Dining with a wow factor
Restaurant in Madrid by External Reference
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Bar stools surround a large table that forms the heart of the room. © Adrià Goula
The Penthouse by Wow is a two-level restaurant featuring eclectic design. As part of what is known as the Wow Marketplace, it will offer an immersive consumer experience.
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The interior design is correspondingly exclusive even as it refers to the building’s former use as a hotel. © Germán Saiz
The marketplace and restaurant were designed by the Spanish architecture studio External Reference. Over two underground and six above-ground levels with a total area of 5500 m², the diverse offerings are distributed throughout an historically listed building. The restaurant measures around 990 m². It is right at the top, on the fifth and sixth storeys, and offers upscale cuisine. The interior design is correspondingly exclusive even as it refers to the building’s former use as a hotel.
The atmosphere alternates between cosy living flair and a chic restaurant setting. The materiality and furniture add to the stylistic ambiguity: plushy charm in the form of beige-coloured carpeting, curtains and wood-panelled walls meets the futuristic aesthetic of 1970s-style Panton furniture and pastille coverings on walls and ceilings. Bespoke lamps, shelving and sofas complete the look.
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© Germán Saiz
An organic spatial continuum
In keeping with the concept, the architects have defined the fifth storey as a communal area that moves through the restaurant as a fluid spatial continuum. To this end a library, a sound studio and other spaces were transformed into the new dining room. Shelving and sofas, even the curved wall coverings of lacquered MDF panels: all take up the organic design. Add to this the floor coverings of oak parquet and beige carpeting that seems to transition seamlessly into the sofa landscape.
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In the former sound studio, custom-made walnut acoustic panelling and the audio equipment mounted onto it. © Adrià Goula
In the former sound studio, custom-made walnut acoustic panelling and the audio equipment mounted onto it remind visitors of how this space was once used. A further eye-catcher is the bar, whose shelves and seating niches are covered with red tiles. Bar stools surround a large table that forms the heart of the room.
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Plushy charm in the form of beige-coloured carpeting, curtains and wood-panelled walls meets the futuristic aesthetic of 1970s-style. © Germán Saiz
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The shelves and seating niches of the bar are covered with red tiles. © Adrià Goula
An eclectic material mix
The sixth storey has been interpreted as a bedroom. Here, the dining area flows around a bedroom that is delimited by curtains and features a double bed. Among the round tables, the planners have even placed a bathroom whose turquoise-coloured pastille surround transitions directly to the wall covering, thus creating yet another overlap of material, function and temporal strata.
Architecture: External Reference
Client: WOW Concept
Location: C/ Gran Vía, 18 Madrid (ES)