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A translucent structure made from salvaged waste materials sits at the heart of this coffee shop and roastery in Prague, designed by Czech architecture studio Kogaa. More
Design office Roar Studio combined industrial materials such as concrete and stainless steel with decorative terrazzo and broken ceramic tiles for Drop Coffee, a cafe in Dubai’s Dar Al Wasl Mall.The Dubai-based studio was asked to design an interior that would suit the flow of visitors to the cafe, who enter the space from two different entrances – one connected to the outdoors and one to the mall.
The bar area is framed by a wooden structure
It chose to keep the design simple by focusing on the materials used and framed the bar area of the cafe in pale wood and LED lights to create an eye-catching centrepiece.
“This is the second outlet for this homegrown Emirati brand,” Roar Studio founder Pallavi Dean told Dezeen.
“Their main drive was to achieve a minimal space where the coffee bar is a central feature and creates a theatrical moment – the making of the coffee is at the front and centre stage.”
A broken-tile mosaic decorates the main wall
The ceiling of the cafe is concrete and the studio also painted the walls with a concrete paint finish, which is complemented by a terrazzo-effect tiled stone floor in grey and white hues.
Its colours and shapes are picked up on the main wall, which was decorated with a mosaic of broken ceramic tiles that form an abstract pattern similar to the floor.
“We sourced basic white tiles from Rakceramics – a local manufacturer – which were then broken on-site to compose a patterned wall,” Dean explained.
“We aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel by using broken tiles – our idea was to form a counterpoint to the terrazzo effect porcelain flooring as though the chips of the broken tiles were used in the flooring.”
Stainless steel was used for the countertops
A large counter in pale wood is connected to the ceiling by beams in the same material, framing the bar area of the store. The counter is covered in stainless steel, which was chosen for both practical and aesthetic reasons.
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“The coffee bar has a stainless steel countertop which is extremely sturdy and hygienic but also allows the light to bounce through the space because of its reflectivity,” Dean said.
Orange clamp-style tables for a quick coffee break
Around the base of the bar, lighted skirting made out of glass blocks give the impression that it is floating above the ground. By the side of the bar, the enclosed kitchen area features a wall made from matching glass blocks, enabling visitors to see the silhouettes of Drop Coffee’s staff while they work.
The studio also chose to work with certain materials to help create a less noisy atmosphere for the visitors.
“The ceiling is acoustic foam sprayed, an effect that adds to the industrial aesthetic and helps muffle the noise in the open-plan space – not to mention the noise generated by the coffee machines,” Dean explained.
Grey hues and pale wood decorate the space
Drop Coffee already has one cafe in Dubai and the plan is for each of the branches to be associated with a different colour, with burnt orange used for Roar Studios’ design.
The colour has been dotted throughout the space and was used for seating as well as on clamp-style tables set along one wall for customers who want to have a quick coffee standing up.
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Roar Studio was founded in 2013 as Pallavi Dean Interiors by Dean, who was a Dezeen Awards 2020 judge, and rebranded as Roar Studio in 2018. It has previously designed a high-tech learning space for children in Dubai and issued a white paper about the ways in which Covid-19 will impact the design of schools and colleges.
Photography is by Oculis Project.
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Canadian design duo Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster have created a playful all-blue cafe in a century-old house in Buffalo, New York, with an optical illusion staircase.Named Tipico Coffee, the cafe’s identity was formed with the intention of designing a space that encourages social interactions and supports local craftsmanship.
The cafe’s main bar is grafted from reclaimed furniture
Reclaimed furniture and lighting made from construction-site string lights feature alongside an oversized staircase to nowhere which forms amphitheatre-style seating.
The cafe’s main bar is made from ten reclaimed wooden tables sourced from classified advertisements website Craigslist.
The main bar encourages social interactions
The tables are grafted together and painted in sky-blue, forming a unified bar which runs along one wall of the cafe.
“The process of designing the cafe really started with the idea of the social infrastructure of the grafted bar,” Jamrozik and Kempster told Dezeen.
Drinks on ice are displayed between the bar’s table-tops
The open bar has clusters of swivelling stools arranged around blue table-tops that jut out of the bar’s customer side, allowing easy socialising between customers and staff.
“The different shapes of the tables come together to create opportunities for conversations,” continued the designers.
“This is augmented with the use of swivelling bar stools that allow patrons the ability to turn their bodies to orient themselves to a new connection.”
Swivelling stools encourage random encounters between customers and staff
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Groups of circular olive-green garden tables and chairs, as well as built-in blue benches, make up two intimate seating areas behind each side of the bar, which are separated by a wall.
The tables and chairs used are purposefully outdoor furniture. This means that the seating can be moved onto an exterior patio in the summer months.
Tipico’s atmosphere is a mix of indoors and outdoors
Various scattered potted plants blend green and blue furniture together and continue the theme of bringing the outdoors inside.
Jamrozik and Kempster explained their intentions for using sky-blue as the cafe’s dominant colour.
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“We wanted to use a vibrant colour to visually tie together the bar and benches to create continuity in the space and give visual emphasis to the bar as the main design gesture.”
“We chose blue to both complement the olive green furniture and plants, but also to create moments of contrast with the bespoke yellow lights,” they continued.
Potted plants are scattered around the space
The bespoke lights designed for the cafe are composed of construction-site string lights, wound around sections of aluminium stock tubes. They hang above the bar and the seating areas.
“We wanted to transform the string lights, while still making it clear what the source product was,” explained the designers.
Lighting made from construction-site string lights
Metal pegboard is another off-the-shelf material used in the space, making up a menu board behind the bar, a merchandise display board and a community message board.
The bottom of the main bar and built-in-benches was also lined with wooden pegboard in order to “give them both a visual texture, taking advantage of the acoustic properties of the perforations,” said Jamrozik and Kempster
A merchandise display board made from metal pegboard
A sense of the building’s historic charm remains in the existing fireplace that is preserved, which is painted in a strip of the same sky-blue paint as the main bar.
An over-scaled stairwell acts as an additional, cosy seating area fit for a couple of customers at a time.
The building’s original fireplace and its playful stairwell
Sealed off by a mirror and leading to nowhere, the stairwell is intended as an “Alice in Wonderland moment,” enhancing the cafe’s playfulness.
“The stairway’s oversized steps effectively shrink the visitor and act as seats while the mirrored ceiling gives the impression that the space continues up,” explained Jamrozik and Kempster.
“We imagine people will be drawn to the curious space and hope that they enjoy the tongue-in-cheek reference that plays on the domestic history of the original building,” continued the designers.
Sealed off by a mirror, the stairwell is an optical illusion
Jamrozik and Kempster note the importance of playful design in their work, which they believe connects people in public spaces.
“We use the language of play to create social infrastructures: physical prompts which encourage contact between strangers.”
“We believe that questioning the way people use and occupy space and their relationship to one another through playful encounters has enormous potential to speak across generations and cultural differences,” they continued.
The importance of play is an influence in Jamrozik and Kempster’s design work
Designers everywhere are acknowledging the importance of designing public spaces to maximise social interactions. In Montreal, Ménard Dworkind has created a cafe with a central standing bar, while Central Saint Martins graduates have created blocky outdoor furniture for a public square in Croydon, London.
Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster have collaborated on design projects since 2003. Their varied work spans temporary installations and permanent interior and architectural commissions.
Photography is by Sara Schmidle.
Project credits:
Architecture team: Abstract Architecture PC
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Canadian studio Ménard Dworkind has unveiled a retro-themed coffee bar featuring Rubik’s Cube mirrors and a floor tiled to look like checkerboard Vans shoes.Situated in downtown Montreal, Caffettiera Caffé Bar features a monolithic black terrazzo bar that welcomes people into the open space.
Visitors are greeted with the terrazzo bar upon entering the cafe
Combining refreshments and a retail display, this main bar emphasises Caffettiera Caffé Bar’s social focus and curves down to meet the checkerboard mosaic floor.
“The checkered floor was inspired by Vans checkered shoes,” Ménard Dworkind co-founder David Dworkind told Dezeen. “As Guillaume Ménard and I both grew up in the 90s we tapped into our own personal nostalgia.”
The checkerboard mosaic floor is influenced by Vans shoes
The cafe’s owner wanted to bring Italian coffee culture for Caffettiera Caffé Bar, where customers are encouraged to linger over a cup.
“We placed a footrest at the coffee bar so clients can stand there and have a chat with the barista,” said Dworkind.
“We included a long, standing bar in the middle of the space to increase the density of people with spots in the cafe, which helps to encourage socialising”.
A standing bar encourages socialising
Curved mirrors are mounted onto faux-wood plastic laminate panels, a retro material that aims to connect customers through a sense of nostalgia.
“The 90s theme was the driving force for the colour palette”, explained Dworkind. “The use of plastic laminate fake wood panels on the wall and bright colours were all popular in the 90s. The Rubik’s Cubes to frame the mirrors in the bathrooms is another example of something from our personal memories of the 90s”.
Rubik’s Cube mirrors feature in the cafe’s bathrooms
Circular tables boast a variation of five coloured laminates in graphic shapes and framed photographs of iconic fashion models from the decade embellish the walls.
Tables sit alongside two comfortable tan leather banquettes that face the main bar, making use of the small but open space to create a sociable atmosphere.
90s nostalgia is emphasised by photographs from the decade
All of Caffettiera Caffé Bar’s available space offers a chance for customer interaction. The banquettes intersect at a self-service station, behind which a backlit planter is enhanced by the mirrors’ reflection.
“The long shared banquettes provide the option of sticking the round tables together, and since it’s linear people are actually all seated together”, explained Dworkind.
Reupholstered vintage chairs match tan leather banquettes in the seating area
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Curving furniture echoes the shape of the mirrors. Rounded vintage chairs sourced from classified ads have been reupholstered in the same tan leather as the banquettes.
Continuing the cafe’s curving lines, the ceiling’s exaggerated cornicing is another retro visual element. As with the main bar and the checkerboard floor, the cornicing seamlessly blends the walls and the ceiling together.
Dynamic blue cornicing brings the ceiling to life
Lambert & Fils pendant lights are suspended from yellow telephone wire above the seating area, bathing the tables in a warm glow.
Traditional Italian food products are displayed on a long shelf behind the main bar, where a selection of sandwiches and pastries are served. Cafe merchandise is also for sale.
The products stocked on the large shelf behind the main bar
Italian signs illustrating where to pay and order slide along an orange painted steel beam above the bar. Their locations can be rearranged by staff depending on each day’s flow of customers.
Various 90s books, toys and stickers feature in Caffettiera Caffé Bar’s windows, and around the space, making it a wholly nostalgic experience.
A similarly retro feel can be found at Baseball, a food court in Hong Kong designed by studio Linehouse, influenced by 70s films.
Co-founded by Ménard and Dworkind in 2017, previous projects from the Montreal-based studio include a kitsch Chinatown-themed pan-Asian restaurant and a recreation of a 1970s New York pizza parlour.
Photography is by David Dworkind and Alison Slattery.
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Coffee roasting and tasting takes place in this industrial-style coffee shop in Vancouver, which local studio Alice D’Andrea has designed inside a historic factory building. Located in Vancouver’s Railtown neighbourhood, the space was built in 1923 as the Settlement Building, a steel foundry for manufacturing machinery parts, and then later used as a warehouse for lighting company Bocci.
The roastery features existing industrial windows and ceiling beams
It now forms the headquarters for speciality coffee company Pallet Coffee Roasters with space for team training, a tasting area, roastery operations, seating and merchandise.
Douglas fir beams punctuate the ceiling, large, industrial-style windows bring natural light to the back of the building, and exposed concrete runs throughout, providing a nod to its history.
Seating is set under a large skylight
“The main goal for this project was to design a ‘destination’ for coffee lovers,” said Alice D’Andrea. “A place where customers could enjoy their coffee while being educated on the process and the passion that goes behind their product.”
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The 7000-square-foot (650-square-metre) open space has been separated into different areas. To the rear of the space the roastery is furnished with a long table made of reclaimed fir, which is used for coffee tasting and team training.
An L-shaped counter divides the open space
An L-shaped coffee counter, patterned with black-stained oak planks in a herringbone pattern, forms the centre of the space. A gridded glass partition that echoes the former foundry’s industrial windows rises from the middle of the counter to offer glimpses of the production area at the rear.
“The glass partition between the counter and the production leaves the view open on the production, on the machinery and the people working behind the scenes,” the studio said.
Black-stained wood patterns the counter
“Customers can enjoy their beverage while watching how raw beans from around the world turn into their favourite drink; a truly unique customer experience,” the studio added.
The black volume is broken up by glass volumes that form display cabinets for pieces on sale and nooks for seating.
The roastery occupies the rear
Large copper pendant lights hang overheard to complement the warm hues of the wooden ceiling beams. Other copper detailing can be found in the counter kick and shelving.
Customers can sip their coffee on a seating alcove under a huge skylight, or on wooden benches either side of large planters and stools. Decorative elements are provided by coffee bags piled atop pallets, and pops of greenery.
Copper details add warmth
Pallet Coffee Roasters HQ’s entrance has white-painted walls, greenery and pendant lights from Bocci – the building’s previous owner.
Other coffee roasteries on Dezeen include Pilot Coffee roasting warehouse in Toronto that Williamson Williamson recently extended with offices and the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo designed by Kengo Kuma.
Photography is by Andrew Fyfe.
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