Retail / Product and Interior Design
SANTO PALATO. Contemporary Trattoria in Roma.
INTRO
For Santo Palato, the vital starting point was the meeting with the chef and owner, Sarah Cicolini. With her we establish a long, proficient discourse about food, design and how their interconnection can bring unexpected results from many points of view. Our approach started from two considerations: a restaurant already existed, and its model was, without a doubt, the trattoria. But in this case it was a contemporary trattoria, which put us in front of a very specific issue.
As a start we have confronted the model of the trattoria in its two approaches: the historic trattoria and the contemporary trattoria. We paired each item of the diagram with a critical analysis, selecting what we thought was interesting to maintain but also what deserved a stylistic or functional update.
GENIUS LOCI
Regarding the formal language we started with an archipelago of different elements, to finally land in the definition of an alphabet of signs, shapes and colors. Our starting point was a white empty canvas, without traces on it: a rather exceptional condition in this city and in Italy. Not having any reference of the former indoor space we took as a Genius Loci the outdoor space of the neighborhood and of the urban fabric.
The formal language for the new Santo Palato then establishes a dialogue with the city, and sets up an informal debate with Rome’s layers and fragments.
As per the façade, we made a typological research of some Italian historic trattoria in Rome, Milan, Bologna and of some hidden countryside jewels, where the original frames and shop signs were still intact. Despite the differences of dimensions, colors and materials there is a logic reconnecting them. The design of Santo Palato’s façade respects this logic but combines them with contemporary features: a neon sign, wooden frames with rhythmical partitions and a slatted wooden strip to mark the ground joint, an airlock acting as an indoor-outdoor filter. We chose fully transparent and openable glasses to maximize the interaction with the city and the same time to control the general comfort and energy savings.
DESIGN
The dining room is furnished with tables, chairs and boiserie of walnut wood, an indigenous plant with an warm and intense nuance: the traditional wooden materiality of the trattoria stays in place but it is reinterpreted and fully re-designed. There are no high stools or upholstered sofas, which are more a reminiscence of the “bistrot” model: we chose to be radical not to lose the simple, essential atmosphere of the traditional trattoria. Tables have central legs to maximize the layout and facilitate the service flow. The bar counter, the dining room furniture and the wine counter are a stylistic “pastiche” made of fragments taken from the trattoria we have studied: basins of solid travertine that reference the typical wine fountains of the 50’s taverns, shelves in wood and metal, sideboards in grey briarwood recalling the dish cabinets. This furniture fits vital features of the dining room: the wine pouring, the bread cutting, the coffee making.
The walls are populated by linear wooden hangers, and are covered in tales: the typical scattered frames of the traditional trattoria become in our project continuous stripes of big regular frames, illustrating some founding moments of the history of Santo Palato. Published events, iconic dishes pictures, statement t-shirts that dressed the staff, as well as the friends and fans of the trattoria are displayed.
The soft colors of the dining room work together with the bright colors of the open kitchen, whose linear glazed partition connects the two spaces and establishes a continuous dialogue in between the guests and the hosts. A contemporary choice (in the traditional trattoria the kitchen is always concealed) essential to foster the relation in between who welcomes and who is welcomed, who hosts and who is hosted.
As one crosses the ground floor dining room and goes down the stairs at the end of it, one is driven by a decise change of colors to the “Santa Cantina”: a hybrid space thought as a shared and welcoming workshop where to host and research transdisciplinary contaminations. The “Santa Cantina” is a more intimate and warm space, a meeting point for informal tasting, private events and joint ventures of producers and experts of the culinary and wine world.
All the surfaces are embraced in a warm terracotta tone: it evokes the nuance of the ancient Roman wine amphorae, which used to arrive in the city by boats upstreaming the Tiber river. The canteen volume, made of glass and vivid red metal works in relation with three functional elements: a “Very Simple Kitchen” which can be used as a workstation for the tasting events, a big convivial wooden table and a stepped sitting piece with side-tables for informal tasting.
The lighting of the new Santo Palato is designed as a scenography system made of tracks with pivotable spotlights, wall lamps for a wall washing effect and suspension lamps for the tables. The decorative lamps are part of an unpublished collection composed by: single and multiple suspension lamp, wall lamp and table lamp. These pieces are inspired by the traditional metal lampshades of the historic trattoria, and thus they feature a body in spun natural aluminum, a variable section and pearl grey cord with tape.
/ ’nɛs:i / Naessi / ¹ Santo Palato Roma / ² Sarah Cicolini / ³ food / ³ hospitality / ⁴ wood / ⁴ natural finish / ⁵ Eller Studio, Serena Eller / ⁵ Andrea Di Lorenzo / ⁷ trattoria / ⁷ contemporary trattoria / ⁷ restaurants / ⁷ interior design / ⁷ product design / ⁹ concept design
¹ Project name
² Client
³ Category
⁴ Details
⁵ Photographers
⁶ Collaborators / partners
⁷ Keywords
⁸ Exhibitions and events
⁹ Related sounds
¹⁰ Other links