An Argentine steak house for the award-winning chef Michael Cordua located in the Sugar Land neighborhood of Houston, Texas. The 7,500 square foot restaurant (670 square meters) accommodates 200 diners inside, a state of the art chef’s kitchen, a bar, a main dining room divisible into three, flexible private party rooms and 88 exterior seats overlooking a lake.
Equal parts Houston and Argentina, inspired by the dream-like prose-poems of Jorge Luis Borges exploring the landscape and mythology of the rustic Pampas region.
Architectural Solution: An airlock entry facing the parking area leads first to the host. The kitchen is set back to create a terraced room parallel to the lake. The dining room is bracketed by raised bar seating on one side and a raised dining room on the other side, creating theatrical views. Dining areas are lined with three-meter high wood sculptures and standing lamps hand-cut from raw recycled steel. Hand-blown glass lamps illuminate the room. None of the seating is fixed.
Inspiration came from the story collections “Labyrinths” and “Dream Tigers” by Jorge Luis Borges and the rustic handwork and landscapes of the Pampas… Light-fixtures inspired by Argentine teacups of silver-lined gourds, gaucho lariats of leather-wrapped stones and flamenco skirts. The rough canvas gaucho pants and boots inspired raw canvas drapes and upholstery. The landscape of the pampas is abstracted in the murals. Axes used to clear the land in Argentina suggested ax-handle legs for private dining room chairs. The knobby knees and thin legs of Argentine llamas influenced the design of the chairs composed of raw cast aluminum and maple, leather and canvas chairs in the bar and dining room. Studies of Pampas trees and cactus inspired the standing lamps. Weathered fence posts of stripped trees on the estancias generated the wood sculptures. Vernacular rural church construction and gaucho belts influenced grid of castings on the walls.
Materials / Components: Hand made American-couture studio-furnishings invented for the project were produced in Chicago and Houston by artists, craftsmen and re-purposed rust-belt factories in 10 weeks months using rapid-prototyping and manufacturing techniques refined by the design team over 25 years and relying equally upon skilled hand-work and digital design and production methods. The process emphasizes the direct translation of nuanced hand-sketches, paintings and maquettes into space and objects, often employing irregular but related forms varying comparable to the individuals that compose a populations of plants or animals.
Materials were chosen to be sustainable in that they develop patinas instead of maintenance issues, to be local to either the construction site or the factories, aesthetically enduring, recycled when possible and never made in China nor chosen from a catalog.
The palette includes regional hickory and thick unstained mahogany, recycled cast-aluminum, recycled fabricated- oxidized-steel, hand-blown glass from Chicago, locally-produced leather, 100% raw cotton canvas, cotton gauze and clay tiles.
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