Elevation Station Preview: Team Dario’s/HDR
May 9th, 2012 : : Kayla : :
Chef Dario Schicke is well-known for his unbridled passion for Belgian beers. He is equally well-known for his exceptional talent at incorporating these soulful brews into his memorable dishes. The task of the HDR design team was to capture and translate Dario’s passion, style and creativity into built form.
Born in Sarajevo, Dario is a classically trained French chef who infuses modern techniques to create new perspectives on traditional recipes. Dario’s station materialized out of ongoing discussions and meetings (over Belgian beers and amazing food, of course) regarding materiality, economy of construction, spatial definition, transportation and unitization.
Like the chef himself, our vision was to take traditional materials and present them in unconventional ways. The station is an exploration in material tectonics and spatial design while repurposing non-traditional materials into cladding, much in the same fashion that Dario prepares his dishes. The station is fashioned out of recycled shipping pallets and steel plated ribs while the bar is formed out of used Belgian beer bottles from Dario’s Brasserie and reassembled recycling shipping pallets. Three wooden and steel modular bays frame the structure of the pavilion. Covered overhead and captured on the sides, the shaded pavilion creates an ambiance with a relaxing experience – a familiar feeling to anyone who has ever visited Dario’s Brasserie. At the conclusion of Elevate, the station’s modular design will allow for easy disassembly and future distribution of the pavilion to Omaha’s urban landscape.
On the menu is cevapcici, a grilled dish of minced meat—think kebab—a popular dish in the countries of southeastern Europe and served with pita bread and sauces. In Dario’s usual fashion, he is rethinking the standard approach and planning on incorporating the cevapcici in pita cones, foregoing the need for plates or silverware—a decidedly modern twist on the traditional cevapcici dish.
