马德里餐厅 Torcuato 的 Instagrammable 设计亮点

Location: C. Serrano, 61, 28006 Madrid, Spain

Design: Pepe Leal

Client: La Fábrica

Plenty of colour, tactile surfaces and a mixture of unique influences lend Madrid restaurant and bar Torcuato an Instagrammable aesthetic.

Key features

Restaurant and bar Torcuato is located on the top floor of Madrid's ABC Serrano commercial centre, the former headquarters of newspaper ABC and magazine  Blanco y Negro. The restaurant's name, design and menu are derived from the world travels of late writer Torcuato Luca de Tena, the grandson of the newspaper and magazine's founder. Designer Pepe Leal created a dynamic style throughout the space, with each room fashioned in a different aesthetic. The menu draws influence from cuisines all over the world and the interior's styling reflects this diversity of influences. 'The space is as eclectic as the years from which the building dates. At the end of the 19th century it was very fashionable to mix different styles,' says Leal. 'In this space, neo-17th century, Granadan and French classicism influences were just some of the sources of inspiration.'

Entering the restaurant there is a corridor with tables, decorated as a gallery with two main dining rooms to either side. The first room has large windows filling the space with natural light during the day. At night, the room is lit by pink-neon waterfall light fixtures. It is outfitted with marble tables, yellow velvet seating and a mirrored wall filled with shelves of glass vases of flowers and other plants. The second dining room is a step into 'Marie Antoinette's France' with ostentatious moulding, baby pink couches and bench seating, and a pastel-and-gold fresco ceiling. An equally ornate light fixture occupies the centre of the room, decorated with a colourful cellophane-like material. The adjacent bar space takes on palpably darker palette, with clear Art Deco references. Moving outside, the rooftop terrace has a more tropical feeling with ample greenery and colourful hand-painted murals.

Frame's take

With millennial pink and yellow velvet couches, plenty of plants and a statement chandelier-like light sculpture, Torcuato's multifarious and very photogenic aesthetic seems like it was made for Instagram. Having visited the restaurant myself, I also could not resist reaching for my phone to snap a photo as I made my way to my seat – and as each course found itself in front of me.

Though we are well into the age of Instagram and the so-called 'Instagram aesthetic', harnessing the power of social media through design has proven itself as a viable tool across many sectors including hospitality. In fact, 72 per cent of Instagram users make purchase decisions based on something they saw on the app, according to Retail TouchPoints. While a trip to a store is different from visiting a restaurant or bar, this speaks to the power that the social media platform has on consumer behaviour.

Torcuato is certainly not the first – nor last – hospitality space to employ this approach, which has been effective at reeling patrons in in a competitive marketplace. 'Nothing can be called too Instagrammable,' Joe Cheng, founder of Cheng Chung Design, previously said to Frame. 'After all, design is about positioning, packaging and presentation. In these connected times, everyone acts as a disseminator. It's not our original purpose as designers to make a [space] social-media-friendly, but it does expand its influence.'