Goldmarie Mainz

Colours and con­tours are the order of the day in the new Gold­marie bistro at the Mainz customs port. One is struck as soon as one enters by the lofti­ness of the place, by its com­bi­na­tions of various shades of green with a vivid orange colour, and by its some­what (retro-)fu­tur­ist at­mos­phere. An ex­tremely long and winding counter me­di­ates between areas of varying height within the room. A wall that sweeps right along the back of the hos­pi­tal­ity space is lent mo­men­tum by gently pro­ject­ing bands and has some­thing of a nau­ti­cal feel about it.

The design con­jures up images of coral reefs and watery depths whilst also re­call­ing the world of yachts and the decks of large cruise ships. The nau­ti­cal theme chimes su­perbly with the new bistro’s wa­ter­front lo­ca­tion in the Mainz customs port at any rate. A window façade of great height affords views out over water, cranes and naval vessels in the port, as does an at­trac­tive outdoor terrace that seats 30 guests in ad­di­tion to the 50 who can be ac­com­mo­dated inside.

The new bistro pro­vides for a plethora of dif­fer­ent uses and at­mos­pheres ranging from cosily re­lax­ing lounge-type ses­sions, through evening dining events of­fer­ing both re­gional and sea­sonal fare, to the hippest of hap­pen­ings. Caterer Louisa Focking’s great wish is that all and sundry should feel at home here and get to savour this splen­did setting on the banks of the Rhine in Mainz. There are echoes of design from the 1960s and 1970s in the strik­ing use made of colours and com­bi­na­tions thereof. Table lu­mi­naires by Verner Panton fit­tingly enrich the space with as­tutely dis­trib­uted splashes of orange.

The Gold­marie bistro forms part of the Pandion Doxx res­i­den­tial complex, a real eye-catcher at Mainz’s customs port due to its double X-shaped ground plan and golden metal façade. Res­i­dents enjoy the ex­tra­or­di­nary benefit of being sur­rounded on three sides by water. The build­ing was com­pleted in 2021. The bistro spaces were orig­i­nally ear­marked for of­fic­ing. In­te­grat­ing an entire cater­ing set-up into an ar­chi­tec­tural shell con­ceived with some­thing quite dif­fer­ent in mind proved a con­sid­er­able chal­lenge for the in­te­rior de­sign­ers.

The man­dated in­te­rior de­signer Lukas Nobili made a virtue of this ne­ces­sity. The an­cil­lary service areas have been rad­i­cally stream­lined and stand in very ef­fec­tive con­trast to the bright and airy hos­pi­tal­ity space. The nau­ti­cal imagery is like­wise evident in san­i­tary spaces and a cor­ri­dor that share the spatial con­fines en­coun­tered on boats. Their radiant orange res­onates graph­i­cally with the colour of coral reefs. Sharply defined visual tran­si­tions from the bright hos­pi­tal­ity space to a cor­ri­dor and kitchen in orange serve as an aid to iden­ti­fy­ing which areas have which func­tion.

Handles by FSB con­tribute un­hesi­tat­ingly to this miracle of colour by dint of the company’s new models in Les Couleurs® Le Cor­busier! Master builder Le Cor­busier, a man much in­spired by music and paint­ing, au­thored two col­lec­tions com­pris­ing a total of 63 colours in 13 clus­ters from the 1930s onwards. Fitted with door handles (FSB 0 12 1267 01954 9324) and roses in their own colour, the compact toilets give the ap­pear­ance of having been dipped in a vat of orange paint all at once. Sim­i­larly, the re­cessed handle in orange (FSB 0 42 4215 01000 9324) is of a formal idiom that blends in mar­vel­lously with Gold­marie’s out-of-the-or­di­nary in­te­rior.