YEAR
2023
TYPE
F&B
PAX
130
AREA
418 sqm
Located to the left of the lobby, Merkado becomes the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant, operating as a natural extension of the central atrium while maintaining its own rhythm and identity. Its position allows the restaurant to combine the openness and verticality of the hotel’s main space with more intimate areas of a lower scale, creating a varied dining experience that moves between light, height and a more contained sense of comfort.
A market-inspired layout where distributed culinary stations, a flexible café area, and subtle spatial thresholds create a fluid all-day dining experience.
The layout is built around the idea of a contemporary food market. Rather than concentrating the buffet in a single point, the existing service area is maintained and expanded into a series of distributed culinary stations, allowing guests to move through the space as they would through different market stalls.
The café, positioned between the restaurant and the lobby, adds a further layer of flexibility: it can support the breakfast service, extend the buffet experience or operate independently throughout the day as a quieter place for coffee, drinks or informal encounters.
To give structure to the large atrium volume, the design introduces built-in banquettes and curved partitions that organise the seating areas without closing the space. These partitions follow the building’s own curved geometry, turning the existing architecture into a guide for circulation and creating a more fluid itinerary through the restaurant. A sequence of vertical wooden slats then subtly separates the buffet restaurant from the lobby, preserving visual connection and inviting guests in, while gently marking the transition between the calm of the arrival area and the more dynamic rhythm of the all-day dining experience.
Materiality reinforces this balance between freshness, warmth and local resonance. Light woods, natural fibres and woven textures bring a relaxed Mediterranean sensibility associated with Meliã, while golden suspended lamps, palms, patterned tiles and ceramic latticework introduce a more contextual layer, recalling the richness of Saudi interiors. The buffet counters are designed as expressive market pieces, combining timber display structures and lightweight stall-like elements that create visual anchors within the space.
Within this calm architectural envelope, crafted textures and warm details give the restaurant its own energy, shaping Merkado as a lively yet refined expression of contemporary hospitality.
Light woods, woven textures, golden lamps and patterned tiles bring warmth and local character to Merkado’s contemporary dining atmosphere.
