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    GRT Architects references “vacation Italian” at New York bar and restaurant

    New York studio GRT Architects has designed a light and airy Italian restaurant and adjacent cocktail bar at the base of Thomas Heatherwick’s Lantern House in Manhattan.

    The new dining and drinking destinations face the corner of West 18th Street and 10th Avenue through the distinctive bay windows of the building, which straddles the popular High Line park in Chelsea.
    The bright and airy Cucina Alba was designed to transport diners to ItalyThe 3,000-square-foot (278 square metres), 90-cover Cucina Alba offers a full brunch and dinner menu, while Alba Accanto is half the size and serves cocktails and bites next door.
    Both are operated by Prince Street Hospitality, whose partner Cobi Levy collaborated with GRT Architects on the interiors of both spaces.
    Alternating yellow and white fabric panels are draped above the dining spaces”Cucina Alba and Alba Accanto are two distinct yet complementary spaces that instantly transport guests to Italy, capturing the polish of the north with the brightness of the south,” said the group.

    Cucina Alba is designed to embody a “vacation Italian” aesthetic, evoked by light terrazzo floors, tubular metal Knoll Cesca chairs, and pale oak millwork.
    Oak millwork, light-toned terrazzo flooring and tubular metal chairs all add to the ambienceAlternating yellow and white fabric panels were draped overhead, forming a parachute-esque ceiling that matches the striped awnings over the entrances.
    Thin metal chains hung from red railings act as space dividers, defining and partially enclosing a section of the dining area.
    Hints of coral red stand out against the pale colour paletteHigh-gloss, oxblood-coloured tables nestle into semicircular booths or line up along the bench that follows the windows.
    At the other end of the L-shaped space, the open-air kitchen is denoted by a colourful mural by artist Alex Proba that covers the end wall and part of the ceiling.
    A colourful mural by Alex Proba denotes the open kitchen areaIn the bay windows, an assortment of plants and random paraphernalia – from inflatables to plastic lemons and disco balls – are visible to passersby, while outdoor seating along 10th Avenue is offered under scallop-edged parasols that continue the white and yellow theme.
    Next door, Alba Accanto has a similar “Italian holiday bar” aesthetic, but with a slightly moodier ambience for evenings.

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    The bar counter is built from stacks of pale stone that form striations across the front, while the top and the bar back are made from continuous expanses of a single stone type.
    Arched niches behind the bar emanate a golden glow, and display glassware and liquor bottles alongside figurative sculptural vases that were custom-made in Italy.
    Next door, the Alba Accanto bar has stone detailsThe ceiling is covered in fabric that features thin ticking stripes, from which brass chandeliers with pale blue glass globes are suspended.
    At the back is a private dining room that can be booked for large parties of up to 45 guests, and the table configuration can be adapted depending on the event.
    The bar area features a striped fabric ceiling and a painting by Alex KatzBuilt-in bench seating wraps the perimeter, and patterned wallpaper and matching curtains are reflected in the glossy ceiling.
    In both spaces, works by renowned artists including Alex Katz and Ethan Cook were sourced with the help of art advisor Elizabeth Margulies, and hand-painted tableware from Puglia adds an authentic touch.
    Behind the bar is a private dining room that can accommodate up to 45 guests”The design of Alba Accanto is exuberant and maximalist in style, utilizing bright colors to reflect the vibrance of Italian coastal cities like Positano,” said Levy, “while the design of Cucina Alba is polished, contemporary, and warmly inviting with wood accents, embodying the soul of Milan.”
    “We wanted to capture the distinct atmosphere of each city, and with Accanto, we achieved that same sense of vitality but with a maximalist approach,” he added.
    Both Cucina Alba and Alba Accanto occupy the ground floor of Thomas Heatherwick’s Lantern House building in ChelseaGRT Architects has completed the interiors for two other Italian restaurants in New York City: the Michelin-starred Don Angie in the West Village, and the recently opened Bad Roman at Columbus Circle.
    Founded by Tal Schori and Rustam-Marc Mehta in 2014, the studio has amassed a portfolio that extends from Brooklyn townhouse renovations to ground-up builds in the Hudson Valley.
    The photography is by Peter Murdock.

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    Yinka Ilori imbues Courvoisier bar with natural beauty of Cognac region

    A wavy canopy emerges like a fountain from this pop-up cognac bar inside Selfridges in London, designed by local designer Yinka Ilori to mimic the glistening waters of the Charente river in France’s Cognac region.

    The bar belongs to cognac brand Courvoisier and was designed to capture its hometown of Jarnac and the surrounding region, where cognac brandy is made using white grapes from one of six designated “crus” or areas.
    Courvoisier has opened a pop-up bar at SelfridgesIlori wanted to bring this bucolic setting to London’s Selfridges department store, using it to inform the colours and patterns featured throughout the space.
    “I aimed to capture the essence of Jarnac – the warmth of the sun, the rippling of water, the beautiful wildflowers and the natural beauty in the surroundings,” he told Dezeen.
    “The design pays homage to the magic and nature of Jarnac, creating a space that embodies its spirit.”

    The interior was designed by Yinka IloriThe town’s location on the Charente river is the most prominent influence, seen across the pale-blue floors, the sinuous rippling pattern on the walls and, most importantly, in the bar itself.
    Here, a circular counter was topped with a wavy blue canopy that seems to pour out of a central pillar, with the same pattern continuing down onto the base.
    Ilori also designed a limited-edition VSOP bottle for the brand”I wanted people to feel like they were surrounded by water, with it flowing both above and below them, creating a sense of immersion and tranquillity,” Ilori said.
    “The design of the canopy aims to reference the effortless flow of water, making visitors feel as though they are in the midst of a serene river.”
    The bar’s scalloped countertop picks up on the sinuous shape of the waves but provides a colourful contrast thanks to its lacquered red finish.

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    Another reoccurring feature throughout the space is a cartoonish flower shape that nods to Jarnac’s wildflower fields and is found across drinks stands and upholstered benches in the seating area.
    To create a visual connection between the blue waves and the buttercup-coloured flowers, Ilori incorporated a sunset gradient that fades from yellow to soft lilac and envelops several cylindrical display stands as well as the base of the bar.
    “I was struck by the gradients in the sky in Jarnac and wanted to capture this unique visual,” Ilori said.
    A wavy pattern features across the wallsThese three repeated motifs, spanning earth, sky and water, also feature in the limited-edition bottle design that Ilori created for Courvoisier’s Very Superior Old Pale (VSOP) cognac.
    The bottles are available in four different ombre colours and displayed throughout the bar, which will stay open for three weeks until 11 September.
    The same pattern is picked up in the canopy of the barThe project forms part of Ilori’s ongoing collaboration with Courvoisier as the brand’s “ambassador of joy”.
    Last year, the designer created an immersive dining for Courvoisier in New York, designed to transport diners into a surrealist interpretation of Jarnac.
    Ilori’s colourful work is often considered as part of the New London Fabulous movement and includes a colourful skate park in Lille and The Colour Palace pavilion at the London Festival of Architecture.

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    Ramy Fischler blends contemporary and historic for Moët Hennessy’s first cocktail bar

    Belgian designer Ramy Fischler has collaborated with Moët Hennessy and cocktail creator Franck Audoux to create the Cravan cocktail bar in the heart of Paris’ Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

    Named Cravan, the bar for luxury drinks group Moët Hennessy was a collaboration between architect Fischler and restaurateur, author, historian and cocktail aficionado Audoux.
    Ramy Fischler designed the Cravan bar for Moët Hennessy”The objective of the design was to amplify a story by Franck Audoux originating from his small bar in the 16th arrondissement of Paris and transforming it into a cocktail house over five levels in the centre of the capital – to imagine the creation of a new house of the Moët Hennessy group,” Fischler told Dezeen.
    “This is not a one-shot but the beginning of a long adventure. It was therefore necessary to define a harmony, a coherence, between all the ingredients of the project, whether it is the decoration, the service, the music or the lighting.”
    The building features three separate barsThe space takes its name from the avant-garde poet-boxer and sometime art critic, Arthur Cravan, a free-spirited figure greatly admired by Audoux, with whom Fischler worked closely on this project.

    “We share a common vision, based essentially on cultural references from literature and cinema, and above all a taste for scenic impact, framing a context, point of view, or narrative,” said Fischler.
    “We started with the desire to freely assemble codes, eras, and styles to craft a new repertoire which made sense to us and expressed the essence of Cravan.”

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    Set in a 17th-century building in the heart of this historic and literary district, the space was arranged over five floors, with a small invitation-only space on the roof.
    The building has separate bars, each with its own distinct character on the ground, first and third floors, while the second floor hosts the Rizzoli bookstore-cum-library, where guests can come with their drinks to leaf through and buy books. On the fourth floor, there’s another invitation-only atelier-style space.
    Each of the spaces was designed to combine modern elements with the building’s historic fabricAccording to Fischler, the whole project took its cues from the concept of the cocktail.
    “I would never have imagined this project in its current state if it were not a question of drinking cocktails” he said.

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    “There are a number of ingredients that we blend together to create a unique whole, that seems offbeat but is actually very controlled,” he continued.
    “I thought of the spaces as cinematic scenes, hence the individual atmospheres on each floor which form different sets. You can sit in front of the stage, on the stage, or behind the stage, depending on the experience and viewing angle you prefer.”
    The bar is Moët Hennessy’s firstTo create these different scenes, the project makes use of a wide range of materials, often reclaimed salvaged pieces including parquet floors, stone floors and wood wall coverings, painstakingly installed by a large team of craftspeople.
    In Ramy Fischler’s projects, the textiles always play an important role and the practice features its own in-house textile designer.
    “For Cravan, we tried to use as much re-used material as possible, and in particular textiles from Nona Source, a start-up that makes available leftover, unused fabrics from the fashion houses of the LVMH group.”
    Historic elements were retained throughout the spaceThe practice strived to create a contrast between the warm and natural colours of the historic fittings, and the colder and metallic colours of the contemporary furniture and fittings, “which cohabit one alongside the other”.
    “Depending on the level, the colour palette is totally different, and since no room is alike, and each colour has been chosen according to the universe we have sought to compose,” said Fischler.
    Fischler also designed glasses for the barAll of Cravan’s furniture was custom designed and Fischler’s holistic approach extends to the cocktail glasses, which the practice designed for Cravan and which are displayed in the library.
    “Rather than creating new shapes, we preferred to select, from the history of glassware over the past 300 years, the models that we liked and that we wanted customers to rediscover,” explained Fischler.
    Other recent bars featured on Dezeen include an eclectic cocktail in Los Angeles designed by Kelly Wearstler to feel “like it has been there for ages” and the Ca’ Select bar and distillery in Venice.
    The photography is by Vincent Leroux and Alice Fenwick

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    Otherworlds transforms Goan villa into restaurant that “celebrates chance encounters”

    Local design studio Otherworlds drew on the traditional Goan balcão when converting a 1980s villa in Panjim, India, into the Terttulia restaurant and bar.

    Housed in a Portuguese-style villa, Terttulia Goa is defined by a central island bar informed by the balcão – an outdoor porch with built-in seats that serves as the entrance to a typical Goan home.
    The restaurant takes its name from the Spanish word tertulia, meaning a social gathering with literary or artistic associations.
    Intimate two-seater booths flank the bar”The balcão is a crucial part of a Goan home as this is where one spends most of their time,” Otherworlds founder Arko told Dezeen.
    “At a time of rampant urbanisation, all houses tend to become very self-contained, private and detached, separated away from the city or the neighbourhood,” he continued.

    “The balcão becomes all the more important at such a time as it is built with the idea of reinforcing the kinship between the house and the neighbourhood.”
    Terttulia Goa is defined by a central bar informed by the balcãoMultidisciplinary studio Otherworlds overhauled the villa, which it describes as a “formerly enclosed shell”, by removing some of the external walls and extending the dining area into an outdoor porch.
    This area is sheltered by a large bamboo canopy with elliptical openings that diffuse the natural light, transforming the space throughout the day.
    The canopy is intended to mitigate the region’s extreme weather conditions; sheltering customers from the rain during monsoon season and providing a semi-open space with plenty of air circulation during the hot summer months.
    Low-hung lamps add a sense of “whimsy”Otherworlds designed the bar so that customers face each other, rather than facing the wall, in a bid to “encourage chance encounters”.
    “The intention was to create an immersive atmospheric experience that inspires a feeling of being in a tropical, lush outdoor space under an overgrown natural canopy,” said Arko.
    A metal and fluted glass structure hung from the building’s external walls floats above the white marble bartop and holds the arc-shaped lamps that light the intimate two-seater booths flanking the bar.
    A bamboo canopy was inserted to mitigate the region’s extreme weather conditionsAt night, the restaurant is lit by low-hung sinuous lamps informed by sweeping stems that are intended to add a sense of “whimsy” to the interior.
    Adhering to Terttulia’s signature green and white colour scheme, the studio opted for a palette of locally sourced materials, including the green-pigmented hand-cast concrete that it used to create the restaurant’s flooring.
    “The green pigmented hand-cast concrete floor, largely termed as IPS [Indian Patent stone], is found in most places in the country and is also used to finish the balcão in all Goan homes,” Arko explained.
    Terttulia Goa is housed in a revamped 1980s villaOtherworlds worked with local workshop Jyamiti & Sea to create ovoid terrazzo accents that are scattered in various places across the floor and walls.
    The studio achieved what it terms “the perfect green” using a mixture of white and grey cement and green oxide pigment.
    Otherworlds opted for a palette of locally sourced materials”The tricky bit with coloured concrete is achieving the exact shade [because] once the cement sets and is polished, the result is quite different from the initial wet mix,” said Arko.
    “The process required numerous iterations and experiments to get the right mixture of materials that would yield the correct shade.”
    The green cement is offset by dark wood derived from the matti, Goa’s state tree.
    “We imagined the restaurant to be an extension of the house and while being part of it, [we also wanted it to] feel like a part of the city.”
    Other projects that take a contemporary approach to Indian design traditions include a rammed-earth family home in Rajasthan designed by Sketch Design Studio and a Rain Studio-designed “native yet contemporary” home in Chennai.
    The photography is by Suryan and Dang. 

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    Kelly Wearstler designs Los Angeles bar to feel “like it has been there for ages”

    Interior designer Kelly Wearstler paired clay plaster walls with Moroccan cement tiles at this eclectic cocktail bar in the Downtown LA Proper hotel.

    Named after Mexico’s national flower, the Dahlia bar features a blushing interior that was designed to echo the rest of the hotel – also created by Wearstler.
    The designer looked to the same Spanish, Mexican and Moroccan influences that define the wider Downtown LA Proper, such as terracotta Roman clay plaster walls and ceilings when conceptualising the bar.
    Dahlia is a cocktail lounge within the Downtown LA Proper hotel”The warm, earthy tones of the lounge are in concert with the larger hotel while striking their own note entirely,” said Wearstler.
    “Dahlia feels like it has been there for ages,” added the designer, who has been named as a judge for the inaugural Dezeen Awards China.

    Moroccan cement tiles clad the barVisitors enter the bar through yellow-tinged stained glass doors that were custom-made for the venue by Los Angeles’ historic Judson Studios, which claims to be the oldest family-run stained glass company in America.
    Seating was created from a mix of built-in reddish banquettes and low-slung curved armchairs that hug circular timber tables, while a geometric chandelier draped in light-filtering silk was suspended overhead.

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    In one corner, an embossed and low-slung black cabinet supports two squat table lamps that look like oversized green olives.
    Wearstler adorned the clay plaster walls with a mishmash of vintage and contemporary textural artwork, which was finished in ceramic and sand. Various local artists were included in the mix.
    Kelly Wearstler imbued the venue with her signature eclectic styleDefined by “saturated hues and dramatic lighting,” the cocktail lounge also features a bar clad with lilac-hued Moroccan cement tiles and woven crimson rugs.
    “This is the kind of space where you can entirely lose track of time,” said the designer.
    Known for her distinctively eclectic style, Wearstler has created interiors for various other destinations that are part of the Proper Hotel Group. The designer scoured vintage shops to source the furniture that decorates the living room-style lobby of a Santa Monica branch while an Austin location features a sculptural oak staircase that doubles as a plinth for Wearstler’s own glazed earthenware pots and vases.
    The images are courtesy of Kelly Wearstler.

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    Luchetti Krelle brings laid-back luxury to social spaces of Manly Pacific hotel

    Spicy shades of turmeric, cinnamon and ginger feature alongside mosaic tiles and hand-painted murals in the public spaces of this hotel in Sydney, following a makeover from local studio Luchetti Krelle.

    The renovation encompassed Manly Pacific’s lobby as well as its 55 North bar and a few neighbouring lounge areas, all located on the hotel’s ground floor, which opens directly onto Manly Beach.
    Luchetti Krelle has overhauled the lobby of Sydney’s Manly Pacific hotelIn the reception area, Luchetti Krelle created an intimate lounge setting to bring a sense of warmth and welcome into the otherwise vast white space while creating a link to the more richly decorated drinking spaces beyond.
    Tactile sofas and clubby armchairs are clustered around a chequerboard table looking onto a fireplace that mixes tile and timber in a mid-century-influenced design.
    Latticed screens create a loose separation between Manly Pacific’s reception and the adjoining bar area, which introduces a richer palette of colours and materials to forge a sense of laid-back luxury.

    The studio also renovated the adjoining bar”A loose luxury defines our approach to the reappointment of the bar and neighbouring lounge areas,” Luchetti Krelle said.
    “Layered textures, spiced tonal triggers and punchy patterns were selected to energise the drinking spaces with a graceful attitude that prioritised home comfort.”
    55 North is centred on an impressive island bar that curves outwards into the room to create a sense of welcome.
    Crazy paving in autumnal hues defines the bar areaThe bar’s outlines are mirrored by the lines of the bulkhead ceiling above, creating a shape reminiscent of a clamshell that draws the eye across the room and brings a cosy intimacy to the bar area.
    “Hospitality design is about making people feel welcome, relaxed and confident so less noticeable elements drove our process,” the studio said.
    “We lowered the bar’s original height so smaller guests didn’t feel intimidated by its stature, adding custom leather swivel stools with curved returns to encourage lengthier sittings.”
    Lattice screens help to loosely divide the spaceThe client had originally requested a new bar closer to the lobby. But Luchetti Krelle chose instead to improve the existing design to conserve waste and save valuable build time.
    “As with all hospitality projects, there is an added pressure to complete the build and installation within deadline, given commercial pressures to open for business,” the studio said.
    “So we saved time finding creative solutions to transform existing elements, avoiding demolition and the waste of materials.”
    A series of lounge spaces lead off the barOpening off the main bar area is a series of lounges.
    Through the careful use of curves, arches and latticed screens, Luchetti Krelle designed these spaces to flow from one to another with a clear sense of continuity, while each area maintains its own distinct character and sense of purpose.
    “We created adjoining rooms to encourage hotel guests to treat the space like an extension of their home during the day,” the studio said.

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    On the beach side, a sunroom takes its cues from the vista with striped and patterned upholstery in a palette of cooling blues that tether the space to the seascape beyond.
    To the rear of the bar, a former gaming room has become an expansive cocktail lounge, where arches frame three intimate booths and the eye is led across the room by an underwater scene, painted onto Venetian plaster by local mural studio Steady Hand Studio.
    Cool blue tones connect the sunroom to Manly Pacific’s beachside settingTiles are the protagonist material of this project, defining each area.
    “Intricate autumnal crazy paving lures eyes through latticed screens that lightly separate the lobby and bar,” said Luchetti Krelle.
    “Waves of fanned pearl-hued marble mosaics accentuate the rear lounge’s sophistication. Within the front sun lounge, tessellated Indian green and Carrara marble mosaic arrangements mimic the effect of a rug.”
    The sunroom opens straight onto Manly BeachTimber, too, plays a large part in the design, used across walls, ceilings, arches and booths – particularly in the bar.
    “It was important to use varied timber species, including Blackbutt and walnut, to add textural depth and warm shades,” the studio said.
    A variety of plaster finishes introduce another level of texture while helping to convey a sense of history and permanence, according to Luchetti Krelle.
    A hand-painted mural dominates the cocktail lounge in the rearThese include the teal plaster applied to the bulkhead surround of the main bar, which features a glossy underside to bring a sense of lightness to the structure.
    And in the ocean-side lounge, the pale sand shade of the fireplace wall cools the space during summer, reflecting the sunlight.
    Seating booths are enveloped in cosy archesThe Manly Pacific is among a number of hospitality projects that Luchetti Krelle has completed in Sydney over the last two years.
    Among them is a bar set inside a former butcher shop as well as the restaurant RAFI, characterised by vivid abstract paintings and patterned floors.
    The photography is by Tom Ferguson.

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    Tate Modern’s Corner cafe revamped to be less “Herzog & de Meuron-y”

    Architecture studio Holland Harvey has overhauled the ground-floor cafe at the Tate Modern in London so it doubles as the gallery’s first late-night bar.

    Tucked away in the museum’s northwest corner, the interior of the Corner cafe was originally designed in 2000 when Herzog & de Meuron created a home for the UK’s national collection of modern art inside the disused power station on the Southbank.
    Corner is a new cafe and bar at the Tate ModenSince then, the Tate had made no changes to the space until Holland Harvey was brought on board to refresh the interior at the start of 2022.
    “It was quite a cold space,” the studio’s co-founder Richard Holland told Dezeen. “All very Herzog & de Meuron-y.”
    “They’re amazing at what they do in so many ways,” he continued. “But this was not their best food and beverage space.”

    A grey stone bar forms the centrepiece of the roomHolland Harvey stripped back many of the cafe’s hard, reflective finishes, sanding away the black gloss paint on the floors to reveal the parquet underneath and removing the mirrored glass that Herzog & de Meuron had used to enclose the building’s original riveted columns.
    Fluorescent lights were replaced with more muted spots by London studio There’s Light, while the dropped ceiling above the bar was rounded off and covered in foam insulation to soften the interior – both visually and acoustically.
    Otherwise, many of the cafe’s core elements including the servicing as well as the kitchen and toilets remained largely untouched to prevent excessive waste and maintain the integrity of the building.
    “You don’t really want to mess around with the servicing because 12 feet above your head is a Picasso,” Holland said. “So it was pretty light touch.”
    The cafe backs onto the Tate’s Turbine Hall. Photo by Edward BishopThe biggest intervention came in the form of a newly added riverside entrance, allowing passersby to stroll straight into Corner rather than having to take the long way through the gallery.
    At the other end of the open-plan room, a door leads directly into Tate’s famous Turbine Hall, effectively linking it with the public spaces of the Southbank.
    Stone seating banquettes double as impromptu climbing frames”The Turbine Hall is one of the most successful public spaces in London,” Holland said. “It’s one of the few indoor places you can go, where people happily sit down on the floor in the middle of the day.”
    “And obviously, the Southbank is an amazing public offering as well,” he continued. “So this felt like an opportunity to connect the two, which led a lot of the thinking around the design.”
    With the idea of extending the public realm, many of the newly added pieces are robust and fixed in place, much like street furniture. Among them are the double-sided Vicenza Stone banquettes, which can also serve as impromptu climbing frames for young children.

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    Holland Harvey created a number of other seating areas throughout Corner to suit different accessibility needs, with a focus on supporting local manufacturers and small businesses while reducing waste wherever possible.
    Corner’s long sharing tables and benches were made by marginalised young people from west London as part of a carpentry apprenticeship programme run by social enterprise Goldfinger, using trees that were felled by local authorities to stop the spread of ash dieback.
    “Every table has the coordinates of where the tree has felled on it, so there’s a provenance to the furniture,” Holland said.
    The chairs were taken from Tate’s own storage and refinishedThe chairs, meanwhile, were salvaged from the gallery’s own storage before being refinished and reupholstered, while the smaller tables were made by Brighton company Spared using waste coffee grounds from Tate’s other cafes.
    These were baked at a low temperature to remove any moisture before being mixed with oyster shells and a water-based gypsum binder.
    Although the resulting pieces aren’t fully circular since they can’t be recycled, Holland hopes they tell a story about the value that can be found in waste.
    Waste coffee grounds from the gallery’s other cafes were turned into table tops”We’re by no means saying that it’s an exemplar project in that sense,” he explained. “We were just trying to find opportunities to tell stories through all the different elements rather than just going to the large corporate suppliers.”
    “And that’s really our wider impact: people realising that there’s a different way to procure a table. Imagine if all of Tate’s furniture moving forward is made by Goldfinger,” he continued.
    The cafe also has high counter seating for remote workingIn the evenings, the space can be transitioned into a bar and events space by switching to warmer, higher-contrast lighting, while a section of the central banquette can be turned into a raised DJ booth by pressing a button that is hidden under the cushions.
    “This place can get quite wild in the evening,” Holland said.
    Timber shelves are used to display productsThe last significant amendment to the Tate Modern building was Herzog & de Meuron’s Switch House extension, which opened to the public in 2016.
    The building contains a gift shop designed by Amsterdam studio UXUS, alongside various galleries and a viewing level on the top floor, which is currently closed to the public after Tate lost a high-profile privacy lawsuit brought by the inhabitants of a neighbouring residential tower.
    The photography is by Jack Hobhouse unless otherwise stated.

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    Marcante-Testa blends “unique characteristics of Venetian identity” for Ca’ Select bar and distillery

    Italian studio Marcante-Testa has turned an industrial building in Venice into the canal-side Ca’ Select bar, visitor centre and production facility.

    Set alongside a small canal in the Cannareggio district of Venice, the bar and distillery belong to the company behind Select Aperitivo – the main ingredient of a Venetian Spritz.
    Ca’ Select bar is located on a canal in Venice”The history of Select is closely tied to that of Venice, where the brand was founded in 1920,” said Marcante-Testa.
    “Starting from this awareness, the mother company Gruppo Montenegro commissioned the architects Andrea Marcante and Adelaide Testa to formulate a reinterpretation of the unique characteristics of Venetian identity, reviving one aspect of the city’s past.”
    The space includes a Select Aperitivo barMarcante-Testa led the conversion of the former metal workshop into a bar and events space, spanning 690 square metres. Throughout the bar and production spaces, glass and ceramic details were chosen to highlight traditional Venetian crafts.

    The elongated space was split linearly into three zones, with the bar placed at the front of the building so it can be accessed from the canal by a corridor clad in white and red Zellige tiles made by Mosaic Factory.
    The bar is wrapped in blue wavy glassAt the centre of the space is a freestanding bar wrapped in blue wavy glass “in the Murano tradition”, created by the Wonderglass company to recall the waves of the nearby lagoon.
    The space features three handmade mosaics made from tiles fired in the historic Fornace Orsoni and informed by the sketches of Spanish designer Mariano Fortuny, who was a long-term resident of Venice.

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    Venetian seminato terrazzo flooring with red glass and blue sodalite marble inlays was used to unify the spaces, running from the entrance through the bar to the production area.
    Separated from the bar by a large curtain is a seating area furnished with steel-framed sofas alongside armchairs upholstered in reds and pinks as a nod to the aperitivo’s colour. This area will also be used as an events space.
    An events space is located next to the barThe event space has views through a red-tinted glass wall to the production facility at the rear of the building.
    Here, the maceration of the herbs and spices used to make the distinctive aperitivo takes place.
    The distillery is separated from the public areas by a glass wallThe final space in Select Aperitivo’s building is nestled above the entrance corridor. Accessed by steps to the side of the entrance is a small visitor centre with exhibits curated by Turin-based Studio Fludd.
    It contains seating and exhibits that aim to tell the story of the aperitivo brand, which was established in 1920.
    An exhibition space is located above the entranceSelect Aperitivo hopes that the bar and visitor centre will continue to reinforce the brand’s historic links to the city.
    “Ca’ Select represents a fundamental step in our multi-year plan to consolidate the brand and aims to strengthen the link with the city of origin,” said Marco Ferrari, CEO of Gruppo Montenegro, which owns the brand.
    “It is no coincidence that we have decided to bring the heart of Select’s production here, to enhance the local culture starting with the valuable architectural elements that enrich the space.”
    The building also houses a Select Aperitivo production facilityOther recently completed bars that have been featured on Dezeen include a brewery in a former Copenhagen slaughterhouse and a bar in Calgary topped with plywood barrel vaults.
    Project credits:
    Architectural project: Marcante-TestaInterior design project: Marcante-TestaProject and content management: Mindthegap StudioPlants and facilities design: Pgs Ingegneria – Studio AssociatoContent of the exhibition design: Studio FluddProduction coordination and executive production: Epica filmVisual identity project: Studio FluddBuilding works director: Valter Camagna, Andrea marcanteLocal architect: Stefano RomagnaProject manager: Roberta MiniciSafety manager and coordinator: Sebastiano CibienBuilding construction: Steelwood EngineeringPlant engineering work: Gruppo Frassati, Vem SistemiSet-up arrangements: Steelwood Rngineering, Gruppo Frassati, Amap, WonderglassLight design: Marcante-Testa with FlosDecorative lighting supplier: FortunyTechnical lighting supplier: FlosSystem integrator: Acuson, Red Group

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