ESCĀ CUEVA Is a Modernist Desert Cavern Envisioned by Badie Architects
With artificial lightings strategically incoporated into the space’s curved structure.
Located in Cairo’s New Giza, ESCĀ CUEVA is an innovative restaurant featuring a modernistic and cavernous structure. This stunning piece of architecture is conceptualized and brought to life by Badie Architects, an award-winning architecture studio based in Egypt. With a rich resumé of residential and commercial projects that embrace fluidity and free dynamism, the practice plays a key role in paving Egypt’s innovative architectural scene.
The studio’s lead architect, Mohamed Badie, is acclaimed for his visually stunning designs that blend expressionism, casualism with originalism in a creative way — all rooted in his principles and penchant for exploring “physical freedom.” Like many of Badie’s works, ESCĀ CUEVA’s cave-like structure is implemented with his hallmarked design language.
Drawing inspiration from organic forms, the restaurant’s vast, undulating curvatures are crafted with the human body in mind. Less of a direct translation, but more of a conceptual extension, the entire space becomes a poetic interplay between the people and the surroundings. The sculpted forms are all meticulously planned out using advanced 3D technology and software to create the structure’s “exoskeleton.” Forming the base is a steel infrastructure, which is then fitted with double-layered wire mesh, followed by a scratch coat and finished with stucco.
Ambient, enchanting and immersive, the restaurant touts itself as “a dining haven where the harmony of nature and culinary excellence blend seamlessly in the heart of a desert cave.” Lightings are strategically incorporated into the space’s curved structure, seamlessly illuminating every corner, concavity and indentation all the while accentuating the the undulating forms. Diners are offered a stunningly expansive view of the city through the establishment’s distinct structure, all the while being far away from all the hustle and bustle.
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