restaurant "Greek Fig" (Moscow) Mikhail Filippov Interior of the restaurant "Greek Fig" in the style of the ruins of Roman temples

Passing the gallery

Text: Nadezhda Serebryakova

A photo: Evgeny Matveev

Architect: Elena Alekhina, Tatiana Deniskina, Alexey Kirillovsky, Vasily Pak, Mikhail Filippov

Magazine: N4 (49) 2001

When creating the interior of the restaurant "The Greek Fig Tree" (Komsomolsky Avenue, 4), the authors had no doubts as to what image should embody this small room. The idea is this. Moscow, as it is known, is considered the cultural capital, and the architects considered it fair to design the interior in the style of the ruins of ancient temples. Hence the name - "Greek fig". Outside we see a Greek warrant. We descend down the stairs and get into the "temple", the center of which is the rotunda, as in antiquity, when the so-called cella or naos (sanctuary) was located in the middle of the temple - the room where the image of the deity was located. All the forces of the creators of the Doric and Ionic temples of the classical period were aimed at achieving a perfect balance and harmony of size and shape. In a small elongated space of the restaurant, this effect is produced by various non-trivial architectural techniques. For example, mirrors turn a rectangular space into a circular one and give it a certain symmetry. Here everything is located symmetrically with respect to the center of the rotunda: stone vaults, arches, where tables and columns are located. On each side of the rotunda there are closed booths for visitors who prefer intimate communication. By the way, inside the booths, the mirrors are located opposite each other, which creates an effect of infinity that takes you far into the mysterious past. In the decoration used mainly artificial stone. In the design of the floor used natural stone, and the beams on the ceiling - from wood. Despite some theatricality of the interior, the authors skillfully created the illusion of centuries-old antiquity and unsolved mysteries.