Coupa Café: sprinkled with delicious mint surfaces and copper details
A specialty coffee shop in Komotini, Greece, offering a high-quality coffee product and handmade round sesame breads. The interior space is gently curated while oozes a warm and intimate atmosphere with retro references elevated by a calm, minimally composed palette.
Even in the short stay in the coffeeshop, the visitors can also have a rich sense of space, creating different types of experience. From one side, the entire transparent façade can be visually and practically street- faced: people sitting on the seats can face the street scene and watch the pedestrians passing by. It seems that they can forget being in a cafe, so that the visual boundary of the cafe is extended to the block, and the scale of the original architectural space is staggered and overlaps with the city. From the other side, eschewing for a while the "grab-and-go" coffee culture, the interior space can be function even for those who can enjoy a nice cup of coffee on weekdays enabling them to work in this quiet atmosphere. The equipment layout and the coffee process face outward toward the customer, inviting visual participation in the coffee-making process. The bar furniture with the wooden fine strips also reveals the preciseness and delicacy of the barista. The “to go” exclusive area allows baristas to communicate coffee culture with customers in close proximity.
Suspended wooden shelving with the cooper frames hovers the back bar to provide display of the coffee-making activities and products’ storage. The selective high- quality coffee product supported by the coffee shop is object of admiration and is exhibited in the furniture showcases that are camouflaged as a continuation of the masonry.
Custom-detailed dark green ceiling blades are dual purpose: they compress the height of the space to create intimacy and intermittently reveal long lengths of lighting. The uniqueness of the furniture with the wooden slats comes to tie in with all the copper details observed in the finishes and metal elements. The distinctive lining with mint tiles comes to create a contrast but at the same time a smooth connection with both the white color of the bakelite bench and the tables, as well as the white tone of the walls. However, the same walls eventually acquire a peculiarity that unfolds throughout the coffee shop through its coarse style with its dense coating.
Coupa Café is a visually simple, highly functional interior that invites lingering in its brightly sedate feel. All elements are considered textural and precise, in order to intentionally instil a sense of refinement and welcome.
Team:
Architects: Valia Panagiotou
Photographer: Giannis Tsaklidis
Materials Used:
- Bar: The bar furniture is composed of white-colored hpl counter, mint-colored lacquered cabinet doors and solid oak stripes as front-covering of the bar, constructed by the company Furniture Industry «Karafillis S.A.». The tall battery Retro Copper Kitchen Faucet is procured by the company “surfaces 2modern materials”.
- Bathroom: The flooring is with white-colored tiles 80X80cm, procured by the company “surfaces 2modern materials”. The sanitary utilities include the short retro copper bathroom faucet and simple old-school toilet and flash, procured by the company “surfaces 2modern materials”.
- Lighting: The lighting fixtures are designed by the architect Valia Panagiotou, made of metal with copper finishing and are constructed by the company “Mobili experts furniture construction”.
- Mobile equipment: The chairs, the stools and the table are designed by the architect Valia Panagiotou, made of metal with copper finishing and white-colored hpl surface, constructed by the company “Mobili experts furniture construction”.
- Flooring: The main flooring is with white-colored tiles 80X80cm, while the edging around the main floor area is with special pattern of the tile barcelona star 20x20cm. The tiles are procured by the company “surfaces 2modern materials”.
- Wall covering: The unique covering of the counter and part of the walls are the special mint-colored tiles zellize verde 7.5x30, procured by the company “surfaces 2modern materials”. The special white-colored coarse covering style is applied in the majority of internal walls of the main space, the façade of showcase furniture and the façade of the coffee shop with dense coating by a local experienced technician.
- Doors and windows: The internal door of the main space is constructed with hidden heavy-duty hinges and light hidden casing, offering the possibility to the door to come in the same line as the wall. Both this door and the four other internal doors (bathroom, kitchen, office) are made of waterproof materials with anti-scratch varnish finishing. The doors are constructed by the company Furniture Industry «Karafillis S.A.».
- Facade: The façade is divided in three parties, composed of transparent openings from white-coloured metal casing, constructed by a local blacksmith. Both the wooden bench for tables and the wooden counter for stools are made of oak veneer, constructed by the company Furniture Industry «Karafillis S.A.». In the signage labels, the logo is designed from the graphic designer Vaso Xatzitsaousi, while the construction is made from 3D letters from Plexiglas cut with laser and lighting, constructed by the Komotini Advertising Company.
