Adisi, meaning 'new' in Amharic, is an Ethiopian restaurant set in New York City's Chelsea Market serving Ethiopian made fine wines and modern Ethiopian food.
I was inspired by the geometry and Afro-Futurism that African Brutalist Architecture expresses; the other worldly quality of the structures is what I identify with most because they feel transcendent and remind us that the world is a wildly diverse place in a very big universe. Like all great architecture, African Brutalism makes us feel like we're a part of something much bigger than ourselves while never forgetting where we've come from. One of my favorite historic era's is the 70's and so I've married African Brutalism, Afro-Futurism and 70's aesthetics in this project.
I've borrowed the exploration of form in this restaurant design and used Ethiopia's native homes and natural materials as inspiration, you'll see the dome clay homes in the dining room lighting and in the seating booths. You'll see metallics and geometric shapes from the brutalist buildings in the facade and feature wall. I've also pulled colors from the rich embroidery that the people stitch into their cultural garments and dressed some of the columns/walls in thread to reference the practice.
Presentation:
