Featured Projects

Apizza Brooklyn Restaurant by KoDA

When it comes to design inspiration, scaffolding isn’t generally the first thing that comes to mind.

However, KoDA, the Miami-based architectural firm known for creative approaches and sustainable designs, used this unintentional yet ever-present architectural presence of the NYC landscape as the backdrop to create the Apizza Brooklyn restaurant in Coral Gables.

After careful consideration, KoDA designed Apizza’s 80-person dining room, wine cellar, and bar area with an array of wood planks meeting metal poles reminiscent of traditional building scaffolding. Although it’s not a common feature indoors, scaffolding became the ideal solution to meet the restaurant’s specific needs: unlimited storage space, noise control, and seating variety.

In keeping with KoDA’s focus on sustainability, much of the “scaffolding” found within the walls of the new Apizza space was repurposed and, once again, made functional as storage space and room partitions.

According to Wesley Kean, KoDA’s founder and principal designer, “Like any great recipe, the design of Apizza Brooklyn called for proper ingredients: equal parts innovation, creativity, and familiarity. The goal was to script an unforgettable experience for the customer, while conjuring up their appetite for gourmet, brick oven pizzas made with garden-fresh ingredients.”

Aside from the industrial-chic element of interior scaffolding, KoDA also included other space-defining components such as custom pipe fittings, brick walls, and polished concrete floors.

The end result is a restaurant that doesn’t just catch the eye but harkens back to the food’s cultural and regional roots.

Apizza Brooklyn is located at  5755 SW Bird Road in Coral Gables.

Photography: Emilio Collavino

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