About Barcelos – Barcelos is a Portuguese themed international restaurant chain.It is named after a quaint Portuguese town that is famous for an ancient legend of the Barcelos rooster.
Modern fast-lane-living has left us with little time to enjoy good, old-fashioned traditions and ideals. This is equally true about food and eating habits, therefore Barcelos strives continually to find a balance between the traditional, healthy home-style cuisine and the fast lane demands of the modern world. Its fast food restaurants specialize in the traditional way of serving healthy and spicy, flame grilled chicken, prepared as authentically as it was mastered by the ancient Portuguese chefs. Today, Barcelos, with its roots in culture, tradition and history, offers a relaxed and convenient dining experience for a diverse range of cultures.
Client Brief - To design the international restro-bar chain called Barcelos in Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi, on the lines of its existing restaurants in Delhi and around the world. The project should be low cost, with designing done to differentiate this restaurant from their existing ones and also other similar restaurants in Hauz Khas Village. The theme to be carried out throughout the space was industrial and distressed finished in a fusion with a combination of some traditional Portuguese elements and some vintage elements.
Design Methodology - To follow the given client brief and prepare a consolidated research about Portuguese interiors and other similarly designed projects around the world then incorporate interesting elements from the cities and lifestyle of the Portuguese and combine them with a mix of raw edgy interiors to give the restaurant space a holistically designed look.
Design Concept – The restaurant has been design for a cover of 90 seater, the main focus was to use the different leveled areas to create segregations in seating space. An open seating/smoking area, 2 separate dining areas, a bar area and a live performance area has been designed, giving each of the spaces distinguishing elements yet a common design tying the space together.
The ceiling design has been kept exposed with ducts and pipes visibily adding rawness to the open ceiling, adorned with vintage metal and crystal chandeliers and hanging lights. The flooring is a mix of Epoxy at entrance with Portuguese pattern tile in main passage; wooden finish tiles around them and the MS staircase taking you to bar area have macrana bricks on the floor. The different areas have differently designed tile combination in bright colors adding spunk to the interiors. The wall finishes have been done in an interesting combination of materials - extensive use of raw brick walls and rough textures, metal wire mesh cladding, rough wood cladding, textured clay and distressed wall finishes have been followed through the designing, to give a variety of finishes making each space unique and different from the other. The columns have been clad in metal sheets with rivets. Some feature walls have been also created using wall art/graffiti/paintings in the dining areas depicting the streets of Portugal in perspective views, creating emphasis on its origin. Portuguese artwork of the Barcelos chain has been incorporated like the Barcelos Legend wall, Cock roll and Portuguese village graphic to showcase the tradition and legacy of the brand. Attractive properties such as the world map and vintage clock inspired from the Portuguese vintage theme add to the wall décor. The highlight of the restaurant interiors is the mix of different unique furniture pieces thoughtfully put together. Different levels of seating are provided throughout the restaurant, high bar stools in the bar area, high table seating and a combination of medium height dining chairs and sofas and Lounge seating create a good visual mix.