Itching for more potentials of the café / bar duplicity at Bar Lotus, the owner of the award-winning bar once again turned to Office AIO for a new design challenge. This time, new functionality is added to the program - lifestyle retail with furniture and goods for sale. All the while, the footprint got smaller, a mere 68㎡.
Resonating its last project, the new project - Shop O - incorporates the idea of the space as a café before dark and a bar after. Upon entry, it features a nimble coffee service counter. While at the back, a cabinet bar is ready to open up for night-time entertainment. But the business’ priority of the space is to showcase a carefully curated collection of retail goods and designer furniture.
Because of products’ seasonal nature and a desire to keep customers invigorated and inspired, Office AIO laid a sectioning foundation that allows a variety of scenarios and presentations. Few fixtures are implemented to anchor the many potentials for future activities and arrangements. A long sandstone counter set along one side of the wall ready to shelve coffee machines, small products, or even roofing a fireplace. While on the other side, custom-made flip-down seats create a sense of interaction that invites people to actively engage with the things in the store. A central middle section is lowered down a step, creating an area that is embraced by two neighbouring divisions, ready to host congregation and related amenities.
The division of three is knitted by a repetitive yet idiosyncratic gesture - the floating elliptical arches. They bring a sense of character to the store without occupying any footprint. Hovering in the air with confidence, these arches are juxtaposed by exposed ceiling and columns.
This sense of order blended with rawness is reversed and carried out on the wall too, where bands are left untouched alongside perfectly painted upper sections. When the night befalls, the space can transition from a sophisticated design store to one of changing moods. Toward the bar, the last arch section is membraned and backlit with colour-changing LED to infuse different flavours into the space. And the hidden cabinets behind the mirror open up, where curiosities arise from the reserved narrow strip of space as bartenders to attend the dark.
