Coffee Express

Sylhet, Bangladesh

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Coffee Express

Sylhet, Bangladesh

Firm

Aloy Architects

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Restaurant

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2021

SIZE

1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Space-People-Ambience
Coffee shops & cafés are merely more than just spaces where people gather to eat or have a cup of coffee. Coffee Express was perceived cleverly by uniting various concepts which will allow ‘people, space and ambience’ to intermingle and flow into each other seamlessly. One of the major goals of the project was to break the stereotypical concept of coffee shops which are on a rise in the city (tight spaces with extremely higher amount of seating). The narrow site had buildings on both side with no setback at all and had almost no chance of creating any connection with the exterior environment. As a result, emphasis was put on creating an ambience in the interior which will have a complete character of its own, yet will make the customers feel relaxed and comfortable. The design initially evolved by creating no changes in the existing area or structural elements but in volume by creating a mezzanine floor which can easily serve more customers as per the requirement of the client. The mezzanine floor also has a character of its own with ample amount of daylight during the day and a very light dim dark ambience during the night. A green barrier was created outside the glass on the upper level to restrict view of the residential block on the east side of the café. The design elements are kept to a minimum and economic materials are used to rationalize the project costs. As a result, corrugated sheet and PVC pipes are used, which are readily available and not very expensive; in addition to that most of the wood used in the project are collected from the client’s village home, and some of the furniture were sourced from restaurant that were on the verge of closing. The design initiated on sketch by drawing two large triangular fenestrations on the northern wall, which are then covered with a perforated brick wall. The large triangular fenestration as a whole makes the scale of the space relatable as the width of the interior space in very narrow compared to the length. In addition to that the perforated wall ensures privacy and controlled daylight entrance while ensuring air exchange can take place during service and cleaning hour every day. In order to complement these large triangular fenestrations, a triangular geometric sculpture is placed on the southern wall, to ensure balance in the design. A spiral stair leads up to the mezzanine floor, which stands framed perfectly with the large triangular perforation. Situated in a street filled with restaurants and coffee shop, coffee express stands as an experimental and interesting approach towards restaurant designs locally.