Argentina 2016 – Hitzig Militello Arquitectos designed the Tostado Café Club abstracting the wooden grocery box. The studio worked with the materiality and colours of an humble and simple object to create a contemporary and warm space that recalls Buenos Aires old shops.
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The Tostado Café Club is a corner coffee shop in the Recoleta district. Walking in, guests are welcomed by a rich display of bread, cookies and sandwiches. A volumetric structure made with wooden groceries boxes crowns over the counter runs along the whole room and circumscribes all spaces before leading to the basement.
Hitzig Militello Arquitectos combined light and dark monochromatism. The light-grey wooden piece hosts niches with same-coloured objects like vintage toasters, espresso-makers, pots and others kitchen utensils. Dark grey calcarean tiles cover the floors and the walls.
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“We started off from the idea of recreating the spirit of the traditional Buenos Aires groceries without resorting to cliches” say Leonardo Guido Militello and Fernando Hitzig to ArchiPanic. “The sheer simplicity of this single wooden box can generate spatiality both by addition and subtraction”.
A vertical garden at the stairs, furniture and lighting equipment mostly made in iron and wood add warmth and comfort to the space. In the basement the walls are covered in light grey wooden planks. The interior design combines upholstered and leather seats with more industrial designs.
“As a part of the project since the creation of the general concept of the brand, the architectonic search ubiquitously attempts a comprehensive reflection of the essence of the product. By abstracting a single wooden box we constructed the decoration without decorating the construction” added Leonardo Guido Militello and Fernando Hitzig.
Photos by Federico Kulekdjian – Courtesy of Hitzig Militello Arquitectos.
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