Old style architectures: Going against the trend in Rome

The stylemes of contemporary architecture can easily be found anywhere - as can buildings from the past. The decision to decorate the interior of a new restaurant in the taste of the early years of the last century goes against the trend, encouraging us to rethink localisation of spaces for conviviality and their relationship with time.

Architects and designers Francesco Zarbano and Tommaso Guerra were appointed to design the interior of La Buvette, a bar and bistro in Rome which looks just like the waiting room of a railway station from the '20s. From the green sofas to the wooden chairs and benches, from the hat racks to the oak countertop, from the lamps to the marble surface, everything contributes to definition of the identity of a place from a distant age, or rather, our idea of what that age was like.

A focus on detail plays a key role in recreating the atmosphere of the times: brass finishes, the way the glasses are arranged behind the counter, the menus and the tiles all take visitors back in time a hundred years, or rather, into their cherished idea of what the roaring '20s were like. The interiors of the project seem to seek a compromise between history and our perceptions of what it was like.

Francesco Cibati

Year: 2014
Location: Rome, Italy
Design: Tommaso Guerra, Francesco Zarbano
Photos: Gilberto Maltinti (Parioli Fotografia), Tommaso Guerra

www.tommasoguerra.com

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