Bespoke terrazzo for Colicci at the Serpentine Lido
Diespeker is excited to be involved in the creation of a distinctive kiosk to be sited next door to the Serpentine Lido café in the centre of Hyde Park.
The kiosk was designed by the creative team at Colicci, which operates over 40 restaurant, café and kiosk sites across London’s parklands and public spaces. A number of the kiosks are created to echo the heritage of their location.
Head of Creative, Katy Manolescue explained that the idea behind the Serpentine Lido kiosk design was to reflect the café building, built in the 1930s and featuring 10 white columns in a striking colonnade. This led her to commission Diespeker to create fluted terrazzo cladding, concave in style.
She says that she wanted to use bespoke terrazzo for several reasons; as a material it came to the fore in the UK in the 1930s when the original café was built. And secondly, she was keen to introduce an eco-friendly material. Katy already knew of Diespeker and our Rubblazzo product, which uses waste reclaimed from London construction as aggregate. She also appreciated that terrazzo simply needs to be cured, rather than fired.
For the bespoke mix, the London sourced waste material was combined with ‘Serpentine’ green tones of marble, replicating the colour palette of the main café.
Colicci visited the Diespeker factory to see the fluted terrazzo in production, and to capture some imagery of the process. Our bespoke terrazzo specialist Andy Brady was, as always, hands on with the creation of the terrazzo, which takes place in the fabled Diespeker ‘green hut’.
Katy says she is delighted with the design, which has turned out to be a “beautiful mix and blend of colours”.
The terrazzo panels are now with Macemain + Amstad for fabrication. The plan is that the kiosk will open in Hyde Park during the Easter holidays. We can’t wait to see the finished structure in all its terrazzo clad glory!
