The client

By 2011, Yaz had already been a corporate design client for Rikiki's agency branch two tribes. Yaz was planning to establish a brand new, nationwide fast casual restaurant chain, similar to Vapiano or Olive Garden, but with a focus on modern Turkish cuisine.

Conceptual development

Starting from its unique in-house knowledge of brand building, the very first thing Rikiki researched was the competing restaurant brands from an interior design perspective. Unearthing noticeable global trends that would prove to be successful and pointing out generic styles for Yaz to avoid, Rikiki was able to craft a vision for the interior design the client would love.

Selecting from several distinct alternatives presented, Yaz decided to adopt an interior design that might evoke a sense of grand adventure – from old Europe to exotic Istanbul upon the Orient Express – but embedded in a familiar, airy, modern and urban space.

Since Yaz needed to attract investor capital before building the first restaurant, all interior design elements had to be illustrated over an abstract space and floor layout.

Usually, investors have a hard time imagining architectural features from mood boards alone. Subsequently, Rikiki employed 3D cubes of the various zones of the restaurant; combining perspective collages of furniture with hand-drawn extensions and guest sketches, provided by the skilled architects of Brust+Partner.

Headquarter offices

After securing the investment capital in 2012, the first milestone was moving from the proverbial frugal start-up loft into dedicated headquarters, but with a twist: In what turned out to be an exceptionally smart strategic move, Yaz wanted to double up their headquarter offices with a fully equipped training kitchen and a small showcase restaurant.

In the quiet, cozy Heusteigviertel neighborhood of Stuttgart, they found a former supermarket with a widely open 250 m² floor space. The layout includes a dining area and a big conference/training room with a foldable room divider four meters tall (so the actual dining room of the training restaurant could be quickly doubled in size).

Rikiki integrated many signature aspects of the planned restaurant ambience into a workable office environment. Key decisions about bold wall colors and varying, warm materials were made to help set the executive tempo.

Office restrooms served as a place to test ideas for their future public counterparts in the restaurants. Fitted with mosaic tiles evoking the lovely blue tones of the Mediterranean, mirrors framed in wood, and braided yarn curtains to hide the plumbings, these restrooms were more like home than what one would expect to encounter at the likes of The Olive Garden.

Training restaurant

Given its 30 m² guest room, designing the training restaurant proved to be challenging due to the clients’ goals for the space:

• Test bed with small versions of everything that would go into the real restaurants
• Custom-built tables, fixed to the floor to accomodate embedded electronic devices
• Partially open kitchen showing just enough of the preparation processes to keep guests intrigued

On the other hand, these requirements allowed Rikiki to establish signature design elements like LED-backlit ornamental panels, wall-mounted wood panels from sustainably grown Meranti wood, and ornamentally shaped tiles, specially imported from Turkey.

During this time, Rikiki also embarked on its first venture into custom furniture design. One of the most visible pieces of furniture defining a restaurant's look is seating accommodations.

However, hours and hours of research turned up no chairs nor stools which would really fit well into the concept. Plus, many restaurants were using the same models, and that simply would not do if Yaz hoped to make a splash.

So Rikiki came up with a chair design of its own. Working closely together with an Italian woodworker, the exclusive Yaz chair was born. An elegantly curved design, this chair is crafted from dark stained wood, and features a custom-milled ornamental backrest. Pouffes were built from a simple cubic frame and upholstered with varying fabrics, ranging from colorful stripes to vintage Kelim carpets directly from Turkey.

The entire ambience of this little restaurant came out pretty nicely and proved to be a well-received addition to the neighborhood.