Giant Turtle-shaped beach restaurant gives diners the epitome of nature-inspired and themed decor

Posted on 20/02/2024 by Tanvi Joshi

Nestled along the coastline, the Turtle Restaurant emerges as an architectural and artistic marvel, paying homage to the ocean’s most graceful creature—the sea turtle. Crafted entirely from bamboo, this sustainable and awe-inspiring structure seamlessly blends with the beach vibe, creating a unique and harmonious dining experience.

Designer: Thilina Liyanage

The entire restaurant is like a puzzle of smaller geometric fragments, meticulously joined together to resemble a giant turtle. Bamboo, chosen as the primary construction material, not only reflects the local availability of this resource but also highlights its eco-friendly nature. Known for its sturdiness and biodegradability, bamboo aligns perfectly with the vision of sustainability, offering both strength and natural aesthetics.

The main entrance, located at the back of the turtle, seamlessly connects to the forest, creating a pathway that intertwines with nature. Additionally, two side entries welcome guests directly from the beach, providing a smooth transition between the restaurant and its coastal surroundings.

The turtle’s shell serves as the main space, sheltering the restaurant and evoking a sense of awe. The central portion of the shell is open, serving as a skylight that bathes the interior in natural light, creating an open and airy atmosphere. The shell extends into outdoor decks on the sides, offering patrons a complete outdoor experience and stunning views of the surrounding forest.

The bamboo arches play a dual role, serving as structural supports for the shell while also adding a touch of drama and privacy to different sections of the restaurant. Tilted arches on the sides create a perception of grandeur, enhancing the visual appeal and making the space appear larger than life.

To cater to varied preferences, the Turtle Restaurant offers three types of seating—lounge chairs, cane chairs, and regular cushioned wooden chairs. Guests can choose their preferred seating option based on comfort and the desired vibe, ensuring a personalized dining experience.

While the restaurant already boasts a captivating design, the addition of a stairway leading to the inside of the turtle’s head could offer a unique vantage point for patrons. This feature not only enhances the overall experience but also provides a photogenic spot for capturing the beauty of the beach from a different angle.

As the sun sets, the Turtle Restaurant transforms into a magical space with the help of recessed ground lights and pendant lights. The subtle illumination creates a warm and inviting ambiance, making it an ideal setting for a premium beach bar experience.

The post Giant Turtle-shaped beach restaurant gives diners the epitome of nature-inspired and themed decor first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Resto-Bar Nestled On A Cliff’s Edge In Goa, India Has Two Massive Nests Perched On Top Of It

Posted on 01/02/2024 by Srishti Mitra

I’ve spent much time in the beautiful beach town of Goa, India, which truly has a special place in my heart. Coconut trees, salty air, restless waves, and red sandy paths adorn the region. The architecture is a mix of old and new, with traces of the Portuguese influence interwoven with modern Indian-influenced structures. Nestled in the vibrant and lush tropical area of North Goa is a beautiful new restaurant dubbed Como Agua. It provides patrons with stunning views across the Vagator cliffs, allowing them to admire the mesmerizing sea from an impressive elevated location.

Designer: Otherworlds

Designed by the architects at Otherworlds, Como Agua is tucked away on an elevated perch, offering the restaurant a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding landscape and sea. The bar is adorned with two large nests at the top, making it a truly unique and innovative structure. The oversized nests give the restaurant an Amazonian vibe, offering the impression that you’ve walked into the tropics.

It occupies 3750 square meters, and is a vivacious open-air design built from bamboo and Lantana camera – an invasive flowering shrub that torments the local flora and fauna. The founder of Otherworlds, Arko Saha said that the plant “has invaded over 40 percent of the Western Ghats, a total of 13 million hectares of Indian landscape. Arriving in India as an ornamental plant in the early 1800s, lantana has escaped from gardens and taken over entire ecosystems.”

It’s quite interesting to see how they’ve utilized a shrub species that was wreaking havoc on the floral fauna and transformed it into a harmonious and integral element of the building. The architectural team wrapped the Lantana camera around the metal railings, bar, partitions, and canopies to build unique interlaced structures that look as if they’ve been built by weaverbirds!

The team says that – “The weavers are social birds, usually nesting and feeding in colonies. They collect all sorts of natural materials like twigs, fibers, and leaves to weave a membrane that acts as their nest, usually hanging from the branch of a tree. Materials used for building nests include fine leaf fibers, grass, and twigs. Many species weave very fine nests using thin strands of leaf fiber, though some, like the buffalo-weavers, form massive untidy stick nests in their colonies, which may have spherical woven nests within.”

The post This Resto-Bar Nestled On A Cliff’s Edge In Goa, India Has Two Massive Nests Perched On Top Of It first appeared on Yanko Design.

This chair concept for fast-casual restaurants comes with a coat hanger and bag tray

Posted on 16/11/2023 by JC Torres

The way we eat outside has been changing over the past years, and fine dining and fast food are no longer the only choices available. In many parts of the world, “fast-casual” has become a popular option that combines the speed and price of fast food establishments with the quality of full-service bistros. Despite being a category in its own right, the furniture used in fast-casual restaurants doesn’t actually take into account the specific needs of this class of customers and is instead meant for either fast-food chains or full-service establishments. This chair design concept tries to break the mold by introducing a piece of furniture that caters specifically to fast-casual customers who need to hang their coats or keep their bags but can never find such a place with regular restaurant chairs.

Designer: Zhiyuan (Frank) Fang

Fast-food restaurant chairs are often made from plastic, designed to be cheap, easy to move around, and often uninspiring. Customers here are often in a hurry, anyway, so they don’t care so much for the things they’re carrying, presuming they’re even carrying some. Fine dining chairs, in sharp contrast, are elegant and a little more expensive in order to match the restaurant’s ambiance. They, too, don’t have convenient features for keeping your things, because restaurants often have available storage for those near the table or by the entrance. That leaves fast-casual diners to fend for their own most of the time, often resulting in awkward displays of jackets or even forgotten bags or purses.

The RACK Chair design was conceptualized with fast-casual restaurants specifically in mind. While the chair might find some uses in other diner types as well, the aesthetics, materials, and features truly shine in this middle-ground of the catering industry. It’s made from a variety of wooden materials, including birch, pine, walnut, and ash, giving it a bit of style and fine character. At the same time, however, the minimalist design and flat-pack-friendly construction are ideal for mass production and use.

The real distinctive parts of the RACK chair are the integrated coat hanger on the backrest and the storage tray under the seat. While it’s certainly possible to drape coats, jackets, and other clothing over the back of most chairs, they also have a tendency to slip off, sometimes unbeknownst to the owner. The tray offers a secure space to put in purses, document folios, and small bags for each reach, while also blocking unauthorized access from behind.

Some might downplay the impact that these two simple features can bring, but knowing that there will always be a place for your jacket, coat, bags, and things adds tremendous peace of mind and convenience. That in turn, will surely make the experience and location memorable, increasing the likelihood that you’ll be a repeat customer. After all, the last thing you need is to stress over your stuff when all you really want is to enjoy an affordable and delicious meal.