01
Arches
Round openings of ribbed travertine, edged in brass, frame the rooms beyond.
F&B, Corporate & Commercial
254 | La Donna Restaurant
Location
Portofino Hotel, The Heart of Europe, Dubai, UAE
Type
All-day dining restaurant
The idea
Round arches, pale oak, sage and cane.
La Donna is the all-day dining restaurant of Portofino Hotel, in The Heart of Europe, Dubai. Guests arrive through deep round arches of ribbed travertine, edged in brass, into a run of rooms that open one into the next.
Over the main hall, a barrel vault of ribbed pale oak runs the length of the room, above a wall of round windows planted with palms. Round marble tables stand on fluted bases, with cane-backed chairs upholstered in sage. A fluted sage counter and clusters of petal pendants mark the centre, on pale marble floors laid in a large geometric pattern.
Material palette
Ribbed travertine
Entrance arches
Ribbed pale oak
Barrel-vault ceiling
Fluted sage
Service counter
Cane & sage
Dining chairs
About the project
Through the arches, towards the windows
Guests pass under the first arch and see the next room framed beyond it, so the restaurant is understood as a series of thresholds. The dining hall follows, its length emphasised by the vault overhead, with the service counter and pendants gathered at its centre. The walk ends at the window tables, where seats line the glazing and daylight arrives filtered through the palms.
Ribbed travertine shapes each entrance arch, a texture that reads clearly in raking light, and brass trims its edges. Overhead, ribbed pale oak lines the barrel vault and warms the hall. The service counter is fluted and finished in sage, a colour repeated on the dining chairs, where cane brings a light, open weave to the seating. At this restaurant in Portofino Hotel, Dubai, the palette stays soft from morning to evening.
La Donna restaurant in Dubai serves the Portofino Hotel all day, so the room has to work from breakfast to late evening. By day, daylight does most of the work, entering through the round windows and softened by the palms, while the oak vault and petal pendants keep the hall warm once the light fades. Breaking the plan into rooms framed by arches lets quiet morning tables and fuller evening service share the space without the hall feeling empty or crowded. Cane, sage and pale marble suit a relaxed hotel restaurant rather than a formal one. It shows how IAIA approaches restaurant interior design.
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