Excerpt: Tandem Restaurant by Laura Ortin Arquitectura reinterprets a narrow space as a warm, domestic interior rooted in craft, product, and honesty. The design creates a dialogue with the museum-preserved 12th-century Medina wall, using contemporary materials, soft brown plaster, dark wood, and subdued lighting to evoke history without imitation, merging heritage and modern dining into a continuous, intimate experience.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Tándem is one of the most promising restaurants in the Region of Murcia. In a short time, it has established itself as a gastronomic benchmark, recognized for its motto: “craft, product, and honesty.” With this principle in mind, they decided to transform their space to truly reflect their essence.
What moved us most from the very beginning was their idea of home: that guests would enter a space that feels close, warm, and simple—in other words, a pure expression of who they are.
Interpreting Without Imitating: Tándem safeguards a unique treasure: museum-preserved archaeological remains of a section of the 12th-century wall of the Medina of Murcia. For us, this discovery became the leitmotif of the project—ensuring the new space would engage in a dialogue with this historic site.
Like a temporal continuum, the interior merges with the atmosphere of the remains without resorting to literal imitation, thus avoiding artifice. We chose contemporary materials whose textures, colors, and lighting evoke the past in an honest way.
The soft brown plaster recalls the weathered lime walls of the old fortifications. The warm, subdued lighting echoes that of museum displays, transporting us to a nocturnal medina lit by lanterns and oil lamps. The dark wood adds an exotic touch, and when crafted into boards, it recalls the rammed-earth construction of walls and towers. The organic, curvilinear forms evoke the winding streets and intricate layouts of historic Arab medinas.
The narrow, elongated space posed a challenge: how to visually expand it while meeting all logistical requirements?
The answer: head, heart, and design: An open kitchen welcomes diners with a serpentine Japanese-style counter that flows in and out, encouraging interaction between guests and chef. Here, the concept of “seeing without being seen” takes shape in a three-tiered bar combining wood, microcement, and steel.
In the dining area, modular tables draw inspiration from two concepts:
- Montessori philosophy, with its emphasis on flexibility, connectivity, and cooperation.
- The Tangram puzzle, whose pieces join to create new forms.
Thanks to this approach, the dining room can be infinitely reconfigured depending on reservations—from individual tables to arrangements for up to 20 guests.
The plaster finished with mineral paint reduces reverberation and visually softens walls and pillars, allowing for more fluid spatial organization. Sapele wood, often unfairly overlooked, brings a rich, dark tone with a hint of red, offering both elegance and warmth. The hidden, adjustable lighting adapts the atmosphere to the moment: more light with more people, softer light for intimate dinners.
A Place to Stay: The new Tándem is an unexpected space where architecture, interior design, and gastronomy merge to prolong the pleasure of the dining experience.
It is a project that combines emotional design, respect for heritage, and contemporary functionality—turning every visit into a complete sensory journey.
Drawings
Images
