Ling Ling

This project was selected as a Merit winner in ARCHITECT's 2023 Architecture & Interiors Awards, Interiors: Hospitality Interior category.

“There are so many moments in this project that fully encompass and embrace the environment. It’s a really nice effort that makes the most of the surrounding views.” — Juror Krista Ninivaggi

Architects have long been drawn to the idea of collapsing opposites: of bringing the outside in, making the heavy feel light, the monumental domestic. In Mexico City’s Ling Ling restaurant, all those dialectical procedures are executed with a bravado rarely seen before—along with a couple of others that may never have been seen at all.

Designed by local firm Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, the high-end eatery occupies as prominent a site as possible in the bustling Mexican capital—the 56th floor of the Torre Mayor, at the very corner where the Paseo de la Reforma collides with the Bosque de Chapultepec. For the architects, the location afforded a golden opportunity for opposite-busting—a chance to connect the dots between both the dense urban fabric and the sprawling green space next door, and the intimacy of the dining experience and the grandeur of the nearly limitless views out the adjacent windows. Their response is a sort of hanging garden, full to the brim with vegetation that sprouts and spreads from the ceiling; the ceiling itself is part of the show, topped with contoured ribs that create a series of ghostly arcades, contemporary porticos passing through and across the interior. That effect, along with the patterned tile floor and rustic brick walls, achieves the last and most gratifying of Sordo Madaleno’s oppositional maneuvers: creating the atmosphere of a traditional Mexican patio, removed from the ground floor of some charming rural villa and placed inside the penthouse of an ultramodern skyscraper.

PROJECT CREDITS
Project: Ling Ling
Architect/Interior Designer: Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, Mexico City. Javier Sordo Madaleno Bringas, Hon. FAIA (president); Javier Sordo Madaleno de Haro (architecture leader); Fernanda Patiño (interior design director); Gabriel Nieto (project manager); Paola Martínez, Ricardo Tovar, Nancy Becerra, and Delfina Espina (design team)
Mechanical/Electrical Engineer: MRG Ingeniería
Construction Manager/General Contractor: Pasquinel Studio
Landscape Architect: Gabayet (natural); Horacio Cordero (artificial)
Lighting Designer: Luz en Arquitectura
AV: HiFi
Acoustics: Saad Acústica

MATERIALS AND SOURCES
Appliances: Diprec
Bathroom Fixtures: Brizo
Cabinets: Katerina Alatzia
Ceilings: Vaulted stereotomy and greenhouse by Metal y Madera
Countertops/Flooring: Grupo Arca
Fabrics and Finishes: Élitis; Telas de Pani; Studio 84; Estex; Ladrillos de México
Furniture: Solido
Kitchen Fixtures: Diprec
Lighting Control Systems: Lutron
Structural System: Metal y Madera
Wallcoverings: Élitis, Asteré