One of the indispensable conditions set by the customers was the guarantee of the inviolability of the architectural monument - the famous building of Charles Garnier. Everything brought in literally does not touch the existing elements of the structure and can be easily dismantled without the slightest damage to the building.
The Phantom Restaurant is hidden behind the eastern façade of the Grand Opera, where horse-drawn carriages dropped off lucky ticket holders in the 19th century. The entrance is designed as a curtain made of curved glass panels. They literally hang in the air, as they are fixed on a bent metal tape attached to the wall with only thin rods at a height of about 6 m. Since the "waves" are transparent and practically invisible, they do not violate the historical architectural image in any way.
The interior of the establishment, which can seat up to 90 guests, is shaped by a giant plastic mold. This changeable white "cloud" smoothly and silently, like a ghost, flows throughout the vaulted space of the hall, without touching the walls: it hangs over the tables, descends with stalagmites of columns, transforms into a staircase fence, lifts the guests of the restaurant to the second level, almost to the very dome … For the staircase and the interior spaces of the mezzanine floor, the architect chose not just red, but a dramatic scarlet color, which effectively "flows" from the upper tier to the lower one.
It is interesting that the main element of the historical architectural space - the dome - becomes visible to visitors from the upper level of the restaurant: suddenly it turns out to be unusually close to them. As a result, a paradoxical thing is obtained: without violating the slightest detail of the external or internal appearance of the architectural monument, Odile Decck radically changed the essence of the experienced space.
A. S.
