Key aspects of Il Corvo Restaurant Design
My heart and sould of interior design: Adaptive Reuse and Organic Design: These are my two key elements driving the project, and why I love and appreciate design and the beauty of the creative process. Adaptive reuse makes an unwanted or unused space beautiful again, the act of creation in a spacial format. Organic design is the inspiration: my motivation to design is triggered by understanding the true essence of what exists and making it more apparent in the design by expressing it through materials, flow, forms and function more thoughtfully than before.
Client : Il Corvo “The Crow” Owned and run by Michael Easton
The subject of my space is a restaurant, specifically il corvo which currently shares a space with Procopio Gelato down on Western Avenue. Mike makes beautiful handmade pasta, which is a lost art. It has hopes to move into a space of its own. I am designing the future home of Il Corvo. See Photos Below
Il Corvo has a simple menu, and fits quite nicely in my list of “10 trends in Dining” shown in a previous blog post. The culture of the restaurant is casual, comfortable, simple, self busing, and community oriented. It will potentially have the hours of 11 am to 9 pm serving lunch and dinner , same menu of simple pasta dishes all day. No happy hour is needed because the dishes are affordable and smaller portions anyways. It is encouraged to order multiple dishes and to share them, giving you the variety in an more intimate form of ” family style”. Mike has expressed his love for nostalgia and old rustic and found vintage items. He wants Il corvo to have an immediate feeling of nostalgia. This project was a journey for me to define what that nostalgia was.
My Personal Interpretation of the Essense of Il Corvo
A lost art
really focused on what mike does, he makes beautiful handmade pasta using ancient tools are are almost completely lost… he is not only a chef but an artist, taking care in each peice of pasta as a peice of sculpture, very architectural and very textural in both form and taste .
His pasta has many different flavors and colors, which is a nostalgic thing in its itself because everyone has a different experience of memory when it comes to touch, tasteand smell.
The Crow
The crow in the name of “Il Corvo” seems to have a strong significance in what he does, (Probably why he picked it) Crows are very smart and Very social. They are known to use tools to eat and store their food ( mike uses tools!) . They like living around humans, and research shows that they have a complex language. They are also known to eat lots of variety of foods. my research of the crow has strengthened and supported my efforts to create a very social environment, inviting strangers to meet michael and become regulars.
The look and Feel
The look and feel is going to be a rustic kitchen/workplace. The concept of the space revolves around the concept of the food and what mike does. Your really inviting people to experience the uniqueness of his craft and to be inspired by the artisinal and historical ways of doing things. The feel should be very texture heavy, inspired by the many textures of his variety of pasta ( He has alot)
The site: Pike place market
The site is significant because it can inform the spacial concept of the space being designed. Pike place has tons of history and with such a strong craving for nostalgia, the history of the market can be the perfect inpiration. Aspects of the market that I have been focusing on that will be brought out in the spacial concept are
The honesty of the merchants and artists
The direct trade between the consumer and the producer
The unique qualities of the products themselves
The local support
The loyalty of the regular consumers and the employees
The strong relationships between the different merchants
Nostalgia
Last but not least, nostalgia is the core of this entire project because is the core of why i love spaces. Spaces and Memory are so closely lilnked so the way a space makes us feel will stay with us forever.
I went to Il corvo for a meeting today to show michael my progress. I showed him floorplans, moodboards and and some 3d sketchup renderings without materials. He might end up using a different space but has agreed to be more of a mentor to guide me through this design process of designing a restaurant. He loved the floorplan and gave me exact dimensions for the appliances that will go in the kitchen and the dish area… I will upload a more visible view of the floorplan soon
Floorplan Progress
