Venue 54 Restaurant
Open AD designed the pop up space of Venue 54 Restaurant with an industrial and fun vibe for guests to enjoy a unique dining experience in Riga.
A pop-up vegetarian restaurant located in an unfinished apartment on one of the top floors of a new residential skyscraper in Riga. The design concept is centred around the ideas of reuse and upcycling, challenging the conventional understanding of beauty. Since a buyer could appear at any time, the furniture needed to be easy to adapt, take apart and transport. This was also a low budget project, demonstrating that money is not the only way to achieve a luxurious feel – creativity and crossdisciplinary collaboration are another route.
The design team, chef and friends gathered at a number of hands-on workshops, building most of the furniture on site from items such as MDF offcuts, bricks and leftover concrete samples. Scaffolding creates the backbone of the bar and acts as a vertical shelf for growing select ingredients on site. It was decided that every piece should have another chance at life after the restaurant closes its doors at this location.
The restaurant inspires thought on the topic of consumerism. It illustrates that many items we consider ugly or discardable can actually be transformed and given use. It’s just a question of our attitude.
Design: Open AD
Photography: Alvis Rozenbergs
