by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires
Design & Architecture
Photos: Paula Alvarado.
When I posted the story about La Dorita restaurant and its dozens of recycled-wine-bottles-lamps, a reader suggested that I took a look at another venue from the city which had a wine-bottle ceiling.
Thus I got to Ginger Restaurant, which has, indeed, recovered more than 5,000 wine bottles from trash to improve the acoustics of its salon.
Diego Valentin, an engineer who owns the place, explained that the idea to build this lower ceiling (there is an actual ceiling above it) came before opening the restaurant last year. They built a metal net that could hold the bottles, and began filling it when they started pilling up in the restaurant.
According to Valentin, the problem with sound in the salon was the bouncing of the sound waves, and the curved shape of the bottles helps ‘break’ them.
As there is more space above the net, the sound continues its way up, improving the quality of acoustics in the salon, which is now used for events.
Besides the 5,000 bottles that make the ceiling (around 3,000 in the ground level and 1,500 in the upper level), the place has a neat arrangement of bottles in different shades of green, amber and transparent in the walls.
It also has a nice installation for the menu at the door, with lit bottle bases and cork caps.
Pretty neat.


Ginger Restaurant serves a broad variety of food and is located at 4660 Juncal st., in Palermo neighborhood, Buenos Aires. More at their website.
(Source: www.treehugger.com )