TAKO Aurelia | Daniela Colli

A few steps from the Vatican, TAKO Aurelia has opened, a sushi restaurant and cocktail bar which interprets the Memphis movement as the key to a new concept of urban hospitality. The concept stems from the desire to redefine a new sushi restaurant format by experimenting with unconventional materials and lighting solutions integrated into the architecture, creating novel and immersive settings. A place with a bold and contemporary identity, it combines an emotional approach with an eclectic, maximalist design, characterized by geometric graphics and vibrant colors, reflective and textured surfaces.

The project reinterprets 1980s aesthetics – from Memphis to Pop Art – through a contemporary sensibility, translating them into dynamic and strongly distinctive spaces. Each element, from the checkered floor to the metal mesh, from the illuminated signs to the bold furnishings, is a captivating blend of shapes, textures, and saturated tonalities that blend together, creating an atmosphere that emphasizes the experiential dimension of the project. "TAKO Aurelia presents design as a sensorial universe made of contrasts, reflections, and harmonies, capable of conveying energy and positivity," comments Daniela Colli, founder of the studio.

Ten large street-facing windows, which ensure a strong dialogue with the urban context, amplifying the venue's visual permeability towards the city, and its striking entrance reception, immediately project guests into a new world: a chrome ceiling evokes the movement of water, while mirrored magenta methacrylate panels envelop sculptural desks made of polished steel tubes, illuminated by Spiral lamps by Verpan. A sequence of metal mesh pillars – rendered three-dimensional by the luminous component that passes through their weave, casting shadows and transparencies that make the steel a fluid and dynamic element – filter the view towards the upper hall becoming a spatial device capable of interacting with the surrounding environment. Acting as a link between the interiors is a green sound-absorbing false ceiling that improves acoustic comfort and strengthens the project's chromatic identity.

Spread across three levels, TAKO seats 240 diners, and cocktail bar. A glossy magenta polished doorway, accented by lines of light, leads, via a black granite staircase, to the lower level. Here, arches of metaphysical proportions define the paths to the restrooms (these too Pop Art), while a wall dotted with large backlit magenta dots becomes the dramatic focal point of the space.

The main hall is dominated by a large wave-shaped sofa that wraps around circular pillars upholstered in chromed faux leather; black and white checkered tables, yellow and green chairs, and reflective and transparent materials complete an emphatic palette, balanced by surfaces with contrasting patterns. A fluid and structured space, where a wall of iridescent faux leather tubes hosts the light installation "LESS DRAMA MORE SUSHI", interacts with metallic green sofas in Pop Art shapes. Mirrored methacrylate pillars with rhomboidal grooves fragment and multiply the reflections, defining the different seating areas.

The sushi bar, framed by a yellow methacrylate wave and clad in magenta glazed stoneware with black and white geometric patterns, represents the productive and visual heart of the restaurant. It culminates orthogonally in the cocktail bar, featuring a cladding of horizontally arranged polished steel circular tubes, with metallic hemispheres on mirrored walls that accommodate bottles as if suspended in space. Two private areas, consistent with the formal color–blocking language but chromatically differentiated, complete the room's design.

 With TAKO Aurelia, we have created a strongly individual project, in which design, light, color, and textures combine to redefine, with daring ambition, the sensory experience of contemporary dining in Rome, one capable of surprising and involving every visitor. Or at the very least, of putting them in a good mood.