Plants spill out of concrete beams at Lima’s Statera restaurant

Local architects MD27 balanced architecture and nature for this Lima restaurant, where leaves overflow from a suspended concrete garden.

Statera’s cement exterior might look forbidding, but inside is all dark wood, stone and hanging greenery. Natural light pours in from windows overhead, brightening up the space and emphasising its natural textures – including the veined leaf-like marble that covers the bar.

MD27 used huge concrete beams to create the garden that spans the top half of the restaurant, relying on Lima’s abundance of sunlight and natural humidity to turn it into a thriving oasis.

An open kitchen runs the entire length of the restaurant – located in the city’s Miraflores neighbourhood – to engage diners with the dishes as they’re made. A single tree stands in the outside courtyard, where guests can wash their hands at basins carved out of pieces of stone.

Lima, Av. Mariscal La Mar 463, Miraflores 15074, Peru