The spaces where we eat are settings where culture, identity, ritual, and experience intertwine. The table becomes a creative meeting point and interior design as a tool capable of amplifying emotions, stories and links with the community.
In this context, chefs, designers and creative professionals raised their concerns at the latest edition of Interihotel. New ways of understanding gastronomy, from the reinterpretation of tradition to the most radical experimentation. The ideas shared by different voices on the international scene draw a common map: that of a gastronomy that transcends the plate to become a spatial language and a cultural act, where design is a key ingredient.
Trend 1 | Gastronomy as an ephemeral and narrative experience
Temporality is positioned as a creative value in contemporary gastronomic spaces. In contrast to permanence, an innovative way of creating restaurants emerges, like intense and memorable stories, designed to exist for a limited time and leave a mark on those who experience them. Interior design becomes a narrative tool that builds atmospheres, evokes emotions, and creates memories.
This vision is perfectly represented in the work of Luca Pronzato, Parisian sommelier and entrepreneur, founder of WE ARE ONA, a creative and culinary studio based in Paris with an international presence. Born in 2019 after his time in haute cuisine -including his time at NOMA, Copenhagen- the project arises with the ambition to discover new ways of creating gastronomic activities from a transversal perspective that integrates strategy, concept, design and production.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
WE ARE ONA conceives each pop-up restaurant as a complete work of art. Spaces that are activated for just a few days and that welcome dozens of diners in environments designed in detail, in collaboration with chefs and creatives from disciplines such as art, fashion or architecture. For Pronzato, designing a restaurant means thinking of each element as part of a story: the atmosphere, the architecture, the service, the food, and the narrative that connects everything. Even the ephemeral can – and should – become an emotional souvenir.
An example of this approach is the temporary restaurant created in Paris during Art Basel, conceived as a tribute to the invisible trades of the kitchen. From fountains that evoked washing areas to stage sets that played with the idea of the dirty dish, interior design was used as a conceptual language to reinforce the message. Thus, gastronomy ceases to be merely consumption and becomes reflection, performance, and shared memory.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Trend 2 | Back to the table: ritual, play and design
At a time when the gastronomic experience tends towards spectacularisation, some projects reclaim the value of the essential: the table as a space for relationship, play and collective memory. Far from seeing it as a simple functional support, this trend proposes rethinking the objects, gestures and rituals that accompany the act of eating, turning them into creative tools capable of connecting tradition and contemporaneity.
This perspective defines the work of Tiberi Club, the creative studio founded in Barcelona by Helena Fradera, Miquel Ruiz, Rocío Iglesias and Roger Vila. With backgrounds ranging from architecture to design, journalism or theatre, the collective has built a practice that is difficult to categorise, situated between gastronomy, art direction and the creation of experiences. The study summarises it as a way of “celebrating the act of eating” through a sensory, cultural, and anthropological perspective.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
In her works, food ceases to be merely sustenance and becomes language, space, and a shared event. Through play, Tiberi Club alters elements we take for granted -the table, the tablecloth, a bib, the lighting or even the layout of the space- to observe how the social dynamics around them change. A paradigmatic example is the Mantelbabero project, born in a calçotada in the Ebro Delta, where a simple design gesture transformed a popular ritual into a collective, playful and memorable experience.
Interior design plays a central role here. Not as a set, but as a system that drives processes: entrances and exits, routes, relationships between bodies, lights and objects. From kitchens integrated into art galleries to tableless events or ephemeral installations in public spaces.
Tradition, play and design are the three pillars that underpin this trend. A way to revisit gastronomic spaces as living places, where the popular and the contemporary converse, and where the act of eating recovers its most human, collective and experimental dimension.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Trend 3 | One identity, multiple spaces: coherence in mutation
In the contemporary gastronomic field, brand identity is consolidated as a structural element of design. In contrast to the repetition of formulas, a way of understanding spaces emerges where the same identity can transform, expand and adapt to different uses without losing coherence. Restaurants, cafes, wine bars or hybrid spaces share the same DNA, but express themselves differently depending on the context and the moment.
This idea is exemplified in the collaboration between Neutrale and the architecture studio DIIR, led by Íñigo Palazón along with David Meana, Ignacio Navarro and Ricardo Fernández. An alliance initiated in 2020 that, years later, has resulted in seven distinct spaces under the same narrative, becoming a continuous laboratory of exploration within the hospitality sector.
The tour begins with an initial experimental store that combined fashion and coffee, and continues with concepts such as Casa Coffee Shop -a benchmark for specialty coffee in Madrid- Casa Day & Night, Casa Wine Bar or Casa Música, a Hi-Fi bar where sound is established as an essential part. Each project introduces a new use and a new atmosphere, but all share a recognisable identity, built from architectural rigour, material sensitivity and a clear narrative.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
At DIIR, interior design is conceived as a system that goes beyond aesthetics. The design articulates processes, routes and relationships, taking care of every constructive and material detail, but also leaving room for appropriation by people. Sober, timeless and seemingly empty environments function as flexible containers that allow gastronomy, sound, light or social activity to fully activate the place.
This trend demonstrates how the restaurant and hospitality industries are becoming ideal environments for innovation. A single brand can give rise to multiple experiences if there is a solid identity and a constant willingness to experiment. The result is spaces that evolve with the city, engage with their urban environment, and build a lasting relationship with those who inhabit them.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Trend 4 | Designing like cooking: interior design as a total experience
Interior design ceases to be an accessory element and becomes an essential ingredient. Designing a restaurant involves thinking about a comprehensive experience, where space, atmosphere, materials, technology, and the relationship with each diner come together coherently. An approach that understands design as a sensitive, strategic process deeply connected to those who inhabit it.
This view is shared by Rosa Colet, Miquel Àngel Julià, Felip Neri Gordi and Pablo Soto, teachers of the Master in Design of Gastronomic Spaces and Environments, who defend a way of devising gastronomic spaces based on the analogy between designing and cooking. The ingredients are always the same, but it is the proportion, the combination, and the intention that define the final result and make each project unique.
From this perspective, strategy, concept, restaurant philosophy, and materiality are understood as inseparable parts of the same system. Design is built from listening: understanding the client, the diner, and the context becomes essential to creating environments that work beyond aesthetics.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
In a scenario where sustainable, accessible and emotionally stimulating spaces are in demand, interior design and technology become key tools. Lighting, sound, art, decoration, and interaction with the chefs are all integrated to create coherent, personalised, and memorable environments, capable of accompanying the gastronomic experience at all levels.
