This project is located
in Tehran which is the most crowded city of Iran. The cultural and social
condition of Iran is in a way that the coffee shops are the most popular places
for young population to hang out. And if they feel comfortable in a specific one,
they always know it as their own hang out place. This project is with the
dimension of 10.5 by 5 m (52 sqm) and located in the second floor of a
two-floor shopping mall. The concern of the client in the first place was to
have a space with unique design qualities with a low budget. In this project
our aims were to introduce new ideas, at the same time create a unified space
with different spatial qualities in a limited space. In this project we were
not just trying to put the materials and form together, but also we tried to
create a design that can describe an independent identity and new vision about
the interior elements for this coffee shop.
Our design concerns
1-considering the size of the space which was 52 sqm
with the height of the 4.5 m, we were faced with the challenge of reducing the
sounds generated by conversations of about 42 people as much as we could(by redirecting the sounds).
2-our next concern was to reach to a solution which
was able to create multiple perspective views in every single spot of the
coffee shop. As people are walking through or using the different zones of the
area, they could observe dissimilar perspective views in each zone
.3-Another concern was how to create homogeneous space
from one unified source
.4-Finally
it was to simplify the construction method due to construction abilities and
technologies in Iran and simultaneously reduce the cost of material and
construction technologies.
The project functionally is divided in to two main
zones of kitchen area and the main hall, but in the concept phase we considered
them as four zones of entrance, the main hall, the serving counter and the
kitchen. Due to that the cubic box was divided to two main parts:
A:
south-north walls and the ceiling
B: east-west
walls, the entrance and the end walls and the floor
In part A based on our concern we tried to unify
the walls and ceiling and also the lighting elements. As this part was the main
hall, we tried to use an innovative method for indirect lighting to merge it
with the design elements in a way that the lighting is not an independent
element. The method of creating this solid mass is based on morphing two curves
over each other. This method creates variety of different perspective views and
tends to produce diverse experiences in each spot.
In the next level, for a simpler construction and
better absorbing of sound we divided the morph in to horizontal cross sections.
Lighting elements that are LED fibers are placed between the sections. By this method we provided the main light of
the area in an indirect manner. This fact conveys a relaxing form of light in
the space and also eliminates any sharp and disturbing type of light. To decrease the costs, the curves in
different cross sections were printed in real scale and the forms consist of
aluminum structural supports covered with plaster panels. The final cover is
acrylic colored plaster panels. The execution cost of the ceiling with the
lighting summed up to 6000 $ which is very low comparing to other methods of
construction.
In part B the material is limited to dark wood that
connects the entrance wall, the floor, the serving counter and the kitchen.
The shape of the entrance and counter wall was
effected by two generator curves in part A. Part B completes the part A in a
way that these two parts are the pieces of puzzles put together and complete
the cube of space.To avoid multiplicity of materials, the idea of the
project in material selection was to allow two basic materials to conduct their
role effectively.
In part A it is limited to basic white coat that covers the
roof and the walls continuously and in part B it is the dark wood color and the
furniture’s made by dark wood colors and dark brown leather. The reasoning
behind choosing the dark color of wood was to eliminate the diversity of
texture and existing colors in the wood itself, in an attempt to provoke the
spatial quality and flow of light in the space
