Tre de Tutto: Roman pop

In Rome’s Garbatella district, Studio Tamat has converted a bakery from the 1920s into the bar-restaurant “Tre de Tutto”. The architects have added contemporary elements in bright colors to the rough walls of the store – an approach that is emblematic of the transformation of the district from a working-class to a trendy neighborhood.

Since the mid-1990s, Rome’s Garbatella district has gradually been transformed from a problem area into a trendy neighborhood for culture and nightlife. Built in the early 1920s as a modern garden city, the district was intended to house the capital’s working class, but suffered from a bad reputation for many decades until students and creatives became aware of it, fascinated by its special morphology of a green village in the heart of the city. The sale to private individuals – and thus the refurbishment – of many social housing units has certainly contributed to this collective revaluation, as has the media’s appreciation of the neighborhood in films, series and literature. Nanni Moretti, one of the first to celebrate the beauty of Garbatella, immortalized it in a famous scene from his 1933 film “Dear Diary…”, in which he rides an olive-coloured Vespa through the tree-lined streets of the neighbourhood. To the tune of Leonard Cohen’s “I’m a lover”, the Roman director crosses a large archway flanked by twin buildings with concave façades and decorative stucco motifs executed in the so-called Roman barochetto, a style typical of Roman architecture at the beginning of the last century.

Studio Tamat recently completed its latest project on the first floor of the building immortalized in the film. The architects were commissioned to convert a disused bakery into a bar-restaurant for two young local entrepreneurs. “The store was very interesting in itself, with its bizarre triangular floor plan and its central three-part chairs,” says Matteo Soddu, who led the project. With the desire not to change the iconic image of the building, which was encoded by Moretti’s film among others, the architects initially decided to leave all the walls of the store in the condition in which they found them. The only change is a cladding of cobalt blue tiles that protects the lower part of all the walls.

On a uniform concrete floor, the first floor was divided into three areas defined by the building’s load-bearing brickwork: an entrance area, a counter area and a bistro area. The lower floor, which can be reached via a salmon-colored staircase, houses the restaurant, consisting of two dining rooms, a kitchen, a storage area and the toilets.

By taking advantage of the slope of the street running along the west façade of the building, the architects were able to create a separate entrance for the restaurant, which can now be accessed directly from the sidewalk via a few steps. The staircase consists of a curved metal sheet supported by an inclined beam and located between two perforated panels. The chosen color, a canary yellow, contrasts with the pastel tones of the walls, which are plastered and painted or covered with wallpaper. The contrast between the matte tones of the brickwork and the bright colors of the contemporary additions is generally echoed throughout the project: a decision made in collaboration with designer Sabina Guidotta, who was responsible for the color concept.

The furnishings for the new restaurant, which also come from Studio Tamat, were put together at an extremely low price. The tubular steel chairs, cleaned and restored, were purchased at a flea market. The lighting consists mainly of simple neon tubes, which were designed differently depending on requirements. The porcelain stoneware counter imitates the marble typical of Roman counters. Finally, the large rose neon sign became the new landmark of the restaurant, a tribute to the district – “Quanto è bella Garbatella” – and an object that attracts the attention of passers-by, especially in the evening. The combination of the rough existing building and the glamour of the new is convincing – it fits in well with the dynamics of this district with its peeling facades and trendy bars, which has now become a destination not only for many Romans, but also for many tourists.

Not a restaurant, but also in Rome: the Olympic Stadium. Read all about the history and architecture of the stadium here.