Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB) has transformed an old industrial warehouse into a kitchen and restaurant in Barcelona. Called Cocina Hermanos Torres, the project aims to generate a new experience vis-à-vis the world of cuisine and catering.

A new space, one that is ideal for living a new culinary experience. Container and content come together in the interests of a unique experience. With this clear and ambitious premise in mind and with the acquisition on their part of a former industrial shed of almost 800-square-metre, which it was necessary to completely overhaul, the project could begin.

At the spatial level the project is created with a view to effacing or blurring a few dividing lines between the different spaces that make up a traditional restaurant. Over time the space of the kitchen has gradually acquired a certain protagonism in some of the more recent avant-garde restaurants. 

To begin with, picture windows were put in which showed the interior of the kitchen, behind glass at first. On other occasions the kitchen was opened up by placing it at the far end of the premises behind a bar, and in some cases, like that of the Restaurante Dos Cielos (the Hermanos Torres brothers’ previous restaurant), one even acceded to the restaurant via the kitchen. In some restaurants, too, exclusive tables have been included so that a few clients could dine inside the kitchen itself.

This time, however, an even more radical step has been taken by locating the kitchen as not only the central feature of the intervention but also as an immersive element. The restaurant isthe kitchen. 

In situating the kitchen in the epicenter of the restaurant the old concept is resurrected of the café-theater, places where diners enjoy a show while they eat. 

Here, though, the show will consist of the actual preparation of the dishes they will be tasting. Added to which, thanks to having chosen an industrial shed as a great container, the experience dinners have of personally living through a "performance" is emphasized. Being in such a huge shed is like being present in a television studio or a modern theater.   

"Once the organization of the space has been defined, an element of great importance comes into play for ensuring that the culinary experience occurs with the degree of comfort and convenience that it merits," said OAB. 

"In order to try and nuance the undeniable fact that we are dining in an industrial shed a series of materials are introduced that tone down and even manage to produce a sort of ambiguity between being, initially, in a cold space of huge proportions as opposed to an agreeable, warm and welcoming space. The tables with tablecloths, the cushioned seats, and even the presence of the occasional carpet will temper things and provide comfort as well as help to control the acoustics of the room."

All images © Joan Guillamat 

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