El Tragaluz Restaurant by Adolfo Perez Lopez

Mid-century earthiness meets art deco slickness in today’s knockout restaurant, which is located in the ancient town of Rota – a sleepy coastal fishing village in southern Spain. Set within a traditional 18^th century courtyard house, El Tragaluz Restaurant is designed by Spanish firm Adolfo Pérez López, who were briefed to restore the space back to its former glory after an unsympathetic renovation in the early ‘90s.

The resulting design is the perfect blend of old and new, defined by a clean and crisp lightness that lets the building’s original proportions shine. The central bar is a clever nod to the traditional internal courtyards of 18^th century Spanish homes. The walls and the bar are clad with timber, laid purposefully to allow the grain to create a strong visual play on perspective – framing the bar and making it the key focal point of the space. The rich warmth of the timber gives this space a cosy canopy-like feeling, effectively channeling the comfortably private nature of internal courtyards. Natural elements add to the courtyard interpretation, including the sculptural tree at the bar, organic shapes in the hardware and whimsical butterfly artworks. Above, the ceiling is open with large louvers to allow plenty of natural light into the space – the thickness and depth of the louvers also very successfully adds to the sense of scale and height in the restaurant.

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Furnished with traditional mid-century furniture and tones, including Eames chairs in ’50s blue, sunburst clocks and teak buffets , the restaurant has a comfortable lived-in feeling, like being in someone’s home rather than an upscale dining room. Art Deco elements are found in the materiality, from the bold checkered floor to the circular geometric light fittings, perhaps harking back to the more classical origins of the space. El Tragaluz sits firmly in the rare but very pleasing space between refined and relaxed, a little gem that would no doubt be an unexpected but very welcome surprise to those adventuring through southern Spain.