Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi

GamFratesi Designs a Verdant, Greenhouse-Inspired Restaurant in Manila

The 60-seat Harlan+Holden Glasshouse Café includes custom seating by the designers for Wiener GTV Design, bespoke stone floors, and lighting by Louis Poulsen and Rubn.

Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi
GamFratesi’s interiors for Harlan+Holden Glasshouse Café include custom seating by the designers for Wiener GTV Design, bespoke stone floors, and lighting by Louis Poulsen and Rubn. Courtesy Patrick Diokno

In Makati City, the financial nexus of Manila, a greenhouse-inspired eatery houses all manner of earthly delights. Occupying a site adjacent to one of the area’s largest commercial centers, the 60-seat Harlan+Holden Glasshouse Café opened earlier this year with interiors designed by Copenhagen-based studio GamFratesi.

The tropical foliage that surrounds Glasshouse infiltrates the restaurant’s interior by way of enormous windows, which stretch from the Italian-stone floors to the 18-foot ceilings. Ficus trees transplanted from Philippine forests hold court in the dining area, set in massive planters that GamFratesi wrapped in cane webbing—a material that repeats in the restaurant’s Wiener GTV Design bentwood sofas, also by the designers. Facing one another in pairs, these high-back seats create a more enclosed dining setting for guests without the bulk and heft of installed banquettes. In such an open, undefined space, “it was important to be able to create intimate areas,” explain the designers.

Along a wall are cane chairs (also from Wiener GTV Design) and gray marble two-tops that coordinate with the veiny stone that lines the bar. Overhead, GamFratesi has strung up milk-glass pendants by Louis Poulsen, which float like bubbles in the waters of Manila Bay.


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  • Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi|Harlan Holden Glasshouse Cafe manila GamFratesi

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