Restaurant Suco

Exterior view of the restaurant at night.

Project Details

• Project Name: Restaurant Suco
• Client: Harrison and Mc Intyre Ltd.
• Project Type: Architectural and Interior design
• Principal Designer: Maurizio Angelini, Sebastian Espinoza, Benjamin Oportot
• Design Team: 57STUDIO
• Date of commencement of project: December 2004
• Date of completion of project: May 2005
• Location of site: Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
• Site Area: 125 square metres
• Built-up Area: 75 square metres
• Cost of Construction/Execution: US $18,000

View of the awning system and metallic steps that not only articulate a spillover within the street, but also draw pedestrian attention to the cafe.

The Building

The brief required the remodeling of a small store, located in an anonymous double storeyed building in the midst of a consolidated area of services in Santiago, Chile, into 'Suco': a cafe specializing in the preparation of smoothies, sandwiches and soups.

View from the street into the interiors of the cafe.

Largely conserving the existing structure, a few critical changes were made to contribute to one final intention. A system of awnings was created to demarcate a spillover for the cafe into the chaotic vocabulary of the street. A pair of metallic stairs was used to further draw attention of the pedestrians into the interior of the cafe.

Interior view of the cafe, Right: The subtle color and material palette allows for impressive branding within the space.

The interiors are set in white to allow an automatic accentuation of the color of the meals and drinks as well as of the objects that contribute to the branding of the cafe. The restrooms are also realized in monotone - light blue for men and pink for women.

Left: The white fabric creates a serene backdrop to the zestful activities of the cafe, Right: View of the service counter in the cafe.

A back-lit fabric bathes the space in soft light whilst bringing it together into a single unit. The breaks in the fabric are simply exaggerated representations of the structural beams that are concealed by it.

Credits

• Text by Benjamin Oportot, Courtesy of the architect
• Photographs by Maurizio Angelini, Courtesy of the architect
• Compiled and edited by Varun Ajani