I hope this past week has been wonderful for you and that you found a way to positively influence the lives of people around you!
This week has been quite busy and hectic for me as I am quickly, yet masterfully, am trying to complete my portfolio in order to start applying for some kick booty interior design internships this summer. It is quite stressful though... planning your future and growing up and things! Today, a girl in one of my classes, whom I hardly know, asked me if I just got done running. Apparently I didn't mask my lack of sleep or hygiene care well with my pre-wrap/ponytail/sweats combo today... fail! But despite this fail, I did get to go home for my little brother's basketball senior night and see a large portion of my extended family as well as see him dominate his last game at home.... soooo, this in itself trumps all fails:)
Needless to say, I welcome this weekend with a bottle of riesling wine I purchased at Trader Joes (their wine is so cheap and so good), a much needed "girls night' with longtime friends, and a beautiful, uninterrupted, peaceful sleep!
Anyway, as I digress, the design that sang to me this week happens to be in a place that is dear to my heart... Greece! I got the amazing opportunity during the summer of 2011 to go to Greece for a 3 week class. Greece as a whole is innovative design, just old innovation (oxymoron perhaps?) So many designs you see today derive from the architecture created in ancient Greece.
(picture of my awesome friends I met on the trip, me (with the white and black headband), the Parthenon behind us, and the sunset in front of us... awesomeness!)
But, my travels are beside the point... the design I have for you is located in the lovely Athens, the heart of Greece. What I loved about Greece was how the old architecture of the city has been more or less left alone, despite the ruins that can be found unattractive to some with an untrained eye. But, contradicting that, I have found an awesome restaurant that has brought a new and modern twist to design in Greece.
Behold, Capanna by K-Studio. Capanna is a pizzeria located in the Kolonaki district, found in the center of Athens.
This restaurant finds itself in a prime location on the corner of two streets, one which has been designated for pedestrians only. The front door is intriguing enough to lure me in (I'm obsessed with cool doors!)
When great weather finds it's way into the city, which is often, the floor to ceiling windows are able to slide up and extend the restaurant to the pavement outside.
The experience of eating outside was the inspiration that propelled this design. Since it is a pizzeria, the goal was to embody that of an Italian courtyard. To exemplify this, materials regularly found in such a courtyard were put into the space, such as cement tiles, stucco plaster, travertine stone, blackened steel railings, and characteristic narrow wooden shutters. These shutters are my favorite part of the design... take a look at the application of shutters throughout the space..
The design finds some aesthetically pleasing symmetry in the way the floor and wall (on the right in the picture below) are tied together through the terracotta motif tiles, as well as the wall and ceiling being tied together with the lining of shutters (on the left).
The rest of the features are quite minimalistic, such as the simple vintage chairs, cement tiled floors, and stucco plastered ceilings. I am also in love with the industrial styled pendants and the way they appear to defy gravity.
The combination of intentionally designed elements, reclaimed materials and vintage furniture and a new-to-location style of design has created an exciting and sociable atmosphere one would hardly forget!
I hope that this design is as exciting to you as it is to me! If not yet, I hope soon! Let me know if there is a type of design you would like to see, I'd love for some suggestions!
As I leave you with this design, I also want to challenge you this coming week to not stress, as I have expertly done these past 7 days. I am now taking a step back from everything and finding comfort in the fact that it isn't up to me and my timing and my plans for the future and I urge you to do the same! Relax and enjoy what has been given to you today!
(check out Luke 1:5-14)
Have a happy happy week everybody!
photography by © Yiorgos Kordakis
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