Italian with a twist

It seems quite apt for a trattoria churning out up to a hundred pizzas a day—everything from classic Margherita to dough topped with paper-thin potato slices— to be named Fabbrica, a word derived from the Italian ‘fabbricare’ or ‘to manufacture’. Still, the look of the place is anything but artificial. The casual eatery is a study in austerity with a skylight and an expanse of windows to allow natural light to stream in, almost like a greenhouse. “We wanted Fabbrica Bergen to be a factory for the pleasure of the guests through combinations and contrasts between industrialism and romanticism,” says Frank Tjepkema, owner of Tjep, the Dutch multidisciplinary design company who handled the aesthetics of the restaurant space, “That’s the basic concept in one sentence.”

The other thing you notice when you step into Fabbrica Bergen, are the cosy, elevated dining pods that transports you back to a time of forts and makeshift tree houses. “These dining pods are intimate spaces that references travelling as they resemble carriages—you feel like you are having dinner on a train,” explains Tjepkema. This is not the first time that Tjep Studio has installed elevated compact modules (they decked out Fabbrica in Rotterdam with a similar concept six years ago), but this time, the Dutch studio has taken a more earthy approach. “We let ourselves to experiment with more bold colours the first time around as it was done in the context of economic boom. Now, we are shying away from bright hues and opting for a more natural look,” shares Tjepkema.
Excerpt from the June issue of epicure.