Umami in Japanese culture is the “Fifth taste”, the most sophisticated: sensory and elegant, a starting but also the arrival point in the idea of ​​Emanuele Svetti. Combining the search for high quality fusion cuisine with a “raw” interior design, in some details skinny, but at the same time spectacular, playing on the contaminations between cultures and traditions. This is Umami restaurant: a place that connect the Eastern tradition with the Tuscan bucolic style, typical of the place in which the restaurant is located, while it differs from the others for the originality and diversity of the proposal

Located in the “Parco Monumentale” in Cortona in “Giardini del Parterre”, a work of the Engineer Allegretti, nineteenth-century origin, the building of the restaurant has been used for about 60 years for catering, renewing itself and proposing today a new image, a metropolitan image, which looks at the context with healthy irreverence, talking without fear with the context made of oaks and secular oaks, and creating synergy through the use of modulated shadows and the chromatic choice of a very deep green, which recalls the burnt lands and the undergrowth typical of these magnificent lands

The will of Emanuele Svetti and his Crew was to create a comparison, which leads to a synergy with the external environment: that is to juxtapose the old with the new, as well as the smooth to the rough, the rural to the built, made possible in this case through the wise use of stabilized vertical green walls and large windows that make the environment permeable, bright and perfectly integrated with the glaucous green of the park’s vegetation, even reaching the optical effect of a “natural continuation” between inside and outside of the building

The restaurant has two floors, an area of ​​about 200 square meters and a capacity of about 80 place settings. On the upper floor, the interior space communicates with the outdoor terrace, symbolically divided by a portal covered in brass and the green that covers the interior wall both internally and externally, as if to symbolize the passage towards a new evolution of the interior space. And it is upon entering the terrace covered by an aluminum and glass structure that the visitor can enjoy the magnificence of the view of Valdichiana, which starts from the slopes of Monte Amiata to reach the “edges” of that natural mirror which is Lake Trasimeno, illuminating each time on the ability to marvel at the beauty of this land

The two floors are connected by a staircase, which was steep and narrow, and today has been revisited and enhanced by the Studio, thanks to the skillful use of a stretched and backlit ceiling, which has made it brighter, and through the use of a wallpaper in light tones, in contrast with the outline, but which communicates a strong reference to culture

Umami Cortona is a suggestive place, which makes the panoramas its own, like the breathtaking sunsets of this part of Tuscany, to create a natural setting, each time unique and unrepeatable, combined with the attention to detail and custom furnishings which make the place an excellence restaurant with stunning views. The Umami restaurant is an example of how nature can meet architecture and create an intense and minimal green space, fluidly permeated by art and creativity

Project: Studio Svetti Architecture | Emanuele Svetti Architetto

Photo credlits: Andrea Bartolozzi Photographer

Category: Fusion restaurant

Surface: 200 square meters

Status: Completed

Location: Viale Giardini Pubblici Cortona (AR))

Suppliers

Vertical green walls: LinfaDecor

Wallpapers: Texturae

Painting: Sikkens

Resin: Art Paint by Stefano Viti

Outdoor Dehor: Frigerio

Custom furniture: Bimar Arredo Contract

Seats: Emu

Cushions: CeC Italia on the drawing by Studio Svetti Architecture

Tissus: Pierre Frey

Lightings: Flos

Neon signboard: Neon Art

Domotics: G Smart technology

Talking About Studio Svetti

Emanuele Svetti was born in Cortona in 1976 and after completing his training at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence, specializing in Industrial Design under the guidance of the master Roberto Segoni, he founded Studio Svetti Architecture in 2004.

Thus began a path of research and technical-design in-depth analysis, which goes beyond theory and project, aimed at the rediscovery of craftsmanship and at the search for new materials that can be applied to industrial production, or traditional materials to be reinterpreted in a modern key in what he likes to call “New Tuscan Style”. Emanuele Svetti took his first steps in the interior world by interacting with numerous companies in the furniture and contract sector for which he takes care of product design and market strategy. In his anti-traditional conception, he blends modern trends with typical styles of fashion and design, combining spatial rigor with strokes of glamour made of matter and color. His interiors are easily recognizable by the essentiality and rigor of the structures that literally explode in their dialogue with the material and put man at the center of everything. That man, whose soul is deeply tied to his land, Tuscany, full of references to nature, its colors and materiality.

“Each project is a journey, like every journey is a project” – this is how Emanuele Svetti tells the emotional melting pot that comes from the encounter with new cultures. The Architect’s personal experiences and passions influence and reflect on the conception of a new work, as well as everything that happens in the world: each project is a wise mixture of sensations, elements, form and matter, colors and intelligence emotional.

The professional activity grew both nationally and internationally with the development of numerous projects from California to North Africa, from Russia to China until the opening of the London office in 2016. Studio Svetti Architecture thus dedicates itself to the design of accomodating, directional and commercial spaces, with particular attention to the study of interiors and then to residential architecture. It is here that Emanuele Svetti expresses luxury in the use of materials and the attention to details, where the calibration of the balance of shadows creates rare spaces in which design is a touch of glamour. A luxury that is never shown off and that aims  at reaching a timeless charm thanks to the contribution of a “smart” technology, practical and sustainable from an economic, ecological and relational point of view.