TiTi Palacio, the Gen Z-style Parisian venue inspired by the Crystal Palace

An emblematic project among the redevelopments recently completed in Paris under public auspices, Morland Mixité Capital has changed the face of the city’s old prefecture – a 1960s rationalist building characterized by a grid facade and considered by many to be among the capital’s most austere – under the banner of mixed-use urban planning. Housing and social residences, stores and citizen services, tertiary, market, restaurants and hotels: inaugurated last May, the 43,600-square-meter structure located on the edge of the Marais finds its redemption through the signature of David Chipperfield and a site-specific installation by Oliafur Eliasson placed on the scenic rooftop overlooking the city’s main monuments.

The TiTi Palacio restaurant comes to occupy the second floor of the block built between the building’s two original wings, right above the succession of voluptuous concrete vaults that distinguish the new gateway to the structure. Entirely glazed on each side, the space is reimagined by Atelier olk following an inspiration that looks to the Crystal Palace and the suggestion of immersion in nature that it recreated through the use of plants. The cathedral effect is not disturbed by any partitions, while the furnishings segment the three main areas of the venue – the café, the restaurant and the bar – and guarantee a visual coherence through a pastel palette oriented on shades of green, pink and natural wood.

Developed lengthwise over 40 meters, the bar is embellished with marble and zellige cladding and uses a scaffolding of wooden tubing to enhance its rhythmicity. All around, plants and Thonet chairs surround the tables, which in turn echo the room dividers and wall niches. A solution in the air du temps, which enhances a bubble effect through cohesive geometries, colors of and a simulacrum of green, and seems less concerned with cohesion with the surrounding architectural language of the building.