Dubai Marina is a district defined by futuristic skyscrapers, intense sunlight and a frenetic urban pace. Drinkit at Park Island was designed as a welcoming destination within this dynamic context.
The interior is organised around contrasts in colour temperature and materiality. The upper volume is finished in cool sky-blue tones, creating a visual sense of relief from the heat outside. The lower level is defined by a warmer palette and tactile materials: cognac-coloured leather sofas are paired with cream-toned furnishings and sand-coloured walls.
The main architectural gesture emerged from a technical constraint. Site conditions required the floor in the bar area to be raised by 150 millimetres. Rather than resolving the change in level with a single step, the architects transformed the entire bar volume into a monolithic podium. This made the bar a key element of the interior and visually emphasised the importance of the coffee-making process.
Drinkit’s technologies are integrated naturally and unobtrusively into the space. The cylindrical self-service kiosks read as elements within an artistic composition. Overhead, a large luminous cube mimics a skylight, emitting soft, natural-looking light and eliminating any sense of enclosure.
Written messages complete the interior and offer a more personal way of engaging with the space. Phrases appear on the columns, including “turn a quick coffee into a quiet moment”. This detail most clearly captures the essence of the project: Drinkit is not simply a technology-driven coffee shop, but an urban oasis that restores a sense of calm amid the relentless pace of the city.
Drinkit is an international coffee shop chain operating in Russia, Kazakhstan and the UAE. Rather than replicating standardised interiors, the team develops a site-specific design for each location, drawing on its context. A defining feature of the format is Drinkit’s proprietary IT system, which includes order-status tracking and “smart pickup”. These technologies are discreetly integrated into the interior, helping to streamline guest flows and avoid queues while preserving the visual clarity of the space.
