design et al are delighted to announce that BMA Studio have been shortlisted for Restaurant – Global Award in The International Hotel & Property Awards 2019.
The brief for BMA Studio was to design a restaurant and bar with an environment which enhances open and easy interaction between customers. Simultaneously, the restaurant was to be inviting to diners of all kinds, from business and casual meetings to a group dinner, as well as different events and ceremonies.
The restaurant floor plan consists of different sections, including: entrances, lounge sitting, café, the bar and the main dining area. It was specified in the brief to create different moods according to each space. The crucial point was to design the transition between the spaces very smoothly and nicely as if taking the diners through a journey, from the entrances towards the main dining space. Moreover, this would hopefully create a unique experience for each customer to make them willing to come back and dine here again.
To start with, the restaurant required two entrances – one from the Dubai Mall side and the other from the Address Boulevard Hotel. The client wanted to draw inspiration from French cafes accentuating the casual feeling of openness. The main dining space of the restaurant offers different cuisines like French, Japanese and Greek. The challenge was to design a space with the essence of all these places at the same time create an amalgamation of a cafe, restaurant and a bar in one floor space with a budget limitation.
The key aspect of the project is the transition of the spaces, from outdoor dining areas inspired from French cafes to the main dining area. It creates a sense of journey. One of the bespoke features of the design is the long social table between the two accent trees in the middle of the main dining which draws the centre of focus. BMA Studio utilized this with combining the pastry and the bakery section next to this area and created a fluid space with different functionality in each corner.