MEGRE INTERIORS announces the grand reveal of their second restaurant designed for Marriott Hotels. Kamyshi Restaurant is inspired by the peaceful landscapes of the banks of Voronezh River in the southern Russian city of Voronezh.
Global Design & Architecture Design Awards 2023
Second Award | Interior (Hospitality) (Concept)
Project Name: KAMYSHI Restaurant
Category: Hospitality (Interior)
Studio Name: MEGRE INTERIORS
Following the success of award-winning Sartoria Lamberti Restaurant at the Ritz Carlton Moscow, MEGRE INTERIORS and Marriott Hotels have collaborated again to redefine the understanding of the hotel restaurant experience.
Concept background:
Initially, the Marriott Voronezh came to MEGRE INTERIORS with a request for a partial renovation of the hotel’s two working restaurants. MEGRE INTERIORS designers used their proprietary concept development framework that analyses project context, space, guest profiling and business model for in-depth analyses and advised Marriott Hotels against such approach. Instead, MEGRE INTERIORS proposed to join the two spaces into one strong concept. This would provide considerable operational benefits, reducing cost, waste, and creating a much better guest experience.
Design concept:
Even though the restaurant is located in the epicenter of the metropolis, MEGRE INTERIORS has curated an atmosphere that submerges guests into an atmosphere of peace and relaxation.
Tranquility of local nature and the Voronezh River, visible from the restaurants windows, became the primary sources of inspiration. Kamishi’s reception area is an atmospheric portal between the bustling hotel lobby and the restaurant. It allows one to sneak a peek at what awaits inside.
Here begins the immersion in a tranquil environment wrapped in cream tones and soft lighting. Once inside, guests are greeted by an elaborate open kitchen with unique counter system. This sculptural piece was inspired by river boulders and provides an atmospheric base to hotel’s breakfast service with integrated equipment.
A wood-burning pizza oven and central island upon which Chef de Cuisine assembles his plates are a mesmerizing central feature too. The neutral color scheme of creams is complemented with golden oak birch woods and is reminiscent of autumn coastal landscapes and Indian summer.
Rippled chrome panels and arches mirror and reflect the soft lighting, creating a hue of flowing river water. This movement makes one feel as if a light breeze had just blown through the room.
The plush, pillow-like sofas, call upon guests to plunge into an atmosphere of relaxation and slow living. The walls and floors are finished in earthy tones, where a play between rough, textured, smooth and glossy surfaces keeps one’s senses engaged. The unusual ceiling is adorned in unique artisan lighting fixtures and moon-like craters that host accent lighting.
The image of the river bank landscapes is reinforced through live greenery and trees typical to this locale. Apart from main dining, the restaurant has two Private Dining Suites, each with a unique atmosphere that feels more like a trendy residential dining room, then a restaurant environment. The core inspiration for this project was the views from the restaurant upon Voronezh River banks. MEGRE INTERIORS designers made this view one of the key features of the space and repeatedly referenced it in the restaurant’s design features.
From the KHMARA lamps by Sergey Mahno, which means “clouds,” to the rippled chrome ceilings, to the pebbles on the columns and floor, and twigs on the ceiling near the terrace – each element takes one back to the core concept.
The link between the view and the restaurant, the outside and the indoor was so important that MEGRE INTERIORS architects spent considerable effort re-organizing the building’s glass facade, to create a structural capacity for retractable glass partitions. Because of this and careful styling, when open, there is no separation between the atmosphere of the terrace and indoor dining space adjacent to it.
MEGRE INTERIORS team is not mere dreamers, they are do-ers. The concepts, designed through a proprietary concept development the framework created by Yuna Megre, are dreamy ideas with strong roots in operational, business and context restrictions and thus go through seamlessly through execution.
Designers wanted to erase the division between indoors and outdoors – they had to reconfigure the building’s structural grazing. They wanted to have a beautiful unique food service area – they designed it from scratch, working with kitchen equipment producers to develop unique technologies to marry functionality and sculptural level aesthetics. The list is endless.
With a full-service approach, MEGRE INTERIORS team went through a challenging development, construction and roll-out journey hand-in-hand with our client, operators, the hotel and suppliers and cannot wait to see the happy faces of the first guests. As MEGRE INTERIORS always say to their clients – you are the muses for our creation, but it is the guests who we design for. Everything designers do is for people, for our guests, who’s lives we aim to enrich with comfort and pleasant experiences.
At Kamyshi, MEGRE INTERIORS team has curated a restaurant with a strong concept, a distinctive, and yet cozy interior, a layout that is versatile and adaptable to different use scenarios. It is as pleasant for a family lunch, with children free to play in the kid’s area, a romantic dinner on the terrace with a late summer breeze and sweeping views, an undisturbed business meeting in one of the Private Dining Suites, a great dinner with friends in the bustle of the main dining room, a delicious relaxed breakfast, and of course, an après-le-dîner cigar and cognac in the dedicated lounge.
Kamyshi Restaurant may be an oasis of calm and tranquility in the middle of this bustling megapolis, but it is set to become the hottest gastronomic spot in Voronezh.
