fucina
London
We are very proud to have been awarded BEST LONDON RESTAURANT and BEST UK RESTAURANT at the 2017 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards for fucina!
A huge thanks goes out the all our team at AMA and sister company Superfutures, our amazing client Kurt Zdesar and the team at NZR, Bridport interiors for their superb delivery and passion for the project, and all the consultant and construction team members - the list is long but you know who you are!
The design won the award but if you haven't been down for a meal yet, there's no excuse as the wonderful food will also impress!
About the project:
‘Organic produce, sustainably sourced and prepared honestly using Italian artisanal techniques’
The aim was to invent a spatial experience that mirrored the brief architecturally. Using the space to envoke a visual memory of Italian taste, a contemporary reinterpretation of these memories. The space is sculpted to stimulate, the forms are organic, the materials raw and refined, a reflection of the food offer.
The ceiling is handmade ‘antico mattoni’, formed and warped like the inside of a traditional pizza oven. This sets a visually dynamic atmosphere in this raw and inspiring restaurant.
Location within a typical London urban environment, the restaurant interior is a haven, with softened edges and wondering lines. The street is obscured by a handmade coloured glass and steel floor-to-ceiling screens. Floors are hand-laid marble chips set into traditional ‘terrazzo cemento’ borders, reminiscent of Carlo Scarpa’s Olivetti showroom in Venice. A hand ‘decaped’ timber floor finish sits adajcent to the terrazzo and flows throughout the restaurant.
Along with brick, marble and timber, burnt steel is dominant and relates back to the restaurants name ‘Fucina’, meaning Forge. Traditionally, the forge in Italy not only related to what we know as a fire to heat metal, but also as the traditional kitchen fire for cooking. This has strong connections with the artisan process of making. The open fire pit kitchen in the lower ground floor looks through to the chef’s table, with its bubbling steel wall panels and rough brick flooring.
The restaurant is made up of 110 dining covers seated on low-backed bespoke banquettes and arm chairs on the ground floor served by a carved solid marble finishing kitchen.
The furniture takes inspiration from the tree, its branches, its roots. The large tables grow from the floor and the chairs are fabricated from refined and machined branches. These elements that we are in contact with, connect us back with the source, our beginning, to enjoy the perfect dining experience.
