CafèB by Bice. New York, United States
Interior design by Federico Delrosso for a new concept Italian restaurant
Stemming from the experience of the Bice restaurant,* the new location aims mainly at the contemporary world of Italian design. “A key ingredient of this project,” confirms Federico Delrosso, “is the invocation of the Italian city known worldwide for its ability to launch ideas and trends. I'm talking about Milan, where design has found great interpreters and also about the ritual of the aperitif, which was born here but has many admirers abroad. In CafèB I wanted to recreate this atmosphere of Milan social life, designing open spaces, not highly structured, like the famous "terraces" that have hosted the most famous aperitifs and international events in Milan and other Italian cities. For the CafèB we then created spaces and furnishings that left the gaze free, just to give the idea of openness and extreme fluidity."
"The CafèB has a diffuse structure, because it opens its entrance with a portico of Mediterranean memory, overlooking 28th street. Here the patrons are protected by the light screens made of flexible canes in white resin. The development of the main restaurant is on the ground floor but the CafèB has an alter ego on the roof of the building, the Hotel Indigo at Chelsea, which we named SkyB.
In the case of skyB, I would say it is a non-project in the sense that I was inspired by the urban landscape at altitude, which overwhelms you as soon as you emerge from the elevator ...
The New York skyline is real, not just an image. A landscape that becomes architecture, though architecture of a spontaneous, unplanned kind.
So I wanted to reproduce the same effect ... avoiding reworkings or expressions of style and seeking to highlight the visual impact, inserting low furnishings with the same effects of colouring and materials as the landscape around ...Almost imagining being there ... having a drink … on the rooftops amid the water tanks
