El Chiringuito Ibiza, Dubai

Located on Palm Dubai at the tip of the Eastern crescent lies the sister project of Ibiza’s beloved restaurant and beach club, El Chiringuito.

Designed by award winning design practice ANARCHITECT, El Chiringuito Ibiza.Dubai is a new venture into the UAE’s dynamic hospitality scene. With the new restaurant housed within an open-beach house structure served by a dedicated kitchen building and set in a matured landscape with a terracing lounge garden, pool deck and private beach, the architects have truly captured the Balearic relaxed atmosphere, synonymous with the original Es Cavallet Ibizan restaurant & beach club. The Dubai project has recently been awarded the Best Outdoor Design project of the Year at the Middle East CID Awards 2017.

El Chiringuito Ibiza.Dubai was conceived following a rare opportunity to acquire a strategically central location on The Palm that is accessible by both boat and road with a private beach and open sea, yet remains perfectly removed from the bustle of the mainland Dubai metropolis.

The challenge for ANARCHITECT was to creatively divide the existing landscape and spaces of the property to accommodate new programs adding the new central restaurant structure, kitchen building alongside the new upper entrance garden and connection to the lower pool deck and beach front area.

The architects carefully considered the heights and openness of the new restaurant structure so that they could create strategic sight lines to enhance the overall experience for the Restaurant & Beach Club guests. From the main entrance, one can see through the restaurant to the DJ and the beach beyond, whilst the DJ can see all restaurant guests, the upper garden and through to the Head Chef standing at the serving pass of the glass fronted kitchen. This was a very important design challenge to overcome in order to create a heightened social experience for the guests and staff; both as a restaurant space during the day and the beach club venue at night on the weekends.

The selection of materials was important given the marine environment and exposure of the location on The Palm. The outdoor deck and the elevated restaurant areas are matte-sealed solid teak wood and the fluid concrete works are finished in a soft textured-render. The main restaurant beach house structure is constructed from a GI steel sub-frame structure with a treated timber cladding and applied aged paint finish. The main pitched-roof is weather tight and finished with a synthetic recyclable thatch that resists the intense impact of the climate. Bi-fold Timber shutters were installed to the exposed perimeter elevations of the restaurant to reduce the wind impact from the exposed location. The spaces of the restaurant and beach club are progressive and interconnected; while some areas are completely sheltered, some are shaded with natural bamboo or pergola slats and others fully open to the elements.

The restaurant and lounge furniture was bespoke and custom designed by ANARCHITECT for El Chiringuito Ibiza.Dubai and made in East Asia from kiln-dried solid teak as well as uniquely designed bamboo feature light over the central bar.

The experience of El Chiringuito Ibiza.Dubai is not of a building, nor as a landscape; the spaces created feel naturally connected with the outdoors yet manage to protect guests from the intense climate where most needed. ANARCHITECT’s focus was to create a space that felt like the Mediterranean summers in Ibiza not just through aesthetics, but by truly integrating both the indoor and outdoor spaces so that migration between them feels effortless and natural.