Cozze Ristorante Recasts Italian Warmth for Brasília’s Urban Dining
Cozze Ristorante lands in Brasília, Brazil, as a restaurant crafted by Hersen Mendes Arquitetura with a contemporary Italian inflection. The studio shapes an urban room for pause and exchange, balancing curved lines with crisp planes and an expressive material mix. Guests move from a sinuous balcony to a sculpted counter, with stones, tiles, and layered textures guiding the tone. Art and craft fold into service, making the daily ritual of dining feel considered and generous.
Light grazes a curved counter, picking up the grain of stone and the quiet sheen of glazed tile. A soft bend in the balcony invites a slower step, the city held just beyond the rail in a filtered view.
This is a restaurant, set in Brasília and designed by Hersen Mendes Arquitetura, organized around material presence and human tempo. The project leans into a contemporary reading of Italian references, using color, texture, and geometry to choreograph circulation and set mood. Curves meet angles to steer movement, while a layered palette grounds the room in touch and tactility.
Curve the Flow
Movement starts at the outdoor balcony where a sinuous line frames seating and slows arrivals. Inside, the counter echoes that arc, acting as both anchor and guide for service and conversation, while perpendicular planes tighten or release the room with subtle shifts. Visitors follow these bends through zones that feel distinct yet continuous, with each turn revealing a new shade, surface, or rhythm.
Layer Material Contrasts
Stone drives the composition. Natural quartzite pairs with Silestone and rustic stones, their textures alternating between matte and polish to tune light and touch, while porcelain tiles and textured paints add another register of grain and reflection. Handmade Brazilian hydraulic tiles bring pattern and history underfoot, and MDF used responsibly keeps joinery consistent and efficient without visual heaviness. The mix reads contemporary and grounded—refined where needed, rugged where it counts.
Weave Art Into Dining
Art punctuates the material field. Four canvases commissioned for the room temper the mineral palette with color and gesture, while exclusive marble pieces and on-site built benches add mass and memory. Outside, a sculpture extends the conversation beyond the threshold, turning the approach into a short gallery walk that primes the meal. Natural adornments and objects from Brasília and abroad widen the lens without breaking the project’s cadence.
Embrace Tree and Street
An existing tree becomes a quiet center. The plan folds around its trunk, preserving vegetation and shading the balcony—an urban kindness that also improves comfort, while the restaurant reads connected to its site rather than imposed upon it. LED lighting trims energy use and sharpens color rendition at night, keeping tone true across stone and tile; the result stays calm, legible, and inviting.
Calibrate Mood Through Color
The palette channels Italian tradition through a Brasília lens. Warm earth tones sit against cool stone, with occasional saturated notes that gather around the counter and seating, while quieter neutrals rim the dining areas. Geometry, color, and texture do the daily work of hospitality: they invite, orient, and hold conversation.
As evening settles, surfaces catch a low glow and soften edges. The tree stirs in a light breeze, and the curved counter gathers another round—material, art, and service working in step.
Photography by Júlia Tótoli
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