Text description provided by the architects
Parent-child restaurants, an emerging F&B typology in recent years, have mostly been limited to children's playgrounds attached to dining, intended as another place for children to interact with parents. Vitaland, designed by Golucci, focuses instead on the parents: people so busy caring for children that they have no time for their own lives, let alone a quiet meal with old friends. When a gathering becomes a child-centered outing, all the problems seem to dissolve. The tree-house concept runs through the entire restaurant: small houses scattered through the space form different children's experience zones, semi-enclosing the dining hall with a rhythm of density and openness. Vegetables and fruits are the main visual identity; a huge broccoli greets visitors at the entrance, turning the vegetable most children fear into something lively and cute. Through a foyer of white shoe cabinets and display shelves and past an arched doorway, visitors enter the children-and-parents paradise. The left side is the main dining hall, white-walled with floating circular ceiling lights that feel like a dreamy sky. Folding doors in the middle allow the hall to split into two for parties. On the right, framed small houses separate dining from children's experience zones, with varied activities that even adults envy. On a Friday afternoon, parents might share afternoon tea, sunlight through plane trees falling on the table, children playing in the distance, time loosening between reality and youth. At the far end is the most interesting tree-house cluster. Layered houses with colored glass windows distinguish zones and echo the visual system; lower houses are private booths and children's lounges, while the upper level, under 1.5 meters high, is another themed play space, low for adults but perfectly sized and secure for children. The two levels interact: stairs on the right lead up, with a ball pool inside; many children abandon the climb to slide mid-stair into the ball pool, repeating again and again. Others climb the tree house to find a new world, from a princess room to a superhero space, then down a spiral stair to land near their parents chatting and dining, ready for another adventure. Vitaland does not follow the exaggerated, viral-restaurant route; its fresh, heavenly style prioritizes children's use over parents' photos. The designer observes that children prefer climbable, varied spaces to colorful ones, and creates a lively, environment for free play, letting parents steal a rare half-day of leisure.