Chiringuito Cafeteria

After the success of an earlier café, the client was offered a rare site for a new one, on the edge between a black pine forest and the beach. Over the years the strip had filled with scattered, disorderly buildings. The brief was to clear them away and create a café that would act as a bridge between the two landscapes. It was designed by a Spanish practice.

The building is meant to be transparent. It is made of three stepped glass boxes joined together and set parallel to the shoreline, so that from every point inside and from the upper terraces the sea is in full view, while the pine forest stays visible through the building from the beach.

These three simple volumes organise the café on three levels, each opening onto a terrace. Though the section rises only 6.80 metres above the ground, it gives remarkable views.

Inside, the ceiling continues the outdoor sun shades, both made of recycled aluminium tubes painted in five colours that give the building its seaside character. From the sea the building almost disappears, seen only in the reflections on its glass and in glimpses of the forest behind.