Hasta La Ideas

Greek architects K-studio have completed a rustic pizzeria modelled on an Italian courtyard in the centre of Athens.

Patterned tiles decorate the floor and a wall in the dining room of Capanna, which is furnished with vintage tables and chairs.

Reclaimed wooden shutters wrap around a mezzanine first floor, which projects over a wood-burning pizza oven and bar.

Ballpoint pen murals drawn by artist Joanna Burtenshaw decorate the walls of the staircase leading upstairs, where the shutters conceal the kitchen, toilets and a storage closet.

Other pizzerias from the Dezeen archive include one where diners can play their own music inside booths and another where colourful wall graphics illustrate possible topping combinations.

Photography is by Yiorgos Kordakis.

Here’s some more text from K-studio:

We send you images of our recently completed restaurant project, Capanna, a pizzeria / trattoria in Kolonaki, an area in the center of Athens.

The restaurant sits on the corner of Ploutarchou and Haritos street, where Haritos becomes pedestrianised.

When the weather is warm enough, which in Athens happens more often than not, the floor to ceiling windows can slide upwards allowing the restaurant to spill out onto the pavement.

The experience of eating outside was the starting point for the design of Capanna.

The aim was to render the space with the atmosphere of an Italian courtyard.

A pallet made up of materials familiarly found in these spaces such as cement tiles, stucco plaster, travertine stone, blackened steel railings, and characteristic narrow wooden shutters, was used to clad the different spaces in the restaurant.

The wood burning oven and the pizza bar are enclosed within a travertine stone box that sits in the far corner of the space framing the Pizzaiolo.

On top of it balances a rectangular volume, clad with reclaimed wooden shutters, enclosing the kitchen, storage and WC facilities.

The two shapes connect with a suspended steel staircase that penetrates them.

The floor is laid with grey cement tiles but in the double-height area of the restaurant geometrically patterned cement tiles create a carpet-like strip that continues onto the adjacent wall, emphasizing the height of the room.

The various vintage chairs add softness and a laid back feeling to the restaurant and the grey stucco plastered walls and ceiling help to enclose all of this in a textured, minimal envelope.

The combination of purposefully designed elements, reclaimed materials and vintage furniture, presents an architecture that sits comfortably between the bespoke and the sourced, creating an exciting and sociable atmosphere.

On the first floor mural artist Joanna Burtenshaw has illustrated the walls with biro drawings depicting the process of making fresh pasta, inspired by the traditional design of the restaurant’s tableware.