What was the brief?
Greengrass has served salads in Mexico City since 2007. After thirteen years, it decided to transform its concept, aligning it with its values of well-being, freshness, and authenticity, which shaped this new space, designed by Faci Leboreiro. Where, rather than designing an architectonic project, a lifestyle was created.
Nowadays, customers have expectations that go beyond a traditional restaurant, they search for a space which communicates the essence of the brand and creates an integral experience that, added to the design, creates community and promotes well-being. Therefore, the Greengrass project required constant communication with the brand, to know its products and philosophy thoroughly, to understand how to communicate these through interior design.
Our starting point was to create a palette of local materials, as if putting together a salad: representing the freshness and the authentic origin of the products. Using oak wood, amani marble, and colors that heightened the architectonic aspects of the location, like barrisol lighting and marble panels, which lodge art works.
When entering the location, the customers are received by a wide staple-shaped space that works as a lobby and lodges the delivery area; customers pass by the most important visual fixture of the place: the central table. This element, along with the tree and the barrisol lamp, direct the customers' view towards the salad bar - the most important visual fixture of the restaurant - where the food is prepared in front of the customers according to their specifications and tastes. The space is surrounded by vegetation living in the perimetral garden enveloping the premises.
The restaurant's amani marble walls work as a linen cloth to promote local artists - part of the brand's proposal to approach the creative side of customers and build community - turning the premises into a live and constant-changing gallery. Today we find works of the Mexican artist Tania Zaldívar, who is represented by the Angulo Cero Gallery.
Illumination was created in cooperation with In Light We Trust, aiming to accentuate the architectonic details of the space through a very clean and clear illumination, taking advantage of the transparency of the premises, especially towards the terrace area, and turning it into a reference for the passers-by.
In this way, Greengrass was transformed into a project where the well-being of the customer was used as a design priority, recreating the healthy freshness of the brand's products in this new concept, while considering its impact on the local community, and the relationships that can be fostered in this space.
What were the key challenges?
Design a project that is coherent with the brand's identity and product, that reflects nature, wellness and freshness through its materials.
What materials did you choose and why?
We chose mostly natural materials to be truthful with Greengrass' concept.
Material Used:
1. Flooring: Porcelain Tile, Porcelanosa
2. Doors: Oak wood, designed by Faci Leboreiro
3. Interior lighting: Barrisol
4. Interior furniture: Designed by Faci Leboreiro
5. Wood ceiling: Engineering oak wood
6. Art: Angulo Cero gallery, Tania Zaldivar artist
7. Landscape: Huatan
8. Marble panels: Donato stone, Amani marble
9. Kitchen and salads table tops: White Corian
