Papi Restaurant

The small restaurant occupies the ground floor of a typical late nineteenth century apartment building. The China-based design team stripped back decades of finishes and resisted the urge to fix every flaw, keeping parts of the old limestone and brick walls, a raw steel column and a brick column, and on the facade an old steel lintel and a fragment of stone moulding.

A new raw steel and fully operable glass front extends the street into the room. Mirrors placed with care create cross views between inside and out.

In only 52 square metres of usable space, two figures organise everything: an oblong, arena-like enclosure that holds the seating, display, chef’s counter and screen, and a round form that contains the wood-fired oven. The enclosure is clad in handmade curved white ceramic tiles, its openings framed in thick birch plywood that double as benches, while custom timber chairs fit the tight footprint.