Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe Building, Bar Design Photos

Masa Restaurant Bogotá

Contemporary Retail Architecture Design in Colombia design by Studio Cadena, Architects

post updated 13 Aug 2020 ; 4 Jan 2019

Masa Restaurant Bogotá Building

Design: Studio Cadena

Masa, a New Restaurant Designed by Studio Cadena Opens in Bogotá, Colombia

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

New York City-based Studio Cadena has designed Masa, a new restaurant in a northern residential neighborhood of Bogotá, Colombia. The restaurant is built at residential scale, on the site of a former house that had gone through multiple residential and commercial iterations over the years.

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

This is the second and largest space that Studio Cadena has designed for Masa, the first, also in Bogotá, is a smaller cafe that opened in 2014.

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

The 7,500-square-foot restaurant is organized as a grouping of distinct but interconnected volumes, each with a particular function. At one corner sits a cafe and bakery, which flows into central entrance area that is adjacent to a dining volume and separate retail space.

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

An outdoor patio space provides garden seating and connects the public spaces to the kitchen in the rear. Elements such as a long concrete bar, cylindrical wood-clad service station, and a multi-tiered seating platform at the entrance serve to modulate the space.

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

Says Studio Cadena founder and principal Benjamin Cadena about his design, “The idea is that everything is connected, but the spaces remain fragmented for intimacy. In any space in the restaurant you might hear or smell things that give a sense of the adjacent spaces, but it isn’t completely open. The design defines distinct spatial volumes yet allows you to move through them with the freedom of an open plan.”

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

From the exterior, the triangular cutout windows and entry open the facade to the street, meeting the life of the sidewalk and revealing the life within the restaurant. The geometric windows, including a large circular window that looks into the garden from the kitchen, adds to the playful, graphic quality of the space’s indoor-outdoor language.

Says rchitect Benjamin Cadena, “This project’s indoor-outdoor continuity is intentional, but presents a challenge in Bogotá, where the weather is perennial spring or fall, and can be cold, chilly, or wet. In this case we wanted to be sure that you could always feel the presence of what’s being made here, and that the space remained open to itself and to the street, and was inviting to the city.”

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

A playfulness continues in the surfaces, fixtures and furniture, all designed by Studio Cadena. Distinct sculptural lighting designs serve to distinguish the different volumes – large paper globes light the corner café, while hand-painted metal mesh hung from the ceiling catches the natural light in the middle volume. A unique floor made from large, hand-cast terrazzo tiles embedded within traditional terrazzo covers the interior public spaces. The walls are made of textured, cast-in-place concrete.

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

These elements are born of an interest in updating techniques commonly used in Bogotá (such as terrazzo) as well as introducing new ones that are unique to the area all part of a loose, cross-referential design context, and a restaurant that requires minimal branding.

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

“The strategy from a design standpoint was that the building does the work”, says Cadena.

Photos by Ambiente Familiar

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

Design Highlights

7,500-square-foot restaurant is organized as a grouping of distinct but interconnected volumes, each with a particular function:

Elements such as a long concrete bar, cylindrical wood-clad service station, and a multi-tiered seating platform at the entrance serve to modulate the space

Geometric windows, including a triangular cutout window on the exterior and large circular window that looks into the garden from the kitchen, adds to the playful, graphic quality of the space’s indoor-outdoor language.

Surfaces, fixtures and furniture including a unique floor made from large, hand-cast terrazzo tiles embedded within traditional terrazzo, all made of textured, cast-in-place concrete, as well as distinct sculptural lighting designs, all designed by Studio Cadena

Studio Cadena is an award-winning design and architecture studio interested in engaging contemporary life, the city and its people – in designing new and captivating spaces, places and experiences for those who use them.

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

The architecture studio is young, yet combines substantial experience in the US and abroad, ranging from high-level strategic planning for cities, to cultural, commercial, residential and civic projects – museums, libraries, private homes, interiors, exhibitions and furniture. Founded by Benjamin Cadena and based in Brooklyn and Bogotá, the studio was selected in 2016 by the American Institute of Architects for its biennial New Practices NY Award.

Masa Restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia Cafe

Architect Benjamin Cadena is originally from Bogotá, Colombia and holds a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and Master of Architecture from the same institution. Before founding the studio, he worked at Rice+Lipka Architects, Stan Allen Architect, WORKac and Atelier Bow-Wow in New York and Tokyo.

Masa Restaurant Bogotá building

Benjamin teaches architecture design studios at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation and has previously taught and been an invited critic at numerous institutions. He serves as co-chair of the AIA New Practices Committee in New York, is a Fellow of the Urban Design Forum and the recipient of the 2016 AIA New York New Practices biennial award.

Masa Restaurant Bogotá building
photos © Benjamin Cadena

Masa is an artisanal bakery and all-day café located in Bogotá, Colombia. Founded in 2011 by New York transplants, sisters Silvana and Mariana Villegas, it has quickly become a darling in the city’s food scene. Masa is known for its drive to be unique and the sisters’ single-minded pursuit to produce the best bread in Bogotá. Design plays an important role in their vision of how food should be served and enjoyed.

They seek to create environments that embody their commitment to quality and provide a calm respite
from the noisy city.

Masa Restaurant Bogotá building
photo © Benjamin Cadena

Masa Restaurant Bogotá – Building Information

Client: Masa
Location: Bogota, Colombia
Use: Retail
Area 7,500sf Completed October 2018

Project Credits
Architect: Benjamin Cadena, Studio Cadena
Construction & Coordination: MRB S.A. and ODQ S.A.S.
Structural Engineer: Ingeniería y Proyectos de Infraestructura
Mechanical Engineer: ARQUITECTURA & BIOCLAMIATICA
Electrical Engineer: JGMC Ingeniería
Plumbing Engineer: BYC INGENIEROS HIDRAULICOS
Geotechnical Engineer: Alfonso Uribe S & Cia.
Lighting Consultant: ClaroOscuro Lighting Design
Acoustical Consultant: Ambientes Arquitecturales
AV Consultant: John Osorio
Millwork Fabrication: LETTO

Masa Restaurant Bogotá building

Masa Restaurant Bogotá building
photographs © Benjamin Cadena

contact@studiocadena.com ; www.studiocadena.com

Masa Restaurant Bogotá images / information 030119

Masa, Bogota – ll 70 # 4-83 Bogota DC

Location: Bogotá, Colombia, South America

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