Halal restaurant SAFAR

HORECA / 2020

Location
Area
Status
Project author
Logo
Almaty, Kazakhstan
432 m2
realized
Vassilyadi Marina
Vassilyadi Marina
Photographer
Vassilyadi Marina
{ About }
The client applied with the task to develop the design of a new restaurant complex with Central Asian cuisine in compliance with halal principles. The starting point was a site with buildings within the city of Almaty on the way to the airport.
The stylistic direction was to create a traditional look of the East, recognizable at first sight.
The project was developed within a tight budget for implementation and with the orientation on not a high average check guest.
{ Planning }
After studying the buildings, it was decided to demolish most of them, except for a building about 19 meters by 6 meters and reconstruct it.

This building influenced the layout of the establishment. The establishment in the plan is made according to the principles of oriental architecture: in the center there is a courtyard with a fountain, surrounded on three sides by the building, and from the main entrance is closed by a high, more than 5 meters, portal with a gate. The front part of the restaurant welcomes guests with a colonnade of four slender wooden columns.
Estimated capacity of the restaurant is 120 seats in the halls and 32 seats inside the courtyard. In the large hall of the restaurant, in addition to the main seating arrangement for 2-4 people, there is a topchan for a large company. It is designed so that if necessary it can be used as a stage for artists or a place of honor during banquet celebrations.

The kitchen area is designed with the ability to directly serve the summer area and the halls. Shashlyk shop and tandoor shop are placed with windows for distribution of products both on the territory of the restaurant and on the street, with the possibility of releasing the products of the shops “for takeaway”.

About design

The concept of visual solutions of the interior and exterior is based on historical and folklore representations of Central Asia. It is a riot of colors and ornaments, openwork lattices made by Girih ornaments, painted dome, canopies, oriental lamps, carpets, patterned ceramic tiles, characteristic arches, carved doors and other elements that transport the entering guest into an oriental fairy tale.
The topchan in the large hall of the restaurant is elevated relative to the floor, lined with carpets and separated from the hall by partitions and curtains, is a private oasis in the institution. The furniture is traditionally for the East - low, tables, sofas, plenty of cushions. The ceiling is crowned with a blue canopy. The walls are mirrored with overlapping patterns.
The big hall of the restaurant has an exit to the tandyr shop, which works “for take-out” from the street side, and for the guests at the summer cafe in the yard. So for the guests in the hall waiters bring the freshest flatbreads and samosas. At the same time the service door became a bright decoration in the interior.
The central hall is decorated with an oriental colonnade of wooden columns with arches, and the heart of the composition became a bar counter.
The small hall is located on the right side of the bar. At the end of the hall the wall is decorated with wooden laths in multicolored paint, the center of the composition is the institution's logo placed on hand-woven mats.
On the whole area of the halls the ceilings are actively decorated with carved lattices with lights, patterned rosettes and wooden chandeliers of individual production changing each other in every angle. Above the main entrance to the establishment the ceilings are painted by an artist.
The project provides 2 bathrooms — female and male, in the boudoir of which you can get through the arches from the central hall.
The decoration of the bathrooms continues the style of the halls, there are carved doors, lattices in “girikh” ornaments, star pattern on the ceilings. In the booths we repeat the decorative technique of covering the wall with multicolored wooden laths.

Identity and decoration

For the restaurant together with the project designer developed a logo and actively integrated into the interior design, as well as created unique patterns and patterns.
An accent addition to the ensemble of decors are the murals created by the master based on two paintings that unite modernity and history: the first mural is based on the painting by digital artist Anastasia Kim (Phobs) called “Morning in Bukhara”, the second one is based on the motif of the painting “A Street In Cairo” by Carl Haag, painted in 1890.
It is noteworthy that there are practically no factory products in the decoration and furnishing of the establishment. The vast majority of interior elements are made to order according to the designer's sketches and drawings in the workshops of the city - decorative partitions, lattices, furniture, doors, cachepots, lampshades, openwork chandeliers, wicker decorations and other.
Decorative objects, vases dishes and utensils, purchased at the handicraft market in Uzbekistan.

Process

The project was designed in November 2018. Implementation started a few months later and construction was completed in spring 2020.

During the construction process, the designer of the VMVdesign office performed authoring of the renovation and consulting. The photo shoot was carried out in 2021.