Architetto Pierluigi Piu | Olivocarne Restaurant

in Interiors by editor — 3:32 pm | December 4, 20120 comments

The intention, when designing this new venue of the London brand OLIVO, was to narrate about Sardinia (its proprietor’s home island) through iconographic references to the main points of its traditional economy (handicrafts – weaving, in this case – and sheep farming) and and the quotation of the works of a Sardinian contemporary artist, Eugenio Tavolara, who remarkably contributed, along his whole lifetime, to bring out and safeguard the traditional culture of that island.

Pierluigi Piu architect | Olivocarne Restaurant

Far from wishing to evoke Sardinia through trite images good for “low cost” tourism, the tale has been told with a language which winks at contemporary design, also resorting to the work of some skilled Sardinian artisans who have moulded a huge terracotta bas-relief of bucolic inspiration and given life to a crowd of peasants, horsemen, shepherds, wild boars and hunters which animate the restaurant’s walls.

Location: 61 Elizabeth St, London, UK

Design: Architetto Pierluigi Piu

Team: ceramist sisters Stefania & Cristina Arìu (who made the terracotta bas-relief)
Craftman Mauro Angius (who made the Corian silhouettes spreaded on the walls)
Photos: Riccardo Sanna