Umami in Japanese culture is the “Fifth taste”, the most sophisticated: sensory and elegant. This was the inspiration behind the design concept by Italian architect Emanuele Svetti, Founder of Studio Svetti, for a new and exciting restaurant in his native town of Cortona.
Combining the search for high quality fusion cuisine with a raw interior design, in some details minimal, but at the same time spectacular, playing on the contrast between cultures and traditions. This is Umami restaurant: a place that connects the Eastern tradition with the Tuscan bucolic style, typical of the place in which the restaurant is located, while it differs from the others for the originality and diversity of the proposal.
Located in Cortona’s monumental park within the public gardens of Giardini del Parterre, the building of the restaurant is of nineteenth-century origin and is the work of the Engineer Allegretti. For the last 60 years the building has been utilised for various catering ventures, continually renewing itself and now proposing a new image, a metropolitan image. The latest design looks at the context with healthy irreverence and creates a synergy through the use of modulated shadows and the chromatic choice of a very deep green, which recalls the burnt lands and the undergrowth typical of these magnificent lands.
The intention of Emanuele Svetti and his team was to create a contrast, which leads to a synergy with the external environment, to juxtapose the old with the new, as well as the smooth to the rough, the rural to the built. This is made possible through the clever use of stabilized vertical green walls and large windows that make the environment permeable, bright and perfectly integrated with the glorious green of the park’s vegetation, creating a visual continuation between the inside and outside of the building.
The restaurant has two floors, an area of approximately 200 square meters and a capacity of around 80 place settings. On the upper floor, the interior space communicates with the outdoor terrace, symbolically divided by a portal covered in brass and the green that covers the interior wall both internally and externally, as if to symbolize the passage towards a new evolution of the interior space. It is upon entering the terrace covered by an aluminium and glass structure that the visitor can enjoy the magnificence of the view of Valdichiana, which starts from the slopes of Monte Amiata and reaches the edges of a natural mirror, Lake Trasimeno, illuminating each time on the ability to marvel at the beauty of the land.
The two floors are connected by a staircase, which was steep and narrow, and today has been revisited and enhanced by Studio Svetti. The new design skillfully utilises a stretched and backlit ceiling, which has made the space brighter, and through the use of a wallpaper in light tones, in contrast with the outline, which communicates a strong reference to culture.
Umami Cortona is an evocative place with unique panoramic views. The breathtaking sunsets of this part of Tuscany have a naturally changing setting, which combined with the attention to detail and custom furnishings, creates a restaurant that offers a rare experience and is unrivalled in it’s views. Umami restaurant is an example of how nature can meet architecture and create an intense and minimal green space, fluidly permeated by art and creativity.
www.studiosvetti.com | IG: @emanuelesvettiarchitetto
Photography: Andrea Bartolozzi
