Vienna is apparently in the throes of pizza madness. To make a new establishment Disco Volante (or Flying Disc) that much more fun than the rest, the owners hired architect Lukas Galehr of cutting-edge design collective Madame Mohr. They asked for a restaurant that evokes an Italian trattoria but "also transports the lightness of the Italo-Disco era of the 1970's and 80s." Galehr's genius solution: a center-of-the-action pizza oven that doubles as a disco ball. One that spins.
Photographs by Lucas Schaller via Dezeen.
Above: By day, the oven looks like a silver igloo. By night, when the colored spotlights are switched on, it becomes the disco ball that fell to earth and sends thousands of reflections dancing across the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Above: The duel purpose disco ball was created by encasing a wood-fired pizza oven in heat-resistant concrete (Madame Mohr studio fabricated this themselves using CNC milling technology; the turning mechanism is tucked under the baking surface). Some 7,500 mirrored tiles were later applied on site; they shine against a backdrop of black mosaic tiles. Anchored by the stove's central chimney, the disco ball fully rotates about once a minute.
Above: The rest of the canteen is kept to a clean-lined black and white palette brightened with touches of green and silver. Tile-work used to demarcate areas and an opened-up ceiling (excavated from the space's former use as a grocery) lend a crisp look.
Above: We like the way the windows (and doors, too) are framed in green.
Above: True, you may not want to transform your own oven into a disco ball. But there's a lesson to be learned here about the power of a bold design move in a simple setting. Call it doing the bump.
We get some of our freshest (and even most economical) kitchen design ideas from restaurants. Browse our favorite spots, and also don't miss our kitchen gallery.