Restaurants and Dining Rooms

The design of restaurants has been closely related to ideas of how food should be presented and consumed in public since the French Revolution. The appearance and atmosphere of restaurants reflect culturally embedded ideals of comfort, sociability, and the good life. Famous architects were commissioned to provide designs for restaurants to lure in an ever-more demanding urban clientele, and the interior designs of restaurants were often employed to present this particular aspect in evoking an imagery of sophisticated modernity. This book presents the restaurant's cultural and typological history as it evolved over time, providing valuable knowledge for designers, students of design, and everyone interested in the cultural history of the modern metropolis.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 330 pages
Publication date: 17 April 2019
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The urban academic myth holds that the first restaurants emerged in the aftermath of the French Revolution. From the opulent salons of the latter days of the Ancien Régime, the design of restaurants has been intricately linked to notions of how food should be presented and consumed in public. The aesthetic and ambiance crafted by restaurant owners reflect deeply ingrained cultural ideals of comfort, sociability, and the good life. As a product of the modern metropolis, the restaurant encapsulates and exemplifies the profound shift in how its patrons perceived themselves as individuals, how they utilized their cities, and how they gathered with friends or business partners over a meal.

The architectural design of spaces for food consumption inherently involves an exploration and manipulation of the human experience of space. It reflects ideas about public and private behavior for which the restaurant provides a stage. Renowned architects were commissioned to create designs for restaurants in order to attract an increasingly discerning urban clientele. The interior designs of restaurants were frequently employed to showcase this particular aspect, purposefully evoking an imagery of sophisticated modernity.

This book presents the restaurant, its cultural and typological history, as it evolved over time. In this unique blend, it offers invaluable insights for designers and students of design, as well as for anyone interested in the cultural history of the modern metropolis.

Weight: 956g
Dimension: 247 x 190 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780415363327