Spanish designer Lucas Muñoz has created The Park cafe almost entirely from materials salvaged from an abandoned hotel for Design Mumbai 2025.

Muñoz “mined” materials from an abandoned hotel to create a series of “one-of-a-kind improvisations” for the cafe space at this year’s design show in Mumbai.

Lucas Muñoz designed a cafe at Design Mumbai

The Spanish designer, who was recently highly commended at the Dezeen Awards for the interior of the CoLab creative laboratory in Madrid, aimed to create a cafe with minimum impact for the event by using reclaimed materials.

However, he also wanted the space to be dignified and recall the hotel where the materials were taken from.

It was made from materials taken from an abandoned hotel

“We aimed to mine from where materials are abundant and underappreciated and redignify them until they can belong where they are scarce and can be appreciated,” Muñoz told Dezeen.

“We wanted to use reclaimed materials, but also make it look dignified enough,” he continued.

“And also make something that says ‘I am a hotel’, so a reception desk, doors, beds, et cetera”

The main table top was made from walls cut from the hotel

The pieces of furniture in the cafe were all made from materials extracted from a hotel recently purchased by The Park Hotels, which had fallen into disrepair after being abandoned five years ago.

A large central table was constructed from coffee tables topped with whole pieces of wall cut from the hotel. It was surrounded by chairs covered in sheeting that had been washed multiple times.

Surrounding the central table were a series of day beds made from the hotel’s beds and desk lamps, while hotel doors were placed at the edge of the space.

The cafe was lit by spotlights cut directly from the hotel’s ceiling and hung from wires.

All of the pieces were held together without adhesives or permanent fixes using a combination of clamping and tying.

Day beds were made from the hotel’s beds and desk lamps

Apart from rope, and the chatai floor mats and cushions used for the day beds, all the materials were taken from the abandoned hotel within a period of six days.

“Time scale was against us, we extracted, re-activated and re-purposed in almost six days,” said Muñoz.

“Each project brings its own novel layers, in this case: India as a culturally and physically distant location and having to preform the re-purposing from a location that is in a poor state of conservation with the limitation of wanting to preserve as much as possible the original state of the elements, in order not to lose their original significance.”

All of the pieces were held together by clamping and tying

Muñoz hopes that visitors to Design Mumbai will take inspiration from the cafe for their next projects.

“I wish people could actually take everything!” he said. “Certain parts of the installation will be kept by The Park, but certain others are to come back to the mined hotel and respond to their original fate, probably being a residue.”

“In a less literal note, I hope the spirit of this installation will accompany certain visitors in their next projects and demonstrate the beauty of using experienced materials,” he continued.

Previous projects by Muñoz include a restaurant in Spain made from upcycled junk and site construction waste and a 1960s office converted into an offbeat furniture showroom.

The photography is courtesy of Lucas Muñoz and The Park Hotels.

Design Mumbai 2025 takes place from 26 to 29 November in Mumbai. See our Dezeen Events Guide for information about other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the world.

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