IT
The “Macello” restaurant located in the Ponte Milvio area, on the ancient Via Flaminia, was built with an extension of a new architectural volume in the shape of a “Tower”. The intervention stems from the design synergy between Arch. Alessandro Ridolfi, President of the Order of Architects of Rome and Province and Director of the Z14 Design Studio, and Nos Design. The inclusion in the urban landscape has generated a new skyline, giving the neighborhood a contemporary imprint. Old and new merged together to generate an unexpected spatial dimension. The added turret evokes the ancient medieval watchtowers placed on the consular roads. Its vertical development, its “X-lam” wooden structure, by the well-known Rubner company, its large crystal windows, its corten steel cladding, in addition to volumetrically and functionally connecting the farmhouse, generates a structure permeable to the landscape, creating a constant interaction between inside and outside. Its inclination towards Via Flaminia, with the corner emptied, makes the project an architectural signal for the neighborhood and a new place to meet. The insertion of the tower in the surroundings also comes to life thanks to a lighting project, in collaboration with Pianeta Ufficio which was designed to enhance its clear and decisive shapes through the use of thin LED strips that define the horizontal planes. The small bronze and silver luminous signs, placed at street level, accompany guests along the access route.The new architectural complex of which the Tower constitutes the hinge, includes both on the ground floor and on the first floor an area dedicated to catering with an adjoining lounge area, and a service area within which, on both floors, there are both the kitchen and the bathrooms. La Torretta houses a grill area with open kitchen on the ground floor, a dining room on the first floor and an office on the second floor. The outdoor spaces have been redeveloped with the design of “green walls” and horizontal planters, giving life to different environments including an area where you can eat and an area dedicated to street food. The intimate terrace on the first floor qualifies a resulting space through the installation of a wall of water on corten slabs. The exaltation of the ancient/contemporary contrast is reproposed in the use of materials and finishes that are only apparently in opposition: industrial style for the furnishing of the restaurant and street food areas, combined with traditional materials such as wood, for the counter and for the furnishings fixed. The very structure of the “X-lam” wooden tower was deliberately left exposed. The interior walls of the restaurant room alternate gray and ocher yellow enameled strips, in a “hiding and postponing” between bottle racks and tables, wall lamps and suspensions with adjustable arms, which, swinging, seem to collide on the imposing counter.
The end result is a warm, intimate and welcoming environment that invites guests to linger. The corten steel cladding of the Torretta is combined with the yellow ocher plaster, signaling the new extension from the rest of the pre-existing building. The warm colors of the floor spread like an elegant carpet over the entire area, and then transform into colder colors with a strong character near the interior spaces, both in stoneware by the Kronos Company.
Pearl-colored diamond-shaped ceramics cover the grill area, while hand-painted Bardelli glazed ceramics appear in various areas of the toilets. All the service areas have been studied in their functional and aesthetic design, choosing innovative covering materials and with fun decorations and shapes, so as to create a stimulating environment for the creation of food. On the website of the Macello restaurant you can find other evocative images of the areas dedicated to guests and the dishes on offer.
