Sebastian Rossbach and Marco Barth have opened their Pizzeria 22k in the venerable bauhaus halls of Peter Behrens' tobacco factory. Built between 1925-39, the building was Austria's first steel skeleton building in the New Objectivity style. The two award-winning chefs (Rossbarth restaurant was also designed by destilat) are opening a casual culinary playground in the "Falk building" of the radically functionalist industrial building, and the interior design is expected to be just as cool.
The floor plan itself could not be changed due to the strict monument protection requirements. Instead, destilat immersed the 50m2 room in deep black from top to bottom, beginning with an existing poured asphalt floor. All of the new wooden elements used in the room are charred in the tradition of the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban technique - a millennia-old finishing method that preserves the material in a natural way, makes the surfaces water-resistant, and gives them a very special aesthetic of varying dark shades.
The central element of the room is the bar made of recycled red plane bricks: stacked on sight with a characteristic honeycomb structure, lined with dark joint compound, sanded, edged with black sheet metal, and effectively backlit. In the midst of the monochrome interior with elegant black Thonet seating, the raw material takes on a museum-like character.
"Listed buildings are best approached with great appreciation, but by no means with fear," states destilat. "Instead of bowing to history, we confronted the industrial monument with an equally strong interior design."
