Dusk Until Dawn
Designed by McKinney+Windeatt Architects, Amano is a new restaurant and bakery occupying the ground floor of two heritage buildings in Britomart.
Although large in capacity the single room has been designed as a sequence of spaces that feel cosy and intimate, combining banquette seating, bar leaners, casual areas and an extraordinarily long seating area looking into the kitchen.
It’s clear from the outset that a high level of care has gone into the assembly and articulation of the interior elements. A limited palette of natural materials – stone, mahogany and leather –is expressed in different forms throughout the tenancy and immediately draws the eye.
In their design statement McKinney+Windeatt explain that some material assemblies were invented specifically for this project to “emphasise the ‘nose-to-tail’ attitude of the restaurant where nothing is wasted; such as the back-lit mother of pearl counters (referencing the reclaimed harbour setting and the byproduct of the oyster industry) and the floor, which is terrazzo inlaid with scraps of beautiful stone slabs that are left-overs from stone fabricators”.
The raw beauty of the original building has been wonderfully preserved and enhanced by this new use; what was once an industrial warehouse, and for many recent years a carpark, is now a beautiful, varied and memorable interior. Just lovely.
