Zizzi Inverness
Brief
When Zizzi instructed B3 to design their Inverness restaurant the brief was to create a space that would be individual and distinctive whilst being clearly recognisable as a part of the Zizzi brand. The site is located in ground floor of building with a fully glazed fascia overlooking the River Ness. As it was quite a small, bland site our task was to inject character into the space and make it exciting.
Local and Historical Inspiration
We took aesthetic inspiration from the River Ness itself incorporating design elements that evoke boats, loughs and piers. There are plenty of local whisky distilleries that produce premium Scottish whisky. We found a wealth of imagery and material inspiration from the distilleries; pipes, barrels measuring gauges and dials.
Nautical Aesthetic
The new design features a pier that has been laid into the floor, wraps up the wall and forms a floating ceiling raft. Large, buoy-like pendant lights decorate the windows whilst columns clad in copper, mimicking masts add to the nautical aesthetic. The tops of the columns have been painted by illustrator Katy Thompson who created a design based on the loughs of the highlands and lowlands, each column representing a different lough. This is further complimented by maps of the highlands and lowlands which cover the entire ceiling and the nautical lighting used throughout the space. A rope and pulley feature forms a large focal point in the floor to ceiling window attracting passersby. Copper piping and gauges have been used a decorative wall feature in reference to whisky distilleries.