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    Prada opens Milanese-informed cafe at Harrods

    Fashion house Prada has opened the Prada Caffè in luxury department store Harrods, which has an interior that is blanketed in the brand’s signature green hue and mirrors one of Milan’s oldest patisseries.

    Located at the corner of Hans Road in London, the Prada Caffè is accessed via a mint green latticed storefront that complements Harrods’s Edwardian baroque terracotta facade.
    Prada Caffè is located in HarrodsThe interior of the pop-up cafe draws on the interior of Pasticceria Marchesi, a Milanese patisserie that opened in 1824, which has similar pale-green interiors that are paired with green velvet-upholstered soft furnishings.
    At Prada Caffè, the walls, ceilings and furniture – including booth seating, plush armchairs and architectural elements – were hued in a minty green referred to as Prada green, a colour that has become synonymous with the brand.
    It was decorated in Prada’s signature green colourA large marble countertop, decorated with textural, pebbled panelling at its base, is located at the entrance to the cafe and used to display Prada-branded patisseries that are presented like individual pieces of jewellery.

    The floors of the space were clad in black and white-checkered floor tiles in a nod to the floors of the Prada boutique located in Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.
    The interior referenced Prada stores and a Milanese patisserieFloral reliefs and mouldings cover the walls and ceilings of the cafe, which the brand explained aims to evoke the look of Prada stores worldwide.
    A mezzanine level, supported by green columns, is decorated with bowed balustrades and used as an elevated seating area overlooking the marble-wrapped patisserie counter.

    Ola Jachymiak Studio brightens Beam cafe in London with orange hues

    At the rear of the cafe, a secluded room continues the interior scheme. Here, green velvet booth seating surrounds the perimeter of the space beneath decorative floral relief walls.
    Tableware was selected specifically for the cafe and ranges from blue-hued Japanese porcelain, informed by ancient Celadon pottery and decorated with contrasting black lines, to blown-glass crystalware.
    A checkered floor runs through the cafeTo accompany the blown glassware and duck egg blue porcelain, silverware was engraved with Prada branding and features handle ends that are shaped like the brand’s triangular logo.
    The cafe will remain at Harrods until January 2024.
    Furniture was upholstered in velvetDuring Milan Fashion Week, Prada presented its Autumn Winter 2023 collection in the Deposito of the Fondazione Prada, which featured a moving and retractable ceiling.
    Elsewhere in London, Ola Jachymiak Studio brightened a cafe in Notting Hill incorporating terracotta-tile floors and tangerine-hued walls.
    The photography is courtesy of Prada.

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    Eight offbeat bakeries and patisseries that provide playful backdrops for baked goods

    A steely space-themed patisserie displaying chunks of meteorite and a green monochrome pastry shop with squiggly furniture feature in this lookbook of unusual and unique bakery interior designs.

    Architects and designers across the world have created bakeries and patisseries with striking interiors that provide a playful setting from which to collect baked goods to take home or enjoy while dining in with a tasty treat.
    From a bakery with an open-plan kitchen that showcases the bread-making process to a cheese tart shop with a Lego display counter, here are eight offbeat bakeries and patisseries that have been featured on Dezeen.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring inviting entrance halls, minimalist Tokyo apartments and bathrooms with colourful sanitary ware.
    Photo is by Jonathan LeijonhufvudBlack Star Pastry, China, by Linehouse

    For Australian chain Black Star Pastry’s first Chinese outpost, design studio Linehouse created a space-themed interior filled with stainless-steel shelves displaying meteorites.
    The shelving extends to the top of the walls and curves to form an arched ceiling. On the white-tiled counter, nine levitating cakes are displayed in glass containers.
    Find out more about Black Star Pastry ›
    Photo is by Mikhail LoskutovBreadway, Ukraine, by Lera Brumina and Artem Trigubchak
    Designers Lera Brumina and Artem Trigubchak finished this cafe and bakery in Ukraine with colourful walls and upholstery.
    Originally a dental clinic, the designers transformed the interior by combining pink and rusty hues with blue and grey tones to “emphasise the warm colour of bread”.
    Find out more about Breadway ›
    Photo is by Imagen SubliminalCasa Mela, Spain, by Casa Antillón
    The Casa Mela pastry shop in Madrid is made up of two rooms that Spanish studio Casa Antillón contrasted by completing one in white and the other in green.
    Customers enter the shop via the all-white room, which features an angular stainless steel counter displaying the sweet treats on offer (pictured top).
    In the green room, metal tables and chairs with wriggly edges provide dining furniture.
    Find out more about Casa Mela ›
    Photo is by Carolina LacazMintchi Croissant, Brazil, by Dezembro Arquitetos
    Architecture studio Dezembro Arquitetos was informed by pastry techniques when designing the Montchi Croissant patisserie in São Paolo.
    The flooring, countertop and bench seating were made from perforated terracotta bricks, which were infilled with concrete piped from an icing nozzle.
    Find out more about Mintchi Croissant ›
    Photo is by Kyung RohCafé Teri, South Korea, by Nameless Architecture
    Located at the base of a mountain in Daejeon, South Korea, the Café Teri bakery and cafe is made up of two buildings with exterior walls that curve towards each other to form an “artificial valley”.
    Designed by Nameless Architecture, the curving walls create a dramatic effect in the bakery interior and slope down to form stepping seating.
    Find out more about Café Teri ›
    Photo is by Volker ConradusSofi, Germany, by Mathias Mentze and Alexander Vedel Ottenstein
    Danish architects Mathias Mentze and Alexander Vedel Ottenstein transformed a former brick factory in Berlin into the Sofi craft bakery with warm tones, wood finishes and red vinyl flooring.
    At the centre of the space is an open-plan kitchen that the architects designed as a “production floor” allowing visitors to watch the bread-making process.
    Find out more about Sofi ›
    Photo is by Takumi OtaBake, Japan, by Yusuke Seki
    A counter made of Lego bricks forms the centrepiece of this cheese tart shop in Kyoto, which was created by Tokyo-based designer Yusuke Seki.
    Bamboo latticework lines the walls on either side of the counter and an open kitchen at the rear reveals the process of baking the cheese tarts.
    Find out more about Bake ›
    Photo is by Jerome GallandLiberté, France, by Emmanuelle Simon
    Interior architecture studio Emmanuelle Simon added arched shelving coves and rounded furniture to the Liberté bakery in Paris, aiming to create a unique space that encourages visitors to stay a little longer than usual while on their bakery trip.
    The rounded shapes were complimented with warm sandy colours and Raku tiles – ceramic tiles that were created by the ancient Japanese firing technique – cover the central island and back walls of the alcoves.
    Find out more about Liberté ›
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring inviting entrance halls, minimalist Tokyo apartments and bathrooms with colourful sanitary ware.

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    MEE Studio creates wood-and-copper interior for cafe in former church in Copenhagen

    Architecture firm MEE Studio has designed the interiors and bespoke wooden furniture for a cafe and boutique in the Nikolaj Kunsthal art gallery within an old church.

    The municipality-run gallery, which is set in a deconsecrated church in central Copenhagen, asked MEE Studio to design a “lively and functional” space.
    Before designing the interior spaces, which feature warm and tactile materials such as copper and wood, the rooms in Nikolaj Kunsthal first had to be restored.
    The gallery is located in a former church”The spaces had been used for various purposes since the 1980s including art installations and other changing uses,” MEE Studio founder Morten Emil Engel told Dezeen.
    “This has left the spaces with remnants of ad-hoc electrical wiring, bricked-up arches, blocked-off windows and arbitrary lighting. Additionally, there was no water supply or plumbing in the spaces that now have the cafe.”

    The studio reestablished the grand door and window openings in the space and replaced the old acrylic paint with breathable lime-based paint, while also adding acoustic plaster to improve the acoustics of the spaces.
    Untreated copper was used as a backsplash for the barAt the centre of the cafe, Engel created a long bar that also functions as a ticket counter and is made from solid oak wood.
    Wood was also used for all the other furniture, including benches, tables and sculptural shelves, which Engel designed specifically for the project using European oak from sustainable forestry.
    “I wanted the benches to reference church benches – a bit chunky and heavy,” he said. “The church architecture is very robust with the church tower having two-metre thick walls. So the furniture had to have some substance to them.”
    The furniture complements the “robust” church architectureEngel also aimed to give the pieces a contemporary feel by fusing their “heavy look” with more contemporary elements.
    “All the furniture has visible joinery and tectonics in fumed oak, which allows the user to see how they are made and assembled,” he said.
    “I added some decorative inlays in the bar counter and boutique shelves. Inlays were traditionally used as a way of repairing wood and I wanted to symbolise that repair can be beautiful and sustainable,” he added.
    “In this way, it is sending the message that the furniture should have a long life and be repaired if it ages.”
    Artworks decorate the walls, here Pull by Martha HviidBehind the central bar, a copper backsplash adds an eyecatching material detail together with the matching sink and worktops, which were designed in reference to the roof of the old church.
    “As many traditional buildings in Copenhagen, the roof of St Nikolaj Church is made with traditional copper roofing, which has aged to a rich green patina over time,” Engel said.
    “I wanted to reference the existing material palate of the church but use it in a new way. So the kitchen features worktops, sinks and backsplash in raw untreated copper, which will evolve beautifully with time.”
    Lime-based paint was used for the wallsThe white walls of the cafe and store were contrasted with not just the copper and wood but also a burgundy red fabric designed by fashion designer Raf Simons for Kvadrat, which was used for the cushions and backs of the sofas and chairs.
    The colour was a nod to some of the space’s original colour but could also help disguise red wine spills in the cafe.
    “Oakwood was already used throughout the church so it seemed natural to use oak as a material,” Engel explained.

    OEO Studio uses materials in a “playful way” for Designmuseum Denmark cafe and shop

    “There was also the burgundy red paint which had been used originally for some woodwork, for instance, the stairs in the tower and the ceiling in what is now the cafe,” he added.
    “So it seems natural to work with an interpretation of the burgundy red for the color of the cushions. I matched the burgundy red to a fantastic Kvadrat textile designed by Raf Simons and it worked in providing vibrancy, but also as a practical colour in a cafe where red wine is served.”
    Red fabric was used for the seating, with the artwork Mercury (socks) hanging aboveAs well as the bespoke furniture pieces, the space was also decorated with carefully chosen artworks that have ties to the city of Copenhagen.
    “Mercury (socks) is a photograph by the famous Danish/Norwegian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset from a series of classical sculptures by the world-famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen,” Engel explained.
    “The Thorvaldsen Museum is located only a few minutes away from Nikolaj Kunsthal, so the work relates both to art from the 19th century and contemporary art from the 21st century which is what you find in Nikolaj Kunsthal.”
    Other recent interior projects in Copenhagen include Space10’s headquarters, which has a kiosk-like design library, and the cafe and shop design for Designmuseum Denmark by OEO Studio.
    The photography is by Paolo Galgani.

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    Keiji Ashizawa adds Blue Bottle Coffee shop to Kobe department store

    Japanese studio Keiji Ashizawa Design has created the interior of the Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Kobe’s Hankyu department store, taking advantage of its display windows to connect the cafe with the street outside.

    The 173-square-metre cafe, which shares the department store’s ground floor with a number of apparel brands, has five large display windows.
    To open the coffee shop up towards the street, designer Keiji Ashizawa turned one of the windows into a take-out counter.
    One display window was turned into a take-out counterThe remaining window niches were filled with blue built-in seating, creating a splash of colour among the wooden furniture.
    Inside the cafe, square-shaped and rectangular furniture nods to the graphic look of the facade and is contrasted by round tables and large circular ceiling lights.

    “The furniture is mainly made of domestic wood in collaboration with the Japanese furniture manufacturer Karimoku, who specializes in working with oak wood,” Ashizawa told Dezeen.
    Wooden furniture and terrazzo tabletops were used for the interiorThe studio also mixed in terrazzo amongst the wooden furniture to give the cafe a welcoming feel.
    “By placing a large terrazzo tabletop with fine textures created by mixing grounded glass into the material, it adds to the soft and welcoming atmosphere that identifies Blue Bottle Coffee and their hospitality,” Ashizawa said.

    Keiji Ashizawa builds Blue Bottle Coffee’s Tokyo outpost around volcanic-ash counter

    “It is also used for the low coffee table surrounded by the sofas, creating a sense of harmony and elegance throughout the space of the cafe,” he added.
    While the studio was unable to change the material of the existing rough concrete floor, the department store allowed it to create a discrete demarcation by polishing the floor underneath the central tables.
    Circular pendant lights were made from raw aluminiumLarge disc-shaped pendant lights add a sense of drama to the coffee shop’s pared-back design.
    “With the idea of creating a high ceiling within the space, the pendant lights were made from raw aluminum to complement the industrial structures,” Ashizawa said.
    “Six pendant lights are placed in the central space at equal distances in three zones, creating a sense of rhythm and spatial balance.”
    The concrete floor was polished in part of the cafeThe wooden furniture inside the Blue Bottle Coffe Hankyu cafe has mainly been kept in its natural colour, but Ashizawa added bright colour to some of the wood.
    “In the space with concrete structures, the yellow color was added to balance the combination of wood and concrete, and the blue color was placed as a contrast,” he said.
    “We also designed the space to fit in with the apparel brands that share the ground floor.”
    Shelves were painted a bright yellowAshizawa has previously created a number of cafes for the Blue Bottle Coffee company, including a Shanghai store decorated with traditional Chinese roof tiles and a Tokyo outpost with a volcanic-ash counter.
    The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.
    Project credits:
    Architect: Keiji Ashizawa DesignProject architect: Keiji Ashizawa, Tomohiko Fujishita, Masaru KiotyaConstruction: TankDesign supervision: Miyachi Office/Kunihiko MiyachiLighting design: Aurora/Yoshiki IchikawaFurniture: Karimoku Case Study/Ichinomaki Laboratory by KarimokuMetal works: Super Robot

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    Neri&Hu inserts shed into old lane house for Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Shanghai

    Chinese studio Neri&Hu has inserted a stainless-steel shed into a Shanghainese lane house for Blue Bottle Coffee’s latest cafe in Shanghai, which opened to the public last week.

    Located in Zhangyuan in one of the area’s 140-year-old traditional Shikumen mansions, Neri&Hu’s design for the coffee shop aims to evoke “an intimate and nostalgic experience and bring back the memories of ‘home’.”
    The Blue Bottle coffee shop is located in an old Shanghainese lane houseShikumen, also known as lane houses, is a traditional type of Shanghainese house that was popularised during the 19th century. They usually feature high brick walls that enclose a small front yard, with residential units arranged close to one another in narrow alleys.
    For this project, Shanghai-based Neri&Hu kept the existing brick walls, wooden doors and windows of the original architectural facades but replaced the interior wooden structure with concrete.
    A shed made of stainless steel at the centre of the cafe is used as a coffee barThe formerly separate units in the building were removed to form a large open space for the cafe. A stainless-steel shed was erected at the centre of the space to serve as the main coffee bar area.

    The structure of the shed was built with brushed, perforated and bent stainless steel to maximise the transparency of the space and contrast the heavy palette of the existing architecture.

    Keiji Ashizawa designs Blue Bottle Coffee shop for “cave-like space” in Maebashi hotel

    The areas around the bar hold seating arrangements including long benches, low stone tables, wooden stools, and vintage walnut furniture, which were chosen to reflect the traditional lifestyle in Shikumen.
    Neri&Hu also nodded to the informal constructions that people living in Shikumen houses used to extend their private spaces into the alleys, by adding metal rods and small platforms to existing structural columns.
    The steel span of the coffee shop shed and its integrated lighting design came from the clothes-hanging-rods and street lamps commonly seen in the old Shikumen homes.
    The seating area features a range of vintage furnitureBlue Bottle Coffee was founded as a small roastery in Oakland, California, in 2002 and has since grown into a chain of cafes across United States and Asia.
    This is the third Blue Bottle Coffee shop in mainland China. The first one was opened in February this year, designed by Schemata Architects, followed by the second one designed by Keiji Ashizawa Design in August, all located in Shanghai.
    Neri&Hu also recently turned an old textile factory in Beijing into the headquarters of a Chinese pastry brand.
    The photography is by Zhu Runzi.
    Project credits:
    Partners-in-charge: Lyndon Neri, Rossana HuAssociate-in-charge: Qiucheng LiDesign team: Jiaxin Zhang, Xi Chen, Peizheng Zou, Shangyun Zhou, Greg Wu, Luna HongFF&E design and procurement: Design RepublicGeneral contractor: Blue Peak Image Producing Co.,Ltd
    Dezeen is on WeChat!
    Click here to read the Chinese version of this article on Dezeen’s official WeChat account, where we publish daily architecture and design news and projects in Simplified Chinese.

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    Fourteen Stones Design revamps Tokyo warehouse into “coffee gastronomy” cafe

    Tokyo-based Fourteen Stones Design has designed the Koffee Mameya Kakeru cafe for barista Eiichi Kunitomo in a former water transportation hub in Kiyosumi Shirakawa.

    Set in the Kiyosumi Shirakawa area of Tokyo, the coffee shop occupies a warehouse which Fourteen Stones Design renovated and extended “to preserve the appearance of the old warehouse as much as possible”.
    Koffee Mameya Kakeru is in an old warehouseThe studio removed the shutters from the front of the warehouse, adding a glass facade. The rest of the building, including the interiors, remains as it was – with minimal repairs made to the walls.
    It aimed “to make everyday coffee an extraordinary experience” with a full “course of coffee” served by baristas and the renovation has been designed to facilitate this.
    The white oak structure frames the coffee barA staggered rectangular frame of white oak at the entrance of the cafe, which echoes the coffee package design, dominates the interior space and provides a central visual motif for the scheme.

    This frame divides the entrance space from the main cafe where a U-shaped bar surrounding the barista workstations was placed.

    Three hundred beer crates form furnishings of Shenyang’s Fatface Coffee shop

    The barista’s workbenches, which were made from black granite, were deliberately placed at the centre of the space to create “a stage set-up, which enables baristas to fully demonstrate their skills”.
    Besides the new seating area, restrooms, a kitchen, a laboratory and office space have all been renovated.
    Baristas work at black granite counters
    The service and bar countertops were made from “Jura Yellow” limestone. Featuring fossils from the Jura period, it was chosen for its texture and also for allusions to the passage of time – not only echoed in the coffee growing, roasting and brewing processes but also the journey of the brand from its inception 10 years ago.
    Fourteen Stones Design’s Yosuke Hayashi designed the custom furniture for the cafe in the same white oak as the frame structure. It was manufactured by Japanese company E&Y for the project.
    The space aims to create a “gastronomic experience” for coffee drinkersThe cafe’s owner Kunitomo believes baristas “act as a bridge between the customer and the roastery” and should be given “a social status comparable to that of a sommelier”.
    Baristas at Koffee Mameya Kakeru will serve single cups of coffee through to full courses of coffee, “elevated by the newly designed space to the realm of gastronomy”, according to the practice.
    Fourteen Stones Design has been shortlisted in the restaurant and bar interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. Other projects in the running include a rattan restaurant in Bangkok by Enter Projects Asia Co. and YODEZEEN’s Japanese restaurant in Kyiv’s city centre.
    The photography is by Ooki Jingu.

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    Sik Mul Sung is a Mars-themed cafe with its own vertical farm

    South Korean studio Unseenbird has designed a cafe in downtown Seoul, where vegetables are grown in a glass-fronted cultivation room before being harvested, prepared and served to customers on a conveyor belt.

    Sik Mul Sung cafe was set up by agri-tech start-up N.Thing, which also runs a vertical farm on the outskirts of Seoul, to make the company’s technology tangible and accessible to everyday consumers.
    Unseenbird wrapped Seoul’s Sik Mul Sung restaurant in stainless steelLocal practice Unseenbird was tasked with designing the cafe’s interior and wrapped large portions of its walls, counters and fixtures in sheets of stainless steel.
    This is contrasted with decorative red rocks and a floor made of matching pebbles, in a reference to N.Thing’s ambition to build a vertical farm on Mars.
    The cafe’s space-age theme is also reflected in its futuristic green perspex surfaces, which are played off against textured plaster walls.

    Food is delivered to diners via a conveyor beltSik Mul Sung’s focal point is a brightly lit, glass-fronted cultivation room where rows of vegetables grow in a vertical farming system designed by N.Thing, which can function without sunlight or soil.
    When customers place an order, the vegetables are harvested and used as ingredients for salads and ice cream.
    Vegetables are grown on-siteFood is delivered to diners via a conveyor belt that circulates the cultivation room and runs along the curved bar.
    The food itself is presented on circular plates that rotate to recall a planet in orbit.

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    “Customers can feel the values and dreams of the company together by experiencing cultivation, harvesting, processing and consumption here,” said Unseenbird.
    “Not only was the characteristic applied functionally to the space but the brand identity was well realised with the finishing materials and tones.”
    The vertical farm does not need soil or sunlight to functionSik Mul Sung has been shortlisted in the small interiors category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
    Other projects in the running include a serene timber and travertine reading room in Shanghai and a coffee shop in Shenyang, China, where stacked bottle-green beer crates form the furnishings.
    The photography is by Yongjoon Choi. 

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    Three hundred beer crates form furnishings of Shenyang's Fatface Coffee shop

    Bottle-green beer crates are stacked to construct a long counter and matching stools in this pop-up coffee shop in Shenyang, China, designed by architecture practice Baicai.

    Installed in the city’s Window Gallery for a month, the pop-up shop belongs to local cafe Fatface Coffee. Its interior makes use of 300 beer cases to create a central bar and stools with cork seat pads.
    Shenyang’s Fatface Coffee pop-up uses beer crates as furnitureShortlisted in the small interiors category of the 2022 Dezeen Awards, the design hopes to merge Shenyang’s love of beer with its emerging coffee culture.
    “Shenyang is a city beaming with a love for beer,” local studio Bacai explained. “The city’s fondness for beer is expressed in its popularity across the streets and its ever-presence in the daily converse of the residents.”
    “How can the coffee culture respond to the city’s attachment to beer? This pop-up shop aspires to explore the energising dynamics between the two seemingly opposite cultures.”

    Cork was used to form seat pads for the stoolsThe studio says it chose to work with beer crates as they are economical, modular, reusable and help to create a strong visual identity inside the Fatface Coffee shop.
    Custom-made cork seat pads sit on top of the beer cases to form the stools, while a glass panel was cut into shape to create the bar’s countertop.

    Sik Mul Sung

    “The strategy explores the endless possibilities of what a beer case could be: a bar counter, seating of various heights, an exhibition stage or a screen to hide the frameworks for water and electricity,” said Baicai.
    “The project experiments with the confluence between beer and coffee, bridging meaningful dialogues between what is local and what is imported.”
    The bar counter is topped with a glass sheetFatface Coffee’s large central bar was designed to challenge the conventional floor plan of a cafe, and according to Baicai creates a more open, democratic space where baristas and guests can circulate freely.
    Other projects shortlisted in the small interiors category at this year’s Dezeen Awards include a yellow attic conversion in Antwerp and a serene timber and travertine reading room in Shanghai by Atelier Tao+C.
    The photography is by Topia Vision.

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