A space to be surprised. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes
18/07/2017.
[BCN] Spain
metalocus, DANIEL MADERA
metalocus, DANIEL MADERA
The renowned architecture studio RCR - current winners of the Pritzker 2017 Prize - has been in charge of designing and building a multidisciplinary space that captures the main purpose of Enigma: to surprise and guarantee an unprecedented enigmatic experience.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Inside view. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Inside view. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Inside view. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Working on the project. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Working on the project. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Working on the project. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Plan. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes.
Furnished floor plan. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Ground detail. Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes.
Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
During contruction. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Image courtesy of Neolith.
Sketch. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes.
Rendering. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes.
Albert Adrià. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Oliver Peña, Cristina Losada, Albert Adrià and Marc Álvarez. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Olvier Peña, Albert Adrià, Jordi Saavedra and Diego Grimberg. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Maxime Van Beylen and Julen Urtasun. Enigma Restaurant by RCR Arquitectes. Photograph © Pepo Segura.
Albert Adrià’s ingenuity, together with the sensitivity of RCR Arquitectes and Neolith’s technology, have joined together to create an amazing gastronomic project that is truly spectacular in terms of gastronomy, design and innovation.
RCR Arquitectes continue maintaininh their enthusiasm for contributing to spatial experiences and impacting human feelings in both public and private environments, with their particular focus on the beauty of nature. A poetic abstraction in which natural features take centre-stage, as reflected in well-known works such as the Les Cols restaurant, the Tussols-Basil athletics stadium and the Alberca, and outdoor spaces such as “La Vila” of Trincheria which already form part of their genius collection.
Born in the last decade, Neolith is a revolutionary product category called Sintered Stone, designed and manufactured by TheSize to effectively respond to the most demanding architectural and interior design needs.
The Sintering Technology that TheSize has developed to create NEOLITH, replicates the process by which natural stones are created throughout thousands of years in matter of hours, by exposing the raw materials to extremely high pressure and temperature. All this together with a revolutionary digital printing decorative technology named NDD (Neolith Digital Design), exponentially increases the possibilities in terms of designs (rich in details) and finishes offered to perfectly replicate the original design.
The result of this entire process leads to a Sintered Stone in large format and minimum thickness with physical and mechanical characteristics that is really interesting.
To make his dream come true, Albert commissioned RCR Arquitectes to completely create the restaurant and give life to a multidisciplinary space of 700 square meters.
It has been a project with unprecedented technical complexity which has marked a before and after in the history of the company due to the fact that each of the floor slabs are different from one other and they fit together like a puzzle, in order to represent the watercolor drawing on the whole of the restaurant floor.
From here, it has been possible to create a unique and homogenous scenery in the different spaces where the diner enjoys this mysterious experience over two and a half hours, in which they travel through the different environments, savouring the mastery, creativity and genius in every dish.
The restaurant will serve a maximum of 24 diners per day, during dinner hours, a unique experience in which there is always a surprise factor; being its menu everything an enigma that begins just entering by his great door located in the street Sepúlveda.
RCR Arquitectes continue maintaininh their enthusiasm for contributing to spatial experiences and impacting human feelings in both public and private environments, with their particular focus on the beauty of nature. A poetic abstraction in which natural features take centre-stage, as reflected in well-known works such as the Les Cols restaurant, the Tussols-Basil athletics stadium and the Alberca, and outdoor spaces such as “La Vila” of Trincheria which already form part of their genius collection.
Born in the last decade, Neolith is a revolutionary product category called Sintered Stone, designed and manufactured by TheSize to effectively respond to the most demanding architectural and interior design needs.
The Sintering Technology that TheSize has developed to create NEOLITH, replicates the process by which natural stones are created throughout thousands of years in matter of hours, by exposing the raw materials to extremely high pressure and temperature. All this together with a revolutionary digital printing decorative technology named NDD (Neolith Digital Design), exponentially increases the possibilities in terms of designs (rich in details) and finishes offered to perfectly replicate the original design.
The result of this entire process leads to a Sintered Stone in large format and minimum thickness with physical and mechanical characteristics that is really interesting.
To make his dream come true, Albert commissioned RCR Arquitectes to completely create the restaurant and give life to a multidisciplinary space of 700 square meters.
It has been a project with unprecedented technical complexity which has marked a before and after in the history of the company due to the fact that each of the floor slabs are different from one other and they fit together like a puzzle, in order to represent the watercolor drawing on the whole of the restaurant floor.
From here, it has been possible to create a unique and homogenous scenery in the different spaces where the diner enjoys this mysterious experience over two and a half hours, in which they travel through the different environments, savouring the mastery, creativity and genius in every dish.
The restaurant will serve a maximum of 24 diners per day, during dinner hours, a unique experience in which there is always a surprise factor; being its menu everything an enigma that begins just entering by his great door located in the street Sepúlveda.
Description of the project by Enigma
After a year and a half of complex works, Enigma finally opens its doors to few meters of which was its embryo.
Although the team, philosophy and conceptual potential come from that small place, Enigma is not born as an ad hoc evolution of the finger food line and cocktail created in 41st, is something more. In an ethereal space and apparently imposing extended in more than 700 sqm, Enigma raises a new way of living the experience of the diner in a restaurant.
The experience.-
The versatility of the space allows the 7 areas of Enigma should not always keep the same order in the experience or that at the same time of the year the users live all the stops of the itinerary.
The call.-
When confirming their reservation, the guest receives a code to access the restaurant. Because the experience is performed in different spaces with a specific timing, the reservation team stresses the importance of arriving at the time or to notify the restaurant. This is to ensure the same experience for all diners.
As in all his projects, Albert has always given special attention to the act of welcome.
The customer enters in the door the code provided in the reservation confirmation and, after being received by the hostess, you are invited to move to a neutral space that advances the colors and materials present throughout the premises: metal, ceramics and glass. In this space, the restaurant looks for the diner to relax and decontaminate of the exterior so that he is predisposed to the experience he is about to live.
In the welcome speech, the restaurante briefly explains what the experience will consist of.
The other areas that confirm Enigma are: the Cava, the Bar, the Iron, the Dinner or the 41st.
The service.-
The room service, headed by Cristina Losada, has had to face different challenges due to the itinerant distribution of the room.
Picking up the witness of the friendly language that began in the 41st, the near treatment of the room service counteracts with the imposing presence of the place. The different people, both room and kitchen, who will meet the diner throughout the night, will invite you to relax, to have a good time, breaking the serious and distant service scheme. Without knowing it, the diner will create a link with the whole team, ending the experience with the impression that it has been introduced to the Enigma family.
Enigma, space.-
The work, conceived by RCR Arquitectes' architecture studio, has been thought globally, from interior space, lighting, furniture, music and costumes.
The architects have managed to capture in this architectural work the idea of the concept that Albert has had in mind since the beginning of the year 2000, but that he has been able to shape it now, after a personal maturity but mainly professional derived from 6 years of intense work with the opening of the other 5 concepts that make up elBarri.
In the words of Rafael Aranda de RCR Arquitectes "an evanescent, deep and timeless landscape has been created, so that the person disconnects from the world that surrounds us and is allowed to take to the creative world of Albert"
More information
Architects
Venue
Carrer Sepúlveda, 38-40. 08015 - Barcelona. Spain.
Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, Ramon Vilalta. RCR Arquitectes
Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta, work together since 1988 under the name RCR ARQUITECTES in Olot. They are Premio Nacional de Cultura en Arquitectura 2005 by Generalitat de Catalunya, Chevaliers de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by Republique Française in 2008, honorary members by the AIA American Institute of Architecture 2010 and International Award 2011 "Belgian Building Awards". Since 1989 are architects advisors at Parque Natural de la Zona Volcánica de la Garrotxa and have been teachers of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture and Project. They have won different international competitions (the latter, the Waalsekrook media library in Belgium, the Soulages museum in France, Hofheide's crematorium in Belgium and The Edge Bussiness Bay in Dubai). They have received awards in his work among which two finalists positions in the awards of the European Union Mies Van der Rohe. Some of their awarded works have been exhibited in different events and published in several monographs.
RCR has shown the ability to think and transform that bring teamwork and the promotion of cultural initiatives from Bunka Foundation and workshops within the LAB-A in the Espacio Barberí, and have proven that it is possible to do international architecture from a rural environment, which is what has stimulated his imagination.
Following the work of RCR there is a philosophy which works for harmony between humans and nature. The most advanced technologies and materials such as steel or glass, with established rhythms and light that acts in opposition to each, are those that allow RCR this return to the essence of space that is the subject of architecture.
