Isabel de la Cruz, Villa Maria – Argentina

Restobar is located in a busy corner of the downtown area of Villa María, a city in the interior of Córdoba, Argentina. It is the second commission from the same client with a difference of 6 years.
The project root arises from an aesthetic/conceptual dialectic between the search that inspired and gave rise to the name of the first bar Cristóbal de la Cruz [by Cristóbal Colón] and his second venture Isabel de la Cruz [by Isabel la Católica].
Isabel de la Cruz had to represent a transgressive, resilient and iconic woman/queen. The materialization incorporates elements and colors that can be easily associated with this premise.
The general distribution of the ground floor is sectored by living-type fixed furniture, made from expanded polyethylene foam tubes lined with fabrics with own designs. The crown of the ceiling on the ground floor undergoes a material and morphological metamorphosis until it becomes an imposing chandelier with baroque influences made with crystal PVC hoses, aniline-dyed water and LED lighting, linking both floors with dynamism and narrative continuity.
The rhomboidal frames are evident in different scales and materials, they are a narrative element that unfolds from the outside to the inside. Alternative materials that evoke permeability and malleability were used, such as translucent sinusoidal sheet or stapled polycarbonate sheet. As they are compositions with high spatial density, we chose to contrast it with smooth walls that have a color gradient made by hand from the ceiling to the floor that allows a dialogue and not a competition with the structural elements of the space.
The floor, the table tops, the stairs and the bar counter were made with terrazzo with designs and colors specifically designed for this project within the same compositional scheme.
The restobar occupies the entire lot and is conceived as a permeable container that dialogues with the dynamics of the pedestrian sector that surrounds it. The large window on the ground floor acts as a letter of introduction from the outside, showing the user what is happening inside, creating interesting situations to see and be seen. The veil that covers the existing façade acts as a sieve and parasol, qualifying and revealing interstices of the upper floor interior, a sector with more private characteristics, while enhancing and giving scale to the corner of the pedestrian promenade.
The bathrooms are unisex and are plagued with small details that always raise the same political discourse: WHERE LOVE REIGNS, LAWS ARE ABOUT.