Ojala Restaurant by Andrés Jaque
Ojalá, a restaurant in the Spanish capital of Madrid that is far from the usual, has been reborn as a beach café through a new, innovative design by award-winning architect Andrés Jaque.
The restaurant not only draws inspiration from the beach in terms of colours and interior décor, it literally brings the beach into the city with a ton of white sand from Almeria, a city in Andalusia, Spain. “Ojalá is a beach, or rather, the porch of a house built on a beach” as the architect himself puts it. Jaque designed Ojalá as a landscape rather than a building, using materials commonly found in agricultural contexts such as sand, wood and metal.
Inside the restaurant, the former bar counter has transformed into a large wooden table filling most of the space. Customers are seated around the large collective table that has an avant-garde style similar to that of many Northern European venues. Surrounding the natural wood colour of the table are aquamarine walls and ceilings. These are touched up with some decorative elements in fluorescent orange directing thoughts to a fresh summer day at the beach.
Alongside the bar, a space called the greenhouse functions as an interior terrace or porch. A hanging garden features in the space where in situ terrace tables and iron chairs are situated. A stairway from the greenhouse leads to Ojalá’s sandy beach. Reflecting beach life, the furniture used for this space are low sofas where guests can lean back, constructivist tables and a wooden bar resembling those found in beach huts.
An influential element of the restaurants decoration is the lamps that are conceptualised, designed and produced by the architectural studio specifically for Ojalá. The materials used for these colourful, handmade lamps are the same as those used for the furniture. In its entirety the restaurant brings visitors out of the city and into a relaxed holiday atmosphere at the beach. In line with the holiday feel brought to life by the décor, the restaurant serves breakfast all day long from a menu prepared by a gastronomic chef Javier Brichetto.
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