Māsa Restaurant
Māsa restaurant in Riga showcases a modern interior design by balbek bureau emphasizing locality and authenticity, featuring restored walls, pixel paintings, and a unique bathroom design, created.
Māsa is a restaurant in Riga with natural wine and local products from Latvian farmers. The clients are a couple of restaurateurs specializing in gluten-free baking. They wanted the interior to be modern while conveying a sense of locality, warmth, and authenticity. For their business, they chose a quiet part of the historic center of Riga, away from the main tourist routes.
Māsa is housed in a historic building. The space is bright and airy, with large windows. During the dismantling, we uncovered layers of paint on the walls, each telling a story of the building’s transformations – we liked this effect and decided to preserve the walls as they were. During the work on Māsa, the building’s facade was restored and painted in a shade of paint coordinated with the city authorities of Riga.
At the entrance, guests are welcomed by a small vestibule enclosed by a curtain. The main seating area is located around the perimeter of the restaurant, with a separate central dining area.
The entrance to the vestibule is covered by a gray curtain with cross-stitch symbols and patterns associated with childhood and family – there are images of a house, a sister, and a bunny. The seating area on the right features tables with chairs and a banquette that stretches along the wall. On the wall, you can see the layering of the previous paintings, which remind of the layers of time in the room.
The central area consists of a dining table and eight armchairs. It is enclosed by a rounded side station that seems to sort of hug the seating. It was made to order according to our design to accommodate the future collection of natural wines.
The wall in this area is adorned with square-shaped pixel paintings, each with sheet metal embossing. The designs represent various symbols, such as a hand holding a family home. In an old wooden frame, which seems to have been passed down from generation to generation, there is a cross-stitch embroidery – an image of a caring sister.
To the left of the bar is the serving area, with its countertop and inner bar made of stainless steel, as well as a custom-made side station next to it. The yellow partition in this area visually echoes the yellow accents found throughout the main hall, including the yellow glass blocks of the bathroom. It also separates the cold light needed for the operational area of the kitchen.
The rounded cornice around the perimeter of the main hall also inspired the shape of the bathroom – a semicircle made of glass blocks. On the one side, they are glossy to reflect light, and on the other – frosted to avoid being seen through and maintain privacy.
A key design element of the bathroom is the Antonio Lupi Albume sink in Ambra Cristalmood, which mirrors the transparency effect of the glass blocks. Next to it, a curved shelf for soap and napkin dispensers is built into the seam between the glass blocks. The full-wall mirror visually expands the space – we added lighting around its perimeter, which creates an appealing gradient on the glass.
Design: balbek bureau
Photography: Ivan Avdieienko