Valencian design studio Masquespacio has completed a dine-in restaurant for takeaway sushi chain Ichi Station in Milan, with interiors designed to resemble a futuristic spaceship.

Set in a historic building in the Brera district, the chain's latest outpost builds on the same travel and transport concept established across its other outlets – including eight in Milan and another in Turin.

But Masquespacio wanted to take this idea to the next level for the new restaurant by drawing on the visual language of sci-fi and space tourism.

"We proposed approaching the travel concept as a trip to the future," said Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse.

"When you enter Ichi, it's like entering a capsule-like spaceship travelling through light, where you will disconnect from reality in order to get in touch with the food."

Masquespacio completely redeveloped the layout of the 80-square-metre site – previously another restaurant – creating a central dining area along with a tunnel where diners can observe some of the sushi-making process.

A pick-up bar close to the entrance was added to separate the circulation routes of take-away customers and diners.

The tunnel motif was developed as a way to express the idea of travel and make a reference to Japan without falling into cliches.

"Some elements were incorporated to remind the customer of Japan, like the huge lighting circles, although we tried to avoid making typical references to Japan such as using wooden structures," Penasse explained.

The tunnel motif also informed the circular and cylindrical details that pop up throughout the space across seat backs, bar stools and decorative elements such as the circular feature light in the main dining area.

"The shapes and forms give the project the futuristic look that it needed," the designer said.

Masquespacio opted for a simple and restrained material palette that includes glass and micro-cement, which was used along with fully integrated tables and seating to create a seamless look reminiscent of a spaceship.

The restaurant's custom-made furniture brings in another reference to transport design tropes. "You can recognise it as a reinterpretation of the seating in a station and especially on a train," Penasse explained.

The interior is finished in neutral shades of beige and off-white but is cast in different vivid colours thanks to the LED lighting system that is integrated into the walls, ceilings and even the table tops.

The lights alternate between shades of blue, green, purple and peach at variable speeds and, according to Penasse, create a veritable "explosion of colour".

Although based in Spain, Masquespacio has completed a number of projects in Italy in recent years.

Among them are two colour-block restaurants for fast-food chain Bun – a blue-and-green interior in Turin and a green-and-purple version in Milan.

The photography is by Luis Beltran.

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Spanish design agency Masquespacio has created the interior of the first Mango Teen shop in Barcelona, which was informed by the metaverse and aims to provide an interactive and dream-like shopping experience.

Designed for customers aged 11 to 13, Masquespacio used graphic shapes to outline clothing displays and a colour palette of oranges and greens for the fashion shop interior.

"The new Mango Teen store is established as a world of dreams with its different perspectives and different incoherent elements, just like when we are dreaming," said Masquespacio.

"In this place, the dreams are made reality through the design elements that play with your mind and invite the user to interact with the objects surrounding them, bringing the metaverse world to reality."

Masquespacio created the design elements in the shop interior to showcase as much clothing as possible, while also functioning as attraction points that provide a unique shopping experience.

At the entrance is a "futuristic" arched tunnel with strip lighting designed to guide customers inside. Shelving displays on the shop floor feature tiled surfaces and metal step ladders that mimic swimming pools.

The shop front and interior are divided by a bold colour choice of green and orange.

"At the initial point, we chose a lighter and more pinkish palette, but as this is getting a bit outdated, we decided to play with two colours that are not so explored and combined them," Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

The order counter was designed to be reminiscent of a hotel reception and the store also features a clothes-recycling drop-off point that looks like a washing machine, which releases bubbles when customers open the door.

The futuristic tunnel, swimming pool, hotel reception and washing machine elements are intended by the studio to "invite the teens to enter a universe in which a new use is given to the objects, giving them the opportunity to let their imagination flow and use the space how they dream about it."

"We searched to convert the design elements to an attraction point for the teens' TikTok life, but at the same time create them as elements that have a function, such as an order bar or an exhibition point like the swimming pool and tunnel," Penasse said.

The shop's changing rooms further encourage interaction with the digital world. Integrated phone holders and ring lights make it easy for customers to take photos for social media, while the reflective walls and ceiling create a futuristic backdrop.

As the first Mango Teen shop to open in Barcelona, Masquespacio's design aims to create a distinct brand identity.

The fashion brand had previously launched pop-up shops, from which they identified colourful interiors and places to take photos and videos as main points of interest for teenage shoppers.

Other projects by the studio include a burger joint designed to look like a swimming pool and a greek restaurant informed by ancient ruins.

The photography is by Luis Beltran.

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3D-printed "broken" columns join walls and floors created with an adobe effect at the Egeo restaurant in Valencia by interiors studio Masquespacio that aims to put a modern spin on traditional Greek architecture.

Masquespacio created the interiors for the Egeo Greek restaurant, which is spread across one floor and characterised by a blue and off-white colour palette that is reminiscent of many Greek houses.

Egeo features a cavernous interior with microcement-coated seating areas and walls carved from curvy shapes punctuated by statement blue columns.

The Mortex used for these walls and floors intends to give the space an adobe effect.

Fractured into two pieces, the restaurant's columns were created using 3D printing and are fitted with tubular lighting that connects each piece together.

"We wanted to recreate the concept of a broken column from the past, but uplift it with a contemporary look," Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

Wooden stools resembling chunky chess pieces are scattered around built-in metal and wooden tables in the various seating areas arranged across the restaurant.

Sconce lights were attached to decorative organic shapes that protrude from the walls while olive trees sit in large, neutrally-hued pots.

A central ordering bar was designed to recreate the atmosphere of a bustling market where you might order traditional souvlaki from a mobile vendor, according to Masquespacio.

"The restaurant was inspired by Greece's ancient architecture – from its typical white and blue houses to the ruins that are part of its important foundations in our world," explained Penasse.

The eatery is the first Egeo branch in Valencia, although the chain already has two similar locations in Madrid.

Based in Valencia, Masquespacio was founded in 2010 by Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacio.

Similar projects in Spain by the studio include another cavernous restaurant that nods to adobe architecture and an eatery with curved forms that take cues from the nearby Pyrenees mountains.

The photography is by Sebastian Erras.

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Colourful marble accents and looming arches characterise this restaurant by Spanish studio Masquespacio, which takes cues from traditional Italian eateries.

Called Piada, the restaurant sells Italian flatbreads and is the second of its kind to be designed by Masquespacio in the French city of Lyon.

The interiors of the latest Piada blends retro design elements borrowed from traditional Italian restaurants, such as marble and gold finishes, with colours and materials that were chosen to echo the eatery's healthy food menu.

"First, we investigated ancient Italian restaurants and bars to bring the traditional concept into the design," Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

"Then, we sought elements that could represent a sort of healthy aspect, which at the same time have a splashy and young colour concept that represents the brand's identity," he added.

A garland of lush plants and flowers is suspended above the entrance to the two-storey restaurant, under which floor-to-ceiling arched windows were designed to draw visitors in from the street.

Inside, guests are met with a collection of booth-like tables that offer a mixture of built-in seating, including banquette benches and rounded wooden stools.

This area is defined by a bold palette of sugary pastel colours, ranging from pale lilac seat cushions to mint-green walls.

Piada's external arch motif is also continued in its interiors, where curved alcoves have been outlined with columns of bulbous sconce lights that resemble oversized Hollywood-style mirrors.

"We used five elements to represent the traditional Italian bar and restaurant – arches, light bulbs with gold finishes, marble and mirrored menus," explained Penasse.

In a nod to Piada's healthy food concept, Masquespacio added clusters of plants that spill out of backlit rounded nooks behind the seating areas both upstairs and downstairs.

The studio also incorporated stucco on the walls and tiles with a handmade effect to create a more organic feel to the restaurant interior. All of Piada's furniture was custom-made by Masquespacio to match the restaurant's eclectic themes.

Founded in 2010 by Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, the Spanish studio has completed a number of other interior projects with designs rooted in bright colour.

These include a playful burger joint in Turin, multi-hued student housing in Bilbao and a colour-clashing phone repair shop in Valencia.

The photography is by Gregory Abbate.

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Local studio Masquespacio added undulating, earthy-toned walls to an intimate Valencia restaurant that takes cues from the "organic forms" of Middle Eastern architecture.

Living Bakkali is located in the Spanish coastal city of Valencia and features bespoke furniture designed entirely by Masquespacio, a design studio known for its use of colour in projects.

The restaurant is characterised by sloping, sandy-toned microcement walls that pay homage to the decorative motifs often found in Middle Eastern architecture, such as multifoil arches.

Designed in various hues of desert-like browns and pinks, Living Bakkali's curved arches are arranged in intricate formations that create intimate seating areas within the restaurant.

"We used the recognisable brownish colour from the East, although we added slightly different colours to the palette – such as red – but always in a soft way and through earthy tones," Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

"Middle Eastern seating is also almost always lower and more loungy than in the western world," he added, referring to the restaurant's low-slung dark crimson sofas and chairs.

Guests enter the space at a central hall that is connected to the kitchen, which was designed to create the feeling of exploring a street filled with ancient houses.

"Interiors [in the Middle East] are almost never shown directly from the outside, although you can [often] find windows of arch forms that create a sense of double walls," explained Penasse.

The restaurant's thick walls are interrupted only by cut-out holes that create small windows between each table, some of which are tucked away in intimate booths. Among the various dining areas is a private room, which is reached through a corridor flanked by gauzy curtains.

Described by the restaurant itself as an "ode to adobe architecture," Living Bakkali takes cues from this natural construction material, as Masquespacio said that the venue's walls were designed to create an adobe effect, which means mud-brick in Spanish.

The studio also designed all of the floors and ceilings in microcement in order to immerse visitors in a wholly cavernous environment that is intended to be reminiscent of traditional Middle Eastern houses.

Penasse said that Masquespacio's design process for Living Bakkali involved the exploration of many aspects of Middle Eastern culture – from architecture and materials to ways of eating through history.

"We got connected with the organic forms that have been used throughout Middle Eastern architecture, which was made mainly with clay materials by hand," Penasse explained.

"We wanted to bring the [traditional] Arabic aesthetic to the future in a new and more modern way, but still sought to maintain its essence," he said.

Masquespacio was founded by Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios in 2010. Similar projects by the studio include Pukkel, a restaurant in Aragon that features winding stucco walls that were informed by the curvature of the nearby Pyrenees mountains.

The photography is by Sebastian Erras.

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Spanish design agency Masquespacio has created the interiors of Italian fast food chain Bun's Turin branch that combines blocks of pink and green with a blue seating area designed to look like a swimming pool.

Bun Turin is a burger joint that takes its bold identity from the first Bun restaurant in Milan, which was also designed by Masquespacio.

"This restaurant's target customer is the urban lifestyle of people born late in the Millennium and the new Generation Z," Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

Characterised by three distinct colourful areas, the burger joint uses pink, blue and green in order to playfully carve out different spaces in the restaurant.

The sections are designed so that the restaurant's three large windows present each colour as a separate blocked out space from the outside.

Upon entering Bun Turin, visitors are greeted with an ordering bar and drinks and ice cream fridge coloured in a dusty sage shade of the restaurant's trademark green.

Lit-up digital menu boards with gold accents display the restaurant's food options, while a version of the same neon burger logo found in Bun's Milan branch glows from a nearby pillar.

Pink and blue are used for two different seating areas both complete with built-in furniture.

In the pink area, a central table coloured partly in green straddles both the pink and green sections of the restaurant.

Sugary-pink terrazzo steps that double as a planter lead visitors to seats tucked into arched booths in the pink seating area, which also houses the burger joint's toilets.

Bun Turin's all-blue seating area is built from pale tiles that are designed to look like a swimming pool.

The area features mock pool ladders which aim to give visitors the impression of floating in water while they eat.

"Once we defined Bun's identity we developed the project in 3D," said Penasse.

"At the end of the process, we do a lot of trials to reach the correct combination of colours and materials," continued the designer.

"In this case, we had several options for colour combinations, all focussed on a younger audience."

Apart from tiles by Complementto, all of the furniture in Bun Turin was designed by Masquespacio.

"It is important for clients that Bun spaces can be recognised wherever they are located," explained Penasse.

"For this reason, the design will evolve and be slightly different in each space, but maintain a clear identity."

Masquespacio is a Valencia-based design agency founded in 2010 by Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, known for its use of bright colour.

Other recent projects by the studio include colour-blocked student housing in Bilbao, and a stucco and terracotta restaurant in the Spanish town of Aragon constructed from twisting shapes informed by the nearby Pyrenees mountains.

Photography is by Gregory Abbate.

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The beauty of Spain's Aragon province informed the earthy colour palette, natural materials and curved forms used in this fine-dining restaurant interior by Valencia studio Masquespacio.

Located in the city of Huesca, Pukkel serves up a menu of healthy food and, according to the owners, aims to offer "a sensorial experience beyond the gastronomy."

The interior uses a palette of natural materials and colours and undulating, textured forms that are intended to reflect the beauty of the nearby Pyrenees mountains and surrounding countryside.

"After doing a workshop with [Pukkel's owners], Jorge and Mikel, we immediately proposed to work with 100 per cent natural materials and integrate nature into the space," said Christophe Penasse, co-founder of Masquespacio.

As well as the natural landscape, the designers wanted the interiors to reflect the restaurant's healthy cuisine.

"We investigated the province of Huesca and started to discover the beauty of the mountains and parks in its surroundings," added Masquespacio creative director Ana Hernández.

"We definitely found the reference we were looking for and that fitted perfectly with the healthy lifestyle concept from Pukkel."

The design studio selected different tones of brown, white and green that are used alongside gold accents, which it said add a "little bit of sophistication" to the space.

The restaurant's layout follows the curved lines and circular forms of the booth seating to create a winding pathway through the space. According to the designers, this is intended to create the feeling of walking through the forest or mountains.

This curved path is further highlighted by the colour of the floor tiles, which change from natural terracotta to glazed green or white in the different seating areas.

Uneven surface finishes such as rough stucco, ceramic and terracotta tiles are used to reflect the textures and forms found in nature. The terracotta tiles on the floors, bars and the undulating tiles on the walls were designed specially by Masquespacio for Pukkel.

The stucco seating booths feature integrated planters filled with plants and flowers that will change depending on the season.

Other restaurants designed by the studio include the Milan outpost of Italian fast-food chain Bun, where it selected a lilac and avocado-green colour scheme to create a youthful yet "sophisticated" interior, and a tropical sushi restaurant in Valencia, Spain, that mixes Japanese and Brazilian-inspired design elements.

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Valencian creative studio Masquespacio has used a lilac and avocado-green colour scheme to create a youthful yet "sophisticated" interior for the Milan outpost of Italian fast food chain Bun.

Located on the Viale Bligny boulevard, the restaurant occupies a space that was formerly home to a pizzeria and sits at the base of a residential building.

"With the design, we tried to get away from the usual aesthetics used for hamburger restaurants, with a much more sophisticated identity but at the same time a fresh and young approach," Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

The studio used colour to clearly divide the L-shaped restaurant into a serving and seating area. In the serving area, a lilac hue is used across the floors, walls and ceiling to create an immersive environment.

Meanwhile, customers in the dining area are completely surrounded by green, from the mint green terrazzo bench seating to the circular leather seat cushions.

The existing space featured tall, red brickwork arches, which the studio integrated into the restaurant's design.

"When we saw the beautiful bricks and arcs in the space, it was evident for us that we would use these two elements as the starting point of the design," said Masquespacio's creative director Ana Hernández.

To create a uniform aesthetic throughout the space, the studio also added further arches that bring in the green and purple colour scheme.

"Some are totally independent and others highlight the existing arcs of the interior architecture," Masquespacio said.

According to the studio, Bun's polished look was chosen as a conscious move away from the kind of vintage, industrial style that has proven popular in burger restaurants in recent years.

Instead, the bright colour scheme helps to maintain the restaurant's appeal for a younger clientele, alongside gold accents throughout the lighting, signage and tabletops.

Like many of Masquespacio's furniture and interiors projects, the restaurant also incorporates references to post-modernism and the Memphis Group – the Italian design collective founded by Ettore Sottsass in 1981.

In addition to meat burgers, Bun offers a menu of plant-based meat alternatives and all its burgers are wrapped in plastic-free, recyclable packaging.

To communicate this commitment to sustainability, Masquespacio didn't use plastic for the interior design and added plenty of potted plants.

The studio is currently working on several new restaurants with Bun, including its first outpost in Turin.

Founded in 2010 by Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse, Masquespacio's work is characterised by a bold use of colour and form.

Other recent projects include an open-plan, colour-block interior for a student house in Spain and an upholstered chair with an eye-shaped backrest and tassels for eyelashes.

Photography is by Gregory Abbate.

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Valencia-based creative studio Masquespacio has completed an open-plan colour-blocked interior with a community feeling for the Resa San Mamés student accommodation in Spain.

The interior design for the Bilbao student residence was commissioned by student accommodation company Resa with the aim of letting its occupants "share experiences as a community".

Masquespacio created an open-plan design for the 1,850 square-metre building, which has studios for 351 residents and provides spaces for studying, socialising, meeting and dining.

"The client highlighted that they wanted to create a community and strong connection point between the residents of the new Resa," Masquespacio co-founder and marketing director Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

The bold and colourful interior used vibrant greens paired with millennial pinks, lavender and hot pinks, while soft furnishings and partitions were used to define zones within the space.

"Using the technique of colour blocking we obtained a strong visual impact for the space and at the same time we could create a clear distinction between each zone in this open space," explained the studio.

As well as accommodation, the building has a kitchen, a dining room, study rooms, leisure rooms, a gym and a terrace.

Muted yellow covers the ceiling above the open kitchen, while lavender tiles are used as a backsplash.

Wooden furniture with yellow accents surrounds the kitchen area, some of which is on wheels to allow users to reconfigure the space as they wish.

Millennial pink dining tables and chairs were placed against a green backdrop to define the dining space, which also features oversized steps that form amphitheatre-style seating to encourage group interaction.

"We liked the idea of working with an open space and making a space specially focused on university students," Penasse explained.

"Offering them a lot of options to make their day at the residence a little bit more attractive, and at the same time help them to be more creative."

The study areas of the residency employ acoustic glass walls to provide silence, but can be opened up to connect the study space with an adjacent lounge.

Blue-painted brick adds texture to formal study spaces and red velvet curtains on circular tracks surround group study tables for additional privacy.

Walls and services pipes were left unrendered and exposed to give the interior an industrial look.

The studio explained that it envisioned the design for the Resa San Mamés as a free-flowing space that encourages the students themselves to determine how it is used.

"A space where you don't need to be in the study room to read a book, but just can sit into the launch area," Penasse said. "A space where people share ideas, experiences and connect together."

The colour-blocking theme was continued through to the outdoor terrace, where green picnic tables sit within a green-zoned area while different shades of blue signal other areas of seating.

Masquespacio was founded in 2010 by Ana Milena Hernandez Palacios and Christophe Penasse who combined their disciplines in interior design and marketing to create a design agency that works across media, design, fashion and lifestyle.

Dezeen has previously featured the studio's colourful design for this co-working space in Valencia and also this colour-clashing interior for a phone-repair shop.

Photography is by Masquespacio.

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The 1960s film Playtime by renowned French director Jacques Tati set the tone for this whimsical co-working office that Masquespacio has designed in Valencia.

Cabinette is a co-working space for creatives set inside a mixed-use building in Valencia's La Fuensanta neighbourhood.

It takes over a ground-floor unit that was originally fit-out to serve as an apartment. Leaving the existing bathroom facilities in place, interiors studio Masquespacio reconfigured the rest of the floor plan to accommodate a series of work areas for Cabinette's members.

The studio's founders, Christophe Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, wanted to give the 200-square-metre space a retrofuturist aesthetic that's attractive to millennials but also makes "a clear wink to the past".

A particular point of reference was Playtime – a 1967 comedy film directed by Jaques Tati that follows character Monsieur Hulot as he navigates a gadget-filled version of future Paris.

It's revered for its satirical take on modern life and was also included in Dezeen's list of 10 films with amazing architecture.

"We once visited a museum installation here in Valencia where they showcased some fragments of the movie, especially a moment where the leading actor goes to a meeting," Penasse told Dezeen.

In the film, when Hulot arrives at the meeting, he enters a huge office where each employee's desk is closed in by a cabinet-lined box – a feature which inspired Cabinette's name.

Penasse and Palacious have similarly divided desks in the co-working space, but instead of individual boxes have erected low-lying partitions.

As with the interior of the boxes in Playtime, the desks and chairs in Cabinette are a pastel green-blue colour.

The same colour features across the floor, as well as the counter, tiled splashback and a couple of cupboards in the kitchen, which sits in the corner of the room.

Walls and part of the floor here are painted chocolate-brown, complementing the steel stools from Masquespacio's Déjà-Vu collection that appear beside the counter. They each feature tiers of brown, ochre and blue fringing.

Another wall in Cabinette is clad in mirrored panels, while one on the far side of the office is a bright lilac hue. It's decorated with various graphic-print canvases and rows of illuminated tube lights.

A set of stairs leads up to a mezzanine where there are a pair of intimate meeting rooms that members can use for group work or take private phone calls.

They're screened off by the same shiny silver curtains that hang in front of the full-height windows at ground level that look through to an outdoor terrace.

There is also a more formal boardroom that features deep-purple surfaces. The central lacquered-wood table is surrounded by Masquespacio's gold-framed Arco chairs, which are upholstered in burnt-orange velvet.

The studio's eye-shaped Wink lights are also mounted on the wall.

Masquespacio was established in 2010 by Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios. The studio has applied its colourful aesthetic to a number of projects.

These include a phone repair shop that features a clashing mix of salmon-pink and turquoise surfaces, and a tropical green and maroon restaurant that offers Brazilian-Japanese cuisine.

Photography is by Luis Beltran.

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Valencia studio Masquespacio has created an upholstered chair with a back shaped like an eye and adorned with a tasseled fringe.

The Wink chair was developed for Houtique – a partner brand headed by Masquespacio creative director and co-founder Ana Milena Hernández – following the successful launch in 2018 of the Wink lamp.

The chair, which was presented at the Maison et Objet trade fair, features a three-legged metal base supporting a circular upholstered seat.

The back leg extends upwards to connect with an ellipse-shaped back enclosing another round cushion pad.

The combination of the metal frame and circular back cushion creates the appearance of a simplified eye shape. The addition of an eyelash-like fringe accentuates the ocular aesthetic.

The chair's frame is made from iron tubing that is bent and welded to form the curved back section. The joints are sanded and the metal is treated to achieve either a reflective chrome or gold finish.

The seat and backrest are upholstered in a synthetic velvet in a range of secondary colours.

The bold use of colour is a signature element of the pieces designed by Masquespacio, which include a collection of toadstool-shaped furniture for Spanish brand Missana.

Describing the chair's design, the studio said it provides "a look with a lot of craftiness, an eye that can only focus on exquisite vibes while dancing to the rhythm of the music with its fringes".

Masquespacio has used fringing for several of its products to lend them a sense of movement and a retro aesthetic.

Alongside the other materials specified for the Wink chair and light, this is intended to "remind us of the past and the future by winking to the use of bangs, gold and the observation".

Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse founded Masquespacio in 2010 as a multidisciplinary design agency focused on branding and interior projects.

The consultancy works internationally but several of its most notable interiors projects are in its home city, including a phone-repair shop with a clashing colour palette, and a tropical sushi restaurant that fuses influences from Japan and Brazil.

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Creative consultancy Masquespacio has completed a tropical sushi restaurant in Valencia, Spain, that mixes Japanese and Brazilian-inspired design elements.

Called Kaikaya, the restaurant's plant-filled green and maroon interior celebrates the Brazilian-Japanese food culture that has been created in the hundred years since Japanese immigrants first started to arrive in Brazil.

Now home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan, Brazil has cultivated a distinctive Japanese–Brazilian cuisine that blends Japanese cooking techniques with local ingredients.

The fusion of the two cuisines is reflected in the restaurant's interior, which blends materials used in Japanese design, such as wood and raffia, together with colorful mosaic tiles, parrot motifs and cascading tropical plants.

In particular, the designers said they were inspired by Tropicalismo – a Brazilian artistic movement that arose in the late 1960s.

"Above all, the design needed to contain a strong splash of colour, together with an eclectic style that could mix the two concepts of Japan and Brazil without being conventional," said Masquespacio, who elected to use a contrasting palette of maroon and green with accents of brass and raffia.

Spread over two floors, the 125-square-metre restaurant is housed in a long and narrow retail unit in the city centre that opens onto the street. The building's original brick vaulted ceiling and metallic beams have purposefully been exposed to celebrate the space's "imperfections", according to the designers.

Set against a backdrop of mosaic tiles, large circular panels of raffia are mounted across the walls as a nod to the hats worn by rice field workers in Japan. At the restaurant's entrance, planters filled with tropical foliage are built into the walls and mezzanine level above.

The bar area features a wooden frontage inspired by a Japanese pattern while the mosaic tiles are arranged into a pattern inspired by 1970s Brazil.

A series of wall-mounted lamps featuring brass parrots and palm leaves that sit behind the bar were specially made for the space.

The restaurant's upper level plays host to a series of round booths with tall sides that provide a more private dining experience. Topped by cascading tropical plants, the walls of the booths combine Japanese-inspired screens with green mosaic tiles.

Last year, Masquespacio unveiled a smartphone repair shop in Valencia which it designed using clashing colours and sharp angles.

Photography is by Luis Beltran.

Project credits:

Design: Masquespacio
Contractor: H2GO
Technical lighting: Onok Lighting

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Clashing colours and sharp angles characterise the interior of this smartphone repair shop in Valencia, designed by creative consultancy Masquespacio.

Located in Valencia's University district, the colourful store is the second outpost of smartphone and gadget repair shop Doctor Manzana.

Having already designed Doctor Manzana's first retail store back in 2013, local studio Masquespacio, headed-up by Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse, wanted to use the same bold colours and patterns that they had introduced four years ago but also wanted to add in some new elements.

While one half of the space is painted salmon pink, the other has a silver metallic finish.

The blocks of colour are applied to the walls, floor, ceiling and fixtures at 54-degree angles, which the designers say is a reference to the angle that a touchscreen device is held at.

"Besides the four different colours – green and blue as a reference to the doctor, salmon for the fashionistas and purple for the geeks – the metal adds an industrial touch that reminds us of the laboratories," explained the designers.

The new store has a larger proportion of metal finishes than the original location, as well as new storage and display elements made from various types of metal mesh.

A separate bright blue space in the corner of the store can be used for workshops and talks. Enclosed by see-through plastic curtains, the space is furnished with purple stools and a table designed by Masquespacio.

The stool will be the first official product sold directly through Masquespacio's new sub-brand Mas Creations, which was set up to sell the duo's furniture, lighting and accessories designs.

Masquespacio was launched by Hernández Palacios and Penasse in 2010. In the past, the design studio has designed toadstool-shaped furniture for Spanish brand Missana and a colourful Memphis-inspired interior for its own studio in Valencia.

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Bright colours and geometric forms used by the 1980s Memphis Group influenced the interior design of Masquespacio's studio space in Valencia (+ slideshow).

Masquespacio aimed to create a space reflective of their Postmodern-influenced products, so designed the studio to include their signature use of bold hues and contrasting material combinations.

Marbles, birch plywood, oak plywood and lacquered MDF were all used to create surfaces and storage cupboards.

A palette of "trendy" colours used throughout the studio will be changed annually, while branded stationery can be customised for different clients.

"Our brand is composed of seven different colours that can change for each clients' presentation," co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen. "In our studio we applied the most trendy colours of the moment. The idea is to change colour palette every year according to what's trendy."

"The mix of materials is a clear representation of our projects," he continued. "We like to work both on fresh projects as well as on the luxury market or elegant designs. Our passion for a wide range of materials is the best representation of this mix of materials."

"We can see the influences of Memphis' forms and the resurrection of ornaments from Postmodernism – but in a more contemporary way," he added.

Upon entering the studio, visitors are met with a waiting room that doubles up as a space for more casual meetings. Chairs, sofas and tables from Masquespacio's Toadstool collection provide seating and work desks.

A space to the right side of the office entrance is divided into two different areas: a meeting room, and the senior designer's workspaces.

Brightly-coloured partitions in hues of pink and sky blue are used to separate each desk space from the meeting room.

A larger studio room upstairs features communal desks and cupboards fronted by pegboard panels. Plants add a "touch of green" to the working environment – contrasting with the light grey-painted walls.

Masquespacio was launched in 2010 by designers Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse. Other projects by the Valencia studio include a gadget repair shop fitted out in hospital-like colours, and a law firm's office with clusters of empty picture frames on its walls.

Photography is by Bruno Almela, unless stated otherwise.

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Valencia studio Masquespacio's debut furniture collection for Spanish brand Missana features chairs and tables shaped like the rounded tops of toadstools.

Masquespacio's Toadstool collection is characterised by its colourful fabrics and rounded shapes, and includes a two-seater sofa, a table and a series of poufs.

Inspired by the colours used in works by Postmodern design group Memphis, the studio opted for a bold palette of mint and forest greens, salmon pink and deep navy.

Each piece sits upon stacked circular stands reminiscent of MPGMP's Sottsass-inspired pedestals. These platforms are available in marble, wood or golden plated metal.

The 1980s Memphis movement has recently seen a resurgence in popularity, with brands like Kartell relaunching products and designers including Camille Walala using its bold shapes, colours and patterns as references for new work.

"The collection and the material itself are what best represents our studio," Christophe Penasse told Dezeen. "We don't like to be seen as a design studio with one particular style."

"We were inspired mainly by Memphis and the actual visual culture hidden by the blend of materials and colours we used," he added.

"We feel that the colour combinations mix a strong bold colour with a vivid one," he continued. "That mix is shown clearly through the whole collection both for the fabrics as well for the leg materials."

Fans of Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons, the studio chose fabrics from his collection for Kvadrat to upholster each piece.

"The collection mixes Raf Simons' Vidar 2 fabric for Kvadrat and Tonus 3 from the same brand," said Penasse. "Ana – our art director and designer from the collection – loves fashion, and as a consequence Raf Simons' work."

Masquespacio was launched in 2010 by designers Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse. Other projects by the Valencia studio include a gadget repair shop fitted out in hospital-like colours, and a law firm's office with clusters of empty picture frames on its walls.

Photography is by Cualiti Photo Studio.

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Spanish design studio Masquespacio chose hospital colours for the exterior, interior and branding of this smartphone and tablet repair shop in Valencia (+ slideshow).

Masquespacio picked four tones to use throughout the 40-square-metre Doctor Manzana shop and on the brand's matching product packaging. The designers chose turquoise and blue to emulate a medical facility, referencing the brand's name.

"We wanted to create a concept based on a hospital, but overall we limited it to a few metaphorical details like through two of the principal colours of the brand: green and blue," Christophe Penasse of Masquespacio told Dezeen. "The salmon colour on the other hand was chosen to attract attention from fashionistas and the purple colour is for the tech freaks."

Turquoise green is the dominant colour around the shop, covering the ceiling and sections of wall, while other surfaces are mostly white. Products are displayed on diagonal panels over corrugated steel sheets that line the walls.

"When we saw this location for the first time the floor, walls and ceiling were in really poor conditions," said Masquespacio creative director Ana Milena Hernández Palacios. "We decided to use galvanised steel sheets, a resistant material with a lower price than that needed to restore the walls."

The diagonal motif is continued on the boxes and packets for phone cases and accessories, which also sit on white tables in the otherwise unfurnished store.

External stonework is painted green, while the doorway and two windows set into alcoves are each coloured in the other shades.

Masquespacio also used bright colours as wayfinding tools at a languages school in Valencia. Photographs are by David Rodríguez.

The designers sent us the following information:

Masquespacio designs the new brand and space of Doctor Manzana

Masquespacio presents their last Project realised for Doctor Manzana, a store specialised in technical service for smartphones and tablets, besides being a seller of design gadgets for mobile devices.

The project consists of the redesign of Doctor Manzana's branding and the realisation of the design for their first point of sale located in Valencia, Spain.

The project starts from the necessities from Doctor Manzana's brand to open their first physical point of sale after the great success reached through their technical service offered until now only online in Spain.

Due to the growth of the company in first case design studio Masquespacio redesigned the graphic identity of the brand with the purpose to strengthen the identity and apply it to the point of sale.

The logotype starts from the principal axe of the company the touchscreen and his reflection that creates an angle of 54 degrees. That angle ends being part of the whole communication and his defragmented into different applications that create an infinity of forms able for the graphic and interior design.

Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, creative director of Masquespacio: "Talking about the colours as we started from a company name allied with a doctor we wanted to create a concept based on a hospital, however as we didn’t want to create a conventional design, we discarded this option, but maintaining blue and green colours as a reference to the first word in the company’s brand name." Looking at the store everything starts from the striking façade that incorporates the same angles and colours like for the graphic identity.

The blue and green colours like a reference to the doctor, the salmon colour for the fashionistas and the purple for the freaks. Both windows contain texts like "Doctor Manzana? Is it an orthopedic doctor? No! It's a team of technicians specialised in smashes, drops and accidents for smartphones and tables" communicating Doctor Manzana's services in a funny way. Entering at the store we can see how the interior design as the graphic design contains fresh funny colours and a bunch of angles appearing continually in their original form or defragmented, making reference to the reflection of the touchscreen.

A technological air blows through the store, while some details like the blue curtain refer in a metaphorical way to a hospital.

Materials like the galvanised steel sheets are doing their more industrial work in the space, while white furniture is offering a light warm touch to the whole. Meanwhile, the different pastel colours bring the diversion part of Doctor Manzana's identity to the space.

Masquespacio, through this project, shows again that creativity has no limits and that high budgets aren't needed to obtain an explosive result for brands looking to transmit a sober or a funny image like in this case with Doctor Manzana.

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Pastel gradients spread up the walls of this languages school in Valencia by local design studio Masquespacio (+ slideshow).

Masquespacio completed the interior design and brand identity at the 2Day Languages school for learning Spanish, inside a neoclassical building.

"We wanted to limit our intervention to a minimum," said the studio's creative director Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, "without forgetting the importance of equalising the mix between modern decoration and the beauty of the neoclassical architecture of the building."

Decorative cornices and mouldings around doors, windows and columns were kept alongside new pine wood flooring and furniture.

Each classroom is colour coded with pastel blue, yellow or pink on the walls, metal chair legs and pendant light cages.

"Every classroom contains a different colour that is fading as if presenting the progress in language learning," the designer said.

Wooden box lights overlap at right angles above study tables and are positioned in cross shapes over the reception desk.

There's also a communal lounge for students to relax in, decorated sparingly with a combination of shades used elsewhere, plus a staff room.

Visitors can follow the colourful signs around the buildings to find the right room.

Small plant boxes have been attached to the walls, while other foliage grows in pots that dangle from the ceiling.

Thin samba wood slats form undulating ribbons that hide lights along the corridor ceilings.

The branding uses the same colour scheme and patterns as the interior, paired with bold fonts.

Other interiors of educational facilities we've posted include a public school in Amstelveen that uses poetry as a design device and the economics department at the ROC professional training school in Apeldoorn, both in the Netherlands.

Photographs are by David Rodríguez from Cualiti.

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Read on for Masquespacio's project description:

Masquespacio present their last project done in a central area from Valencia, Spain. The studio specialised in interior design and communication created in this case the interior and the identity of 2Day Languages, a new Spanish school in Valencia.

This project in first case is based on the identity of 2Day Languages represented by a flag that is fused with a text bubble including the three fundamental characteristics of language learning: the levels, the goal and the conversation.

On the other hand it integrates the historic values from the city of Valencia that mixes modern and old architecture. A fusion symbolised in this new Spanish school through its neoclassical architecture and the intervention from Masquespacio's designers. The space is developed on an area of 183 m2 that contains three classrooms, a staff room and a lounge. Each of the classrooms and common rooms are a defragmentation from the brand identity of 2Day Languages and also incorporate parts of the Spanish language and the architecture of Valencia.

In first place it can be seen that the classrooms are containing the three brand colours, which in turn are a representation of the three levels A, B and C established by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, here seen as the colours blue, yellow and pink. Every classroom contains a different colour that is fading as if presenting the progress in language learning. On the other hand the sculptural lamps are another defragmentation from the graphical elements.

Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, creative director of Masquespacio comments: "As in the classrooms the students and their teachers are the protagonists, we wanted to limit our intervention to a minimum, without forgetting the freshness and 'good feeling' that needed to breathe each space, as well as the importance to equalise the mix between modern decoration and the beauty of the neoclassical architecture of the building. We opted for warm materials like pine to generate pleasurable sensations with functional features to make easier the school operations. Two tables instead of one in each classroom were chosen to be separated and stacked during activities. Also the chairs were chosen to offer maximum comfort to the students and with stack options for better circulation during activities."

Getting out of the classrooms in the common areas, where the students of the different levels meet each other, levels and colours are mixed up together. This happens in the reception, but also in the hall through little shreds from the gradient colours added to the bottom part of the wooden ceiling. Last but not least the lounge room follows the same unity of colours, but this time merged into the decorative elements subtracted from the brand identity. Undoubtedly this part of the project is the one where the decoration has a more prominent role, faithful to the design established in other parts of the school. Headliner here is the representation of the communication elements, relevant words of the Spanish language and some icons from the architecture of Valencia, using a technique of knitting with wool and nails.

Masquespacio in this project wanted to remain true to its philosophy traduced into creativity, identity and democratic design always under the concept of designing a space to live and enjoy with a freshness that makes the users feel comfortable while being overwhelmed by emotions generated by the space itself.

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Spanish design studio Masquespacio have turned a dilapidated Valencia art gallery into an office for a law firm, featuring clusters of empty picture frames on the walls (+ slideshow).

The 100 square metre office has been divided into compact work areas with full-length glazed walls.

The original wooden ceiling beams were restored to complement the wood of the tables, counter and chair legs.

The overlapping wooden picture frames on the meeting room wall are "a metaphor of the diplomas usually displayed in a law firm," the designers explained.

Thin strips of wood hanging vertically on the walls are partially painted in the company's colours of grey and black, which are also picked up in the furniture around the office.

Other buildings in Valencia we've featured include a house with a glass facade that reveals what's going on inside and a nursery with circular holes in its concrete walls.

We've featured lots of offices on Dezeen, most recently a Russian internet company with walls designed to look like pixels – see all of them here.

See all our stories about offices »
See all our stories about Valencia »
See all our stories about Spain »

Photographs are by David Rodríguez from Cualiti.

Here's more information from the architects:

Masquespacio present their last project realised in an emblematic building from the end of the 19th century, situated in the historic centre of Valencia, Spain. The project designed for the law office Zapata y Herrera starts from his historic values to which are added the firm’s corporate values by the use of colours black, grey and natural wood tones.

At first the old beams have been restored, making them an essential element of the project. The noble wood is one of the protagonists of the office, not wanting to stand out, but in order to transmit confidence as one of the most important values of Zapata y Herrera. The grey colour takes over, symbolising stability and professionalism, while the powerful black transmits certain elegance and especially the seriousness with which the firm practices its profession.

Down the noble wooden entry stairs is standing out the combination of different sensations transmitted by the office. Some will call it elegant and sophisticated, while others call it sober and robust. Going further into the description of the lawyers' office, on the left we can find the offices where the central element is a curtain of wood strips that repeats the colours of the firm's values. The small space was maximised using L-shaped tables positioned above the storage lockers. The three pillars from the entry garden at their time are repeating the primary colours.

Above: office plan

In front of the last offices and behind the reception we can find the interns' area with a sense of green offered by a range of aloe vera plants matching with the Green chair from Javier Mariscal, 100% recycled and 100% recyclable

On the other way of the entrance we find the boardroom starring a bunch of frames proposing a metaphor of the diplomas usually exposed in a law firm. The oeuvre, as well as the wood strips curtains where created by Masquespacio’s creative director, Ana Milena Hernández Palacios. At last, alongside the boardroom is situated a lobby in which we can recognise the Float couch, the latest design from Karim Rashid for Spanish brand Sancal.

Masquespacio in this project didn’t want to fall into the usual clichés of a law firm, so they converted them into metaphors. The law office Zapata y Herrera can be considered as an example of a corporate space that transmits its values, giving more importance to the work of their employees highlighting their seriousness, professionalism and confidence, with a vanguardian look unusual for a law firm.

Finished: 22/09/2012
Space: 100 m2
Client: Zapata y Herrera
Address: Plaza San Nicolas 3, 46001 Valencia
Design: Masquespacio
Address: Paseo de la Alameda 65, 34 B, 46023 Valencia
Designer: Ana Milena Hernández Palacios
Graphic Design, oeuvre and interior design by Ana Milena Hernández Palacios
Materials:
Construction: José Manuel Paz Agra Construcciones
Visitor office chairs: De Vorm
Director chairs: Inclass
Couch and lobby tables: Sancal
Intern chairs: 114 Mobles
General lighting: Arkos Light
Reception lighting: Luzifer
Lobby and boardroom chairs: Hay
Storage lockers: BM2000
Floor: Rapidmix

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