Olivomare

OLIVOMARE is the last born belonging to the well known London brand OLIVO and is a restaurant serving seafood. Apart from its 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, 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 jellyfishes or 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 smaller mobile and fixed ones, 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, 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, which allows the best possible visual integration of these two spaces.
Other important features of the main dining room are the upholstered white seat, entirely suspended on stainless steel brackets, and the Corian made bar counter, on the side of which nine large holes hold a stock of cutlery. Besides the bar area is the opening of the staircase leading to the kitchen, located in the basement.

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 is characterized by a wavy relief meant to evoke the sandy surface of the beach. On one of the few smooth walls of this room, a flush door opens on the cloakroom, where the intricate branches of a coral reef close-in around any visitor coming from the bright and open adjacent room.

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.