Since overhauling our City Guides last fall, we’ve had many an opportunity to make our way back to Detroit and delve further into one of the most culturally rich cities in the country. While there, various team members found that…
Continue Reading…
The interior of this east London cafe by local firm TwistInArchitecture features copper tubes, timber boards and metal light fittings, designed to reference the area’s trade history (+ slideshow).
TwistInArchitecture converted a run-down space on Commercial Street in east London for a cafe called Trade, retaining three separate zones from the original layout to use for display, coffee and food preparation and customer seating.
The firm’s designer and co-founder Andreja Beric said the philosophy for the build was to create a “contextually responsive environment” by re-using materials that were once traded by builder’s merchants along the street.
Copper tubes are used in different arrangements to create a screen in the centre of the cafe and clad the base of the plywood counter. They are also implemented as a staircase balustrade and to construct a grid that hangs from the ceiling, used to suspend low-hanging lamps.
“The space is kind of strange, it had three different areas that were quite different in feel so we wanted to have a common thread that combined it all,” Beric told Dezeen, referring to the lighting grid.
“Lighting was something that was quite important for the shop and we wanted to achieve rhythm with this, it made sense and visually it was quite good to repeat the element at a high point,” Beric explained.
“Copper and wood work well together, both are warm materials and contrast with the matte and shiny surfaces,” he added.
Pieces of laminated oak wood zig-zag across the counter top in the food preparation area and continue to where customer seating is located at the rear.
Recycled boards salvaged from a timber yard form a floor-to-ceiling feature wall.
The designers also demolished the back wall and inserted bi-fold doors to open onto a wooden deck, creating more room and allowing extra light into the space.
Existing wooden floorboards throughout the cafe were stripped of their painted surface and varnished.
Sections of exposed brick wall form a backdrop to the coffee machine, while the remainder of the interior is lined with white tiles.
Here’s a project description from TwistInArchitecture:
Trade
London-based architectural practice TwistInArchitecture – founded on the principle of creating buildings with an unusual twist – today announces the opening of a unique new coffee shop in London’s East End, on Commercial Street. As well as recusing a run-down space, the philosophy for the build was to re-use a number of materials which were once traded along Commercial Street by builders’ merchants and in the material yards, to create a contextually responsive environment.
For this reason, the interior is dominated by copper tubes – which are normally hidden away within wall cavities – serving both an aesthetic and design role, but also a functional one. Indeed, hundreds of yards of copper tubing has been used to create both the internal screens of the main bar fascia, as well as being suspended from the ceiling to carry electricity to the lighting fixtures (see Figs. 1 and 2). The signature use of copper has also been applied to the staircase balustrade and handrails, creating atmosphere through muted reflections and intricate shadows.
The new venue – appropriately called ‘Trade’ – also benefits from a number of modelling changes. It has a new staircase location, new large opening to the back wall to allow natural light to enter, and a complete re-work of the basement. The unusual geometrical twists of the copper are warmed by the use existing brickwork and timber floors, while the true heroes of the shop – it’s coffee and home-made signature food are given the most prominent position.
Trade is located two minutes away from trendy Spitalfields Market, and can accommodate 60 people, spread throughout its three zones: the display section at the front, the preparation area in the middle, and the seating section at the rear. The shop front itself is open and inviting.
Andreja Beric, co-Founder of TwistInArchitecture, said: “We’re very pleased to have completed this quirky project, which brings something new and interesting to Commercial Street, while also breaking away from the ‘shabby chic norm’ of so many other sites. The three internal spaces would typically have three different interior concepts, so we decided to allow these spaces to have their individuality but be tied together by the use of copper – at a low height through the counter, and at a high level through the lighting conduit. These threads work to complete the interior with one idea. It also helps that trade looks seriously cool, has awesome food and coffee, and is in tune with its surroundings and historical significance.”
The post London cafe interior by TwistInArchitecture
references city’s commercial history appeared first on Dezeen.
The bright yellow facade of this cafe in Seoul by local studio Nordic Bros. Design Community references the exterior of a Scandinavian house, complete with small square windows and a roof gable (+ slideshow).
Nordic Bros. Design Community designed Kafé Nordic inside an existing residential building at the end of a side street in the South Korean capital.
The designers said they added the yellow house-shaped facade on the front of the red brick building to create something different from the “quiet and peaceful mood of red bricks in the area”.
Glazed double doors at the entrance lead into a small lobby space, then a set of stairs lead down into the semi-basement cafe.
The designers altered the original space by moving the bathroom from the middle of the room to the far edge, and converting the former washroom and part of one room into the kitchen.
The cafe is filled with brightly coloured chairs in different shapes and sizes, and a mixture of round and hexagonal tables.
Black and white geometric patterned wallpaper covers sections of the otherwise white walls, and extends down to cover parts of the wooden floor.
A black-painted unit housing the front of the serving counter, kitchen and drinks cabinet has octagonal, hexagonal, quadrangle, and circle shaped mirrors up its sides.
This shape pattern continues on the back wall, providing borders for the menu that is printed straight onto the painted surface.
Small vases with flowers and animal figurines are scattered through the interior, while a plant grows up into a corner of the bathroom.
Here’s a project description from the designers:
Kafé Nordic
Kafe Nordic, located in Itaewon, Seoul, Nordic Bros. Design Community have completed its design and construction. Kafe Nordic is located in a residential area nearby the street of Commes Des Garcons, emerged as the newest hot spot, and a place that mixed of various food, fashion and culture.
Nordic Bros. Design Community has an in-depth discussion of “Nordic” with the clients; enriched life, new life style, humour, artistic expression based on functionalism, smaller but stronger. So, they developed the space design under the concept of “aesthetic of inconvenience” in which space is situated in a semi-basement built as residential space.
Exterior of yellow house shape, covered with red bricks as a whole, is designed by one of CEOs of Kafe Nordic and it is motif of Lune du Matin pakage, collaborated with Nordic Bros. Design Community. This gives yellow as a main colour among 50 district colours of Seoul and is designed to be able to energise from quiet and peaceful mood of red bricks residential areas.
Meaning of Kafe Nordic is combination that is “Kafe” from Swedish, make household of daily life be more beautiful, and “Nordic”, northern Europe. They offer homemade sandwiches, Panini and tea.
Hall space (25.93 sqm / 7.85 py) is work, in which Patricia Urquiola and Mutina are collaborated, of Azulej collection, combination of 27 patterns. It shows each different characteristics and taste by covering its classical wood flooring and highlights a designer’s expression by having deviation.
The space is filled with the mixture of shape and colour as well as designers and brands; Emeco/ Flototto/ Hay/ Ton chairs and cafe table gives variety to Candlestick Table, made by Yong-Hwan Shin, Light Au Lait by Ingo Maurer and Lune du Matin.
Also, space is completed with graphic primitive for menu, which becomes a symbol of Kafe Nordic from a client’s suggestions: octagon, hexagon, quadrangle, and circle.
8.72 sqm / 2.64 py of kitchen and 2.27 sqm/ 0.69 py of toilet restore order that forms the platforms by adding and moving pipes. Open kitchen is made through a solution to our big worry, selection and storage of kitchenware. Origami (Mutina-Folded) floor and wall linked to a toilet that is a private space and it is a place can give some pleasure to the guests.
Design: Nordic Bros. Design Community / Yong-Hwan Shin
Constructor: Nordic Bros. Design Community
Graphic: LUV / Ting Tang
Location: 683-46, Hannnam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea / kafe’ Nordic
Use: Homemade deli cafe
Area : 40m2
Floor: tile, wood flooring
Wall: tile, black mirror, paint
Ceiling: paint
The post Yellow house-shaped facade fronts cafe
by Nordic Bros. Design Community appeared first on Dezeen.
After years of being the go-to caterers in Milan, Isabella Coppini and Vanessa Pellizza Tricarico are familiar faces among the city’s foodies. The pair and their delicious food can now be found at Isa e Vane, a cafe and deli they recently opened…
Continue Reading…
Large glowing letters spell out the Portuguese Spanish word for tea at the front of this tea house in Brazil by architects Estudio 30 51, the third cafe we’ve featured in the last seven days (+ slideshow).
Estudio 30 51 designed El Té for the ground floor of a shopping centre in Porto Alegre and installed the two huge wooden letters across the shopfront so that they frame the cafe’s entrance and serving counter.
“The fronts of the letters are backlit so at night time they work like urban lanterns illuminating the front of the store,” architect Gustavo Sbardelotto told Dezeen.
The colourful packaging of the teas provided the starting point for the shop’s interior design and create a rainbow effect along the edge of the glass-topped serving counter.
A range of 30 different teas are displayed across the sections and customers are invited to to sample and smell different types.
The rest of the space is lined with wooden panels to allow these colours to stand out. This includes the base of the counter, walls, doors and shelving.
White tables and simple wooden chairs fill the space, sitting over a floor of square paving stones.
More chairs and tables are located upstairs, or customers can choose to sit on outdoor furniture in front of the entrance.
Photography is by Marcelo Donadussi.
Here’s a project description from Estudio 30 51:
Tea house
Located in one of the most important commercial galleries in the city of Porto Alegre, El té – Casa de chás (tea house) focuses on the sale of teas and everything that involves the product.
The project concept was born from the immersion in the world of teas. All its colours, textures and aromas were the starting point for creating this environment. Wood was elected as the primary materiality of the project , acting as a neutral base where the colourful herbs are the highlight.
Due to the shop window be visually obstructed by the wall of the shop next door and be quite far from the sidewalk, the store needed a visual attraction that arouse the interest of those who passed through there. For that reason it was sought a synergy between the element of visual communication and architecture.
From the graphical representation of the words “El TE” chosen as store name, and that literally means “The Tea”, it was developed a pictogram identification of the tea house that is both visual communication and the main piece of furniture – this goes beyond the scale of a usual sign composing the facade and interior design of the shop.
On the face of “TÉ”, facing the street it was implemented a backlight that functions as an urban lantern, an exciting surprise to those who pass by the store by night. The depth of the letter “E” on the facade extends beyond the outer limit, penetrating inside the store and acts as the main design element. This element home the showcase of teas, infusions preparation desk and cashier.
The samples of 30 variations of teas are arranged in small drawers so that clients can smell the product before they decide which one they want to buy. The 30 variations of the infusions are indicated by different colours beneath each small drawer, which facilitates the identification of each tea by customers and creates a colourful scheme.
Architects: Gustavo Sbardelotto (estudio 30 51) e Mariana Bogarin
Location: Porto Alegre – Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil
Project Year: 2012
Area: 63,00 sqm
The post Huge glowing letters lead inside
El Té tea house by Estudio 30 51 appeared first on Dezeen.
Following our earlier story about a tea house in Prague, here’s another cafe with vaulted ceilings by Hungarian studio Spora Architects, in a two-hundred-year-old former palace in Budapest (+ slideshow).
Spora Architects designed Embassy Espresso as an artisanal coffee shop in the basement of a former nobleman’s city palace, and architect Ádám Hatvani told Dezeen the space is suspected to have been originally used as a stable.
“We know that in this kind of palace from time to time the ground floor was the place for the guard, the servants, horses and carriages,” Hatvani said. “We found some holes in the walls that are probably the places of the barrier beams, usually between the horses and the stable.”
Located in the financial district of downtown Pest, the cafe’s existing doors and window shutters open the space out to the street.
Inside, the architects uncovered the original vaulted brick ceilings and exposed walls built from a mixture of brick and stone.
Pipes run along the upper parts of the walls and extend outwards to form splayed lighting installations, as well as to support hanging pendant lights and simple bulbs.
“There are four different types of lights installed; in the pipes are cables for the lamps so there are no visible cables or installation elements in the cafe,” Hatvani explained.
Wooden benches are positioned around the edges of the cafe. The serving counter is made from wood and is fronted by black steel barstools and chairs.
The floor is covered with natural black slate tiles.
Photography is by Danyi Balázs.
Here’s a project description from Spora Architects:
Espresso Embassy
Take a 80 square meter ground floor flat in the downtown of Budapest, and transform it into an artisanal coffee shop, for one of the world’s best baristas. The building is an urban palace, with beautiful classicist detail, structures of that period, today a residential house.
This was before the artisanal coffee revolution of quality, simplicity, inviting interiors. This is the background in which Espresso Embassy was spawned. After cleaning up the structures, hidden beauties were uncovered. Bohemian spherical brick vaults, stone-brick mixed walls. It turns out the space might have been a stable, this is where the mysterious little gaps in the wall could have come from: holding the walls between two horses, or the timber for the loft on which hay was stored. All this in great condition.
Almost finished. What was needed to add, was a simple black stone floor, furniture made of oak and steel, unique lighting from water pipes. Everything is from what it seems. Material thickness, bricks, stone, oak, raw steel, slate, and the white and black rendering on some parts. Everything else is the work of hospitality.
It is as if we were in a two hundred year old inn, where there is wifi, filtered water for the guests through a tap made of copper and a bowl of concrete, high quality espresso machine, überboiler, milk patterns on cappuccinos, quests with laptops and tablets, breakfast-goers, cultural nomads, urban coffee lovers, intellectuals, businesspeople, bankers, university goers, Hungarians and foreigners: it’s the city.
Architectural design: Dékány Tibor, Hatvani Ádám _sporaarchitects
Year: 2012
Location: Espresso Embassy, Arany János u. Budapest, V., Hungary
Lighting: sporaarchitects, Tarcali Dávid, Jánosi András _lumoconcept
Concrete wash basin : VPI betonmanufaktúra
The post Budapest cafe with vaulted brick ceilings
by Spora Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
Czech studio A1 Architects covered the walls of this cafe in Prague with a tactile mixture of black plaster, coal and pieces of straw, in a modern take on the clay plasters used inside traditional Japanese tea houses (+ slideshow).
A1 Architects converted a nineteenth-century apartment with vaulted ceilings to create the Tea Mountain cafe, reinforcing the concept of a Japanese tea house by filling the space with charred log columns, each with an illuminated gilt section in its middle.
“We’ve already designed three tea houses and we are very much inspired and fascinated by Japanese architecture and its details,” architect Lenka Kremenova told Dezeen.
“We used even pieces of coal to emphasise the blackness so it feels like you want to touch not just look at the plaster,” she added, referring to the walls. “We always search for a certain kind of quality of materials which could be called ‘touchableness’.”
A gold-plated arch divides the tea house into two halves, creating a light side for service and a dark side for sitting down with a drink.
The first is painted in a shade of pale yellow, and accommodates a serving counter and wooden shelves stacked with tea. The opposite side features dark plastered walls and is filled with tables and stools made from ash wood.
“The seating is in the black part because it is supposed to be a more calm and relaxed place with an ambient atmosphere to enjoy drinking the tea,” Kremenova explained.
A row of globe lights are suspended at different levels above the serving counter, while wooden shelving around the edges of the shop are covered with teapots and other tea-related paraphernalia.
The shop sells a range of tea imported from Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan and China.
Photography is by the architects.
Here’s a project description from A1 Architects:
TEA MOUNTAIN, the teashop
a new concept of drinking tea
The shop called Tea Mountain, recently opened in Prague, brings a new experience how to enjoy the tea, next to contemporary style of serving it is also traditional gustation of high quality tea imported from Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan or China. One of the main issues of a1architects and the owners discussion was how to present the tea in its best to wider audience in a delicate yet friendly manner.
Shop interior
Two worlds, two atmospheres… The seating and drinking happens under the dark vault with its calm appearance and just next to it in bright earthy colours one could buy or watch the presentation of tea. The space of two original 19th century vaults is divided by gold-plated arch line situated almost in the centre of the shop.
The black plaster with added pieces of coal and straw creates an ambient atmosphere and it gets out the customer in his first step into another atmosphere out of the busy street. The following part of the shop is rather light to unable one to focus on details of the tea presentation.
The seating at the table in the black part is accompanied with charred columns with inbuilt gilt cavity which serves as a spot light and brings beautiful warm yellow light on the table. The counter and display shelves are made out of ash wood with exceptional details like inbuilt limestone tea tray, rope handles or charred cover of the scale, all these small unique pieces could be rather seen in a second glance and await patient visitors. Refined details and simple work of layering are the main features of the Tea Mountain shop design.
Client: Martin Špimr
Authors: A1Architects( MgA. Lenka Křemenová, MgA. David Maštálka)
Project: A1Architects
SUPPLIER: Ateliér Mánes – Jakub Vávra
Noren fabric: Vít Svoboda a Alžběta
Graphics: Toman design
Area: 55 m2
Completion: November 2013
Design: Autumn 2013
The post Straw and plaster-lined cafe by A1 Architects
based on Japanese tea houses appeared first on Dezeen.
Wooden structures and traditional joinery are used in this Melbourne takeaway chicken shop by local interior designers Hecker Guthrie to evoke the appearance of a chicken coop.
The cafe in Port Melbourne is named Foxes Den after the animals renowned for pilfering chickens from their roosts, so Hecker Guthrie played on this theme by referencing the wooden enclosures used to keep chickens. The studio created pine wood structures that house the kitchen, serving area and dining tables.
“The built forms inserted into Foxes Den where informed by agricultural shapes and framing ideas seen in chicken coops, and also barn forms and lean-tos,” said Hecker Gutherie senior interior designer Josh Watt.
The structure in the centre of the space is used as a dining table. Beige canvas blinds around the sides aim to make the otherwise open four-poster table more intimate.
Screens made from diagonal planks, wooden beams and columns appear to be dip-dyed in orange paint. The walls are lined with concrete panels and dark slate tiles are used for the floor.
“There is certain nostalgia to the diagonal pine wall linings, which provide warmth and texture against the concrete and canvas,” the designers said.
Pine wood stools designed to match the other carpentry each have three legs locked together with a metal joint, created by Australian designer Henry Wilson. Benches and shelving along the walls support plant boxes that hang from the ends of the surfaces.
The menu is written on blackboards above the counter, which is covered in white tiles across the front. Photography is by Shannon McGrath.
The post Foxes Den cafe by Hecker Guthrie
references a chicken coop appeared first on Dezeen.
Steel reinforcing bars are used for shelving and partitions at this coffee shop in Dublin by VAV architects.
VAV created storage spaces at the Bear Market Coffee shop from a series of vertical steel bars usually used to reinforce concrete in buildings. The bars also run from floor to ceiling in the centre of the space, holding up a chunky wooden table.
“Our intent was to fill the space with vertical lines, and thus gently fragment the space, filtering the views and people within it,” said the architects. “This forest of steel would, we hoped, create a brutal yet honest space.”
Sourced from a local steel manufacturer, the bars create gridded units that are built into the wall behind the coffee bar and have wooden planks inserted between them to display products.
Bronze-coloured pendant lamps hang above the counter, which is made from stacks of oak sleepers.
Thick wood planks have also been reused as table tops and the floor is made from recycled timber.
The ceiling is left exposed and brick walls are painted white.
Here is some more information from the architect:
Bear Market Coffee
The coffee shop is located on Main Street, Blackrock Village, County Dublin. Within tight budgetary constraints our objective was to fit various functions, café related, into a minimal preordained space, with limited construction alteration and modification possibilities.
The concept for the design was to explore and question materiality, test the qualities of everyday materials and techniques available, while at the same time creating something unique and totally distinctive.
The chosen material we selected for exploration purposes was reinforcement steel. Our intent was to fill the space with vertical lines, and thus gently fragment the space, filtering the views and people within it. This forest of steel would, we hoped, create a brutal yet honest space.
The finished cafe would be perceived through the filtered vertical lines of the reinforcement bars, with shelving and benches hidden and supported within them. With steel dominating the interior, all other elements would simply act as a backdrop. Thus the original interior was stripped back to the core.
Ceiling was totally exposed, walls were treated minimally, while existing tiles were roughly pulled off, leaving gridded screed surfaces. The floor was roughly laid with recycled timber, interlaid with steel rods, where the verticals connected with the ground.
This timber flooring softened the space and hid the supports of the shelving units, with the reinforcement bars piercing through it to the hidden supports below.
These two new elements – horizontal lines of timber and vertical of steel, intersected each other, griding the interior.
Client: Stephen Deasy
Location: 19 Main Street, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.
Architects: VAV architects: Darragh Breathnach, Pablo Bolinches Vidal, Daria Leikina.
Construction: Stephen Deasy & VAV
The post Reinforcing steel creates shelves and
partitions in Dublin coffee shop appeared first on Dezeen.
Exposed timber beams branch out from the tops of columns that support the roof of this cafeteria in the Ushimado district of Setouichi city in Japan by Niji Architects (+ slideshow).
Designed by Masafumi Harada of Tokyo office Niji Architects with AI Design and OHNO JAPAN, the cafeteria is used by employees from a nearby construction company and by members of the local community.
The architects developed a cross-braced timber frame made from Douglas fir columns with a section of 120 by 120 millimetres and beams of 180 by 120 millimetres, which supports a corrugated metal roof and is left exposed inside the single-storey building.
“The detailing and materials used [are] intentionally designed to appear unrefined to create a relaxing atmosphere helping visitors to unwind within the space,” explained the architects.
Throughout the interior, materials are used in their raw state, with chunky chipboard covering the ceiling and walls, bare light bulbs hanging from black cords and poured concrete used for the floor.
One side of the building is covered in full-height glazing, which is fixed directly to the timber frame using plywood battens. Translucent glass on the opposite facade provides privacy while allowing more light to reach the interior.
A kitchen at one end of the building can be seen from the main dining hall, which adjoins a lounge area containing comfortable seating and exercise equipment.
Photography is by Masafumi Harada.
Here’s a short project description from the architects:
This cafeteria is a timber framed, single-story building located in Ushimado of Setouchi city, Okayama prefecture, Japan.
It serves as a canteen for a local construction company as well as a cafeteria for the local community.
The building structure and its finishes are kept simple and the presence of the building is kept to a bare minimum.
The building design focuses mainly on its primary function as a cafeteria for the local people and to familiarise itself to the community.
The folded metal plate roof is directly fixed to the 3 m grid timber structural frame, which consists of 120 mm x 120 mm timber used for columns, foundation, bracings and 180 mm x 120 mm timber beams.
The building completes itself with glass walls, which are fixed directly to the timber structure with timber battens.
The detailing and materials used intentionally designed to appear unrefined to create a relaxing atmosphere helping visitors to unwind within the space.
With a single large internal space and full aperture to the external views, this highly transparent building becomes a bright, open and inviting cafeteria.
We believe this construction method can also be used for other building types. It can be a prototype of new prefabricated timber construction with endless possibilities for further development.
Project name: Cafeteria in Ushimado
Location of site: Okayama, Japan
Building area: 166.32 m2
Total floor area: 144.00 m2
Type of Construction: Timber structure
Number of stories: 1F
Building height: 3.37 ｍ
Principal use: Shop (Cafeteria)
Project by: Niji Architects + AI Design + OHNO JAPAN
Principal designer: Masafumi Harada / Niji Architects
Construction: UG Giken
Design period: August 2012 – December 2012
Construction period: January 2013 – April 2013
Finish
Structure: Exposed timber structure
Roof: Folded metal roof
External façade: Clear float glass t=10 mm with glass film
Window: Wooden sash window and aluminum sash window
The post Cafeteria with exposed timber
framework by Niji Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
