Brewed – Cafe design challenge

Brewed – Cafe design challenge

Premise
Coffee plants grew wild in Ethiopia and were used by nomadic tribes for thousands of years, only until the 1400s when people figured out that they could roast its seeds. By the 1500s, the drink had spread to coffee houses across the Arab world. Coffee houses first appeared in Turkey, Syria, and Egypt as early as 1530. Since they became a hotspot for political discussions, they were banned repeatedly.

Subsequently, throughout the 1600s coffee houses began popping up across Europe and North America. The French and American Revolutions were said to have brewed in coffeehouses.

The coffee house acted as a perfect mid-ground for a meetup. Here, creativity and innovation thrived through conversations. They have long been associated with writers, artists, and intellectuals and represented a safe and comfortable space to share news, discuss philosophy or politics.

Challenge

Even after centuries, the societal functions around coffee continue to play an important role within many cultures around the world. Cafes form the center stage for the coffee culture that is has been brewing through this time. Cafe chains like Starbucks have started a new revolution by making “cafe” culture global.

Coffee houses are still acting as hubs for making conversations happen, socialize, or work in solace. Cafes now have been decorated with multifunctional roles such as retail, activity center. They collectively act as pods of a city’s identity, accumulating its crowd.

Brief: The challenge here is to design a Coffee House, a space that transcends the concept of cafes that we see today. The aim of these challenges is to help participants practice micro-planning of spaces & services, translating ideas into the design of volume, furniture, and finishes. It seeks to explore a coffeehouse/cafe for Vienna, that embodies today’s architecture style while taking inspiration from its existing heritage.

How does the idea of something that has been iconic to a city like Vienna for so long, translate into the architecture of today?