WAO Kitchen
Located within the new Bassi Business Park corporate complex, designed by OBR, WAO Kitchen is the first restaurant in the WAO - We Are Open network and an integral part of the WAO Bassi co-working hub.
The space interfaces with an expansive building envelope defined by total outward transparency. From the earliest design phases, the visual permeability of the large glazed facades was interpreted as the primary design driver: an opportunity to dissolve the physical boundary between interior and exterior, redefining the osmotic relationship between the inhabited space and the urban realm.
The foundational gesture of the intervention materializes in the insertion of a scenic backdrop that runs parallel to the street-facing facade. This element, comprising a metal framework clad in corrugated polycarbonate, acts as a genuine visual apparatus: it accompanies pedestrians along the pavement, transforming the perception of the building into a progressively unfolding promenade. Accentuating this open dialogue with the city is a second spatial protagonist: the large pivoting window at the bar counter. This kinetic and dynamic gesture creates a direct interface with the street, endowing the space with a "pop", permeable, and highly communicative ethos.
Responding to the client's brief to accommodate heterogeneous configurations and events, the project radically embraces the concept of the plan libre. The layout remains fluid and devoid of rigid structural partitions; instead, the space is orchestrated through lightweight, ephemeral dividers. A system of opaline fabric curtains functions as a flexible diaphragm, articulating the spatial hierarchy without ever disrupting visual continuity, allowing natural light to softly sculpt the volumes. What emerges is a singular, continuous environment that organically plays with transparencies and the corrugated rhythm of the polycarbonate, yet within which the spatial cadence and various functional zones remain intuitively legible. This subtle equilibrium was achieved through a meticulous curation of the furnishings—featuring a pronounced diversification of tables and seating—and a lighting concept designed to balance diffused ambient light with focused, intimate, and dedicated scenarios.
Serving as the visual matrix and cohesive element for the entire intervention is the continuous pink-tinted concrete flooring: a surface whose chromatic homogeneity dilates spatial perception, extending it to the very limits of the envelope. Grafted onto this foundation is a highly delicate palette, exploring pastel nuances yet built in stark contrast with materials possessing a raw, industrial ethos: concrete, galvanized metal, polycarbonate, and the Celenit panels lining the ceiling. Within this composition of essential textures, the introduction of Okoumé wood deliberately disrupts the formal rigor, restoring a carefully calibrated accent of tactile and visual warmth. A targeted decision, capable of instilling a note of reassuring domesticity within a relational landscape of a distinctly contemporary nature.
