Helping hand

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A new restaurant and cafe has opened in Downtown Dubai called Loui’s. Interior designer, Mustafa Khamash, managing director, Kart Design, has created two giant sized gold coloured hands from the floor to the ceiling as the focal point inside the venue.

This is the fourth concept Khamash has created for the client, Gabr Kenger, who opens the restaurants then franchises them out. The other three are Chandeliers, Dubai Marina, Shu in JBR opposite JBR park and Smint next to the American hospital. All the restaurants are medium to high level in terms of design and its food and services.

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Khamash said he wasn’t given a brief as such for the restaurant because he has worked with Kenger before and knows that he always wants to be one step ahead of the competition in terms of the design and quality of material to attract more people from a commercial point of view.

Mustafa said countries like France and Italy are known for their speciality cuisine but, in the UAE, the focus is on the quality of space and design and the food and service come second.

He said the only problem in Dubai is people will copy designs which leads to other people stealing the idea which then becomes junk and mass produced in China.

“This time I wanted to create something that is not easy to copy and where others don’t know how to source the material. I wanted to do something of an exhibition level scale that was out of the ordinary.”

He said his inspiration comes from his travels and furniture design exhibitions and his favourite designer is Philippe Starck, who once created a large scale duck as well as a Duravit factory in the shape of a giant WC. “It’s his sense of humour I like,” added Khamash.

“I look at all the daily elements of a restaurant that you need, such as tools like a knife and fork, but then I realised that in an industry such as this where the waiters carry the food and the chefs cook in the kitchen, the hands are the most important tool and I wanted to reflect that in the design.”

There are two structured colons in the middle of the restaurant and Khamash used the hands to hide them so that they are not visible to guests.He also looked at the demographic of the Downtown area, which is a mix of old tradition and modern trends with a mixed cultural diversity of about 280 nationalities, who live in the area.

The menu reflects this cultural melting pot with its food including Arabic, Japanese, Italian, and Khamash draws attention to it in the design of his motifs on the ceiling. Each symbol carries a different letter of the alphabet from each of the various nationalities.

It is a mix of old and new with abstract motifs in between.
Khamash worked with various consultants on the project including Reema Abanna graphics, Al Huda Lighting and Al Abbal, which was the general contractor and did the interior fit-out.

“Each single element of the design and MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) proposal had to be approved by Emaar. It took 16 months to deliver and the first seven months of that were spent seeking approval from the right people,” said Khamash.

“The gold shimmer of the curtains represents the luxury of Dubai and the antique gold of the hands is highlighted at night through the lighting.”

Khamash turned to the expertise of UK artist, Gordon Cruickshanks of Rock Scuplt to create the giant hands. Cruickshanks is renowned for the work he does including artificial façades at the Atlantis and Ski Dubai.

The hands are sprayed with plaster, hollow inside and weigh 50 kilos each.

The use of colour for the material of the chairs reflects spices in the kitchen; cumin is commonly used in the Middle East as well as the burgundy of saffron.

“The colour of the material comes from the kitchen not from me. Dubai is famous for trading spices years ago. I am not creating anything out of the ordinary. All the elements are already there. They are all around you.”

The colour of the yellowish marble completes the colour theme of the space with its gold, yellow, orange, reddish hue and the floor is black to neutralise the other areas. “Lighting comes up from the floor to brighten the hands and neutralise all other objects so your eye is immediately drawn to that, other lighting is a soft light dimmed to set the ambience,” he said.

The restaurant and cafe seats 90 people inside and 150 outside. It has an open plan kitchen and separate smoking lounge.

Kart Design has been operating in Dubai for seven years and has a team of 12 with offices in Syria and Qatar. The company recently won its first project in Abu Dhabi to design the interior of a food court for Mushraff Mall that seats 1,200 people, split into three sections.

It is the first project for Kart Design in Abu Dhabi and Khamash hopes it will lead to other new business opportunities in the area.