Conversion of office space into a Latin American restaurant

This is the second venture by the group that introduced Peruvian food to London with its trend-setting restaurant, Ceviche in Soho. Together with Here Design, a product and image consultant company, we embarked to create a place that would transport guests to a ‘Picantería’ (popular diner) in Arequipa, the Peruvian capital of food. The challenge was to give what used to be a solicitors’ office in an old Victorian building the look of a colonial Peruvian villa. It was required that the basement also function as a restaurant where there was no natural light. For this, we created a slatted ceiling between the floor joists with warm LED lighting hidden over the slats to emulate daylight filtering through a pergola-look ceiling. The lights adjust throughout the day, from brighter to a sunset mood, to great effect.