Croma by Flash Restaurant

Croma by Flash came about as a reinterpretation of the mythical Flash Flash omelette restaurant designed by Correa-Milá, founded 50 years ago in Barcelona featuring an iconic Pop image: the photograph taken by photographer Leopoldo Pomés.

The found space was not ideal for the project due to its irregular proportions, excessively high ceilings for its reduced area. A space that could be described as uncomfortable, cold and not particularly welcoming. On the plus side however it had large windows onto the avenue outside facing Barcelona’s Avendia Diagonal.

The following interventions form part of the design:

These represent the key to unlocking the project; they came about as a response to the height of the found establishment, to lend a warmer more human scale, as well as lighting the interior, adding to the dream-like quality of the project. Within theses roof-lights the combination of mirrors with backlit figures means the iconic image is projected like a kaleidoscope lending greater depth and perspective to the interior and subverting the two-dimensional plane of the figure. For all intents and purposes the photographer looks alive and on the point of snapping a photo.

The restaurant is divided into four islands or zones, separate but connected. These three interiors are articulated by the bar counter which acts as the main element of furniture and the exterior which is connected to the outside via the large panoramic window. All of these areas are configured by white banquette perimeter seating that allows for different groupings of tables according to requirements at any given time. In order to draw visual attention to the interior and exterior space and indeed the entire establishment, the farthest area from the front window has been raised on a dais or terrace which faces the restaurant and thus providing for a greater continuity between the inside and the outside.

Combined with the photographic image in strictly Black and White, a scale of greys is the predominant colour in the restaurant with touches of yellow as a nod to the Kodak box of film. The roof-lights are provided with an orange hue like the gelatine filters used in photography studios and the bathrooms have a colour palette reminiscent of the late 1960s.

Except for the flooring and the walls all the finishes such as the wood, the metal and the laminates are in gloss which sets off an endless round of reflective games and lighting that reverberate that given off by the roof-lights.

Divided into two sections, on the one hand an upper frieze, the oversized signage measuring 15 metres in length responding to the scale of Barcelona’s grand avenue, Avenida Diagonal, while the lower part, mostly glass held in place with a stainless steel frame expressed in rings which themselves refer to camera lenses that act as a macro-filter marking the transition between the outside scale and the warmer scale of the interior.

Design: Llamazares Pomés Arquitectura
Construction: Construner
Photography: José Hevia