clean lines and contemporary touches that unify the multi-faceted ambience. “The Nyona and Iban kitchens are the ﬁrst-ever purposeddesigned kitchens in any all-day dining space in the country,” says Kwan, who lived for several years in Kuala Lumpur. “Rather than creating another generic three-meal buffet restaurant, adding a sense of place helps connect guests to the real pulse of the country.”

up and away
LAX is the latest airport to up the ante on its F&B offerings, both in terms of design and food. HMS Host has tapped Amsterdam-based UXUS to redesign the food plaza in terminal 4. “The turn we took for LAX was from the very healthy-minded food from West LA, all the way to East LA, where you will of course nd the famous taco trucks,” explains Oliver Michell, UXUS’ partner, creative director, and architect. Laid out like a microcosm of the LA food scene, there’s an eclectic mix of restaurants: West LA’s La Provence Patisserie and Café, Miracle Mile’s Campanile restaurant, West Hollywood’s organic Real Food Daily and 8oz Burger Bar, Downtown’s Varnish at Cole’s, and an actual food truck, which will rotate cuisines on a monthly basis. For the design, the team at UXUS is infusing the spaces with materials such as recycled aluminum surfaces, reclaimed lumber, pressed tin, and weathered leather banquettes. Pops of red, black and white ceramic mosaic ooring, subway wall tiles, and vintage lighting will be set against an “outdoor” seating patio with a tall exposed ceiling and LED-festooned lamps. And for real LA avor, a oor mosaic will feature the names of the various famous boulevards throughout the city, and murals by local artists will hang throughout. “The space will be divided into two sides,” says Michell, explaining that the biggest challenge was trying to t all the different venues together in one area. “On the West LA side we will have the Campanile, one of LA’s famous restaurants, which has a certain Mediterranean look and feel to it. Then as you walk to the right, the East LA side or ‘Downtown’ side will be the more raw and casual space that reminds you more of the central market in LA.”

brew master
La Birreria, the sixth and last restaurant to open in Eataly, Mario Batali’s massive eating complex in New York, wasn’t a traditional restaurant project for TPG Architecture. Situated on the 14th and 15th oors (15 being the rooftop), the series of spaces reserved for the restaurant were awkwardly cobbled together, with no real processional from one to another. “It was a pitched tar roof, not even a oor or deck,” explains Alec Zaballero, TPG’s design principal. “We were starting from not even zero. It was a phenomenal opportunity; the space had nothing but potential.” (New York-based TPG designed Eataly as well, in collaboration with Lisa Eaton.) When the elevators open on 14, guests enter a common lobby. To the left is the entrance to La Birreria, double glass doors with lit sidelights, which open to the restaurant’s lobby done in black beadboard wainscoting, mesquite end grain oors, and custom lighting. To the right, black stairs with Italian words written in yellow and red on the risers lead to the roof where the design team created a roof deck, complete with a working craft microbrewery (Birreria means brewery in Italian) and metal framing that supports its retractable enclosure. Whereas the downstairs of Eataly has a decidedly retail feel, the 150-seat www.hospitalitydesign.com

La Birreria has a rustic feel, that of a 1920s industrial brewery, with brass drum cymbal-inspired pendant light xtures and copper-clad brewing vats set against black subway tiling. The bar is an expanse of white Carrara marble, tables are done in salvaged wood, and color comes in the form of red dining chairs. “We knew this was never going to be a jewel box of a space, but maybe it doesn’t want to be, so we allowed the industrial aesthetic to be the driving force,” explains Zaballero. “It’s like you found this brewery that had been sitting on top of this building in New York since the 1920s and ’30s.”
August 2011

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - August 2011
