Worc Studio centres circular stone table at "reverential" Mexico City restaurant
Mexico-based Worc Studio referenced familial traditions and shared experiences at Savvia in Mexico City, placing a circular, communal table, inside a historic structure in the city's core.
The 153-square-metre (1,646-square-foot) restaurant is located in the mid-20th-century residential Humboldt building in the Centro Histórico. .
The studio said the exposed concrete of the structure opened up the possibility for adaptive reuse within the understated architecture.
For the interior build out, the study referenced historical "acts of sharing" and lineages of food as the main themes.
"The architecture responds to the act of sharing, drawing inspiration from our own family stories and the way food can gather people across time and generations," said Worc Studio, a Mexico City- and Madrid-based practice run by Ricardo Martínez and Camila Ureña.
WORC Studio opened up the ground-floor restaurant to the street, so that the "city's texture" could play a role in the scheme.
"The large opening to the exterior allows the city's texture, light and sound to softly enter, while the material palette echoes the muted tones of its surroundings," the studio said. "It's both an extension of the city and a refuge from it, a dialogue between interior intimacy and exterior vitality."
The primary room is focused on a large red stone table placed at the center of the space.
"It's both sculptural and symbolic," the studio said. "The table becomes the origin and organizing element of the project, around which glances, gestures and stories converge."
In order to put the act of hosting at the center of the restaurant, the kitchen was elevated to the second floor, freeing the ground level for dining, interaction, visibility and movement and flipping the usual spatial logic of a restaurant.
"The materials are tactile and evocative," the studio said. "Every material supports the concept of containment, hospitality and memory."
Stone comprises the table and vertical elements, grounding the space and giving it a ritualistic atmosphere, while brass wall details and metal lights provide a refined contrast.
Wood, stoneware and lighting add intimacy to the space.
"The greatest challenge lay in balancing reverence and transformation, to intervene in a building with memory without erasing its silence," the studio said.
"Every adjustment required precision – lifting the kitchen, suspending the ring of light, grounding the monumental table – each gesture had to feel inevitable, as though the space had always been waiting for it."
The studio said that atmosphere plays a role in binding people to space.
"Savvia reminded us that the most powerful design emerges when architecture becomes almost invisible, leaving only presence," the studio said.
Founded in 2022, Worc previously designed two boba tea shops in Mexico City, one with a glowing polycarbonate interior and one organized around a translucent tube.
The photography is by Zaickz Moz.
Project credits:
Architecture: WORC Ricardo Martínez + Camila Ureña
Collaborators: Ricardo Martínez, Camila Ureña, Isabel Ortega, Alejandra Magdaleno, Ximena Uribe
Lighting: Nuumbra, David Pompa, Primitivo
Surface Treatment: Corev, Interceramic
Furniture: Veta, Cacao
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