October 1st is International Coffee Day, and to celebrate, we’re taking a look at some superlative projects that showcase the unique qualities and considerations involved in the design of different cafés across the world.

The advent of remote work has meant an increased role for coffee shops and their owners as the damage done by pandemic restrictions recedes, and digital commuters turn to their grindhouses for a sense of structure, social opportunity, and even belonging.

In terms of their intellectual history, spaces such as the Odeon in Zurich, New South Wales’ Lincoln Coffee Lounge, and New York’s Hungarian Pastry Shop have been the forums from which movements like Dadaism and the Sydney Push, as well as books like The Buddha in the Attic and Between the World and Me, can be traced. As they relate to architecture, coffee shops can serve up equally eye-opening parallels.

In 2018, we launched our Brutal line of varietals on the notion that good coffee, just as the imperiled architectural style says of "good" design, can be boiled down to what Archinect founder Paul Petrunia calls a "raw materiality, with a timelessness and strength that doesn’t rely on ornamentation or trends to stand on its own."

Here are some of our favorite examples of coffee houses, cafés, and other highly-caffeinated spaces that provoke that sense of good design, with a brief comment as to what makes them so addicting.

Have you designed a space that should be showcased on Archinect? Additional projects can be considered via our submission form.

% Arabica store in Chengdu, China by ARCHIEE

Woah! This optic-white outpost of the award-winning Japanese brand is itself an excellent blend of Japanese, French, and Chinese cultures. Its design offers horizontal composition as its base orientation, with a sculptural 9mm-welded-steel tunnel-like fixture serving as a buffer zone between its counter and entry portal. Seating arrangements are further designed to increase the sense of fluidity, and high-end Corian finishes on the counters and facade are used to make the overall design as inviting as possible.

GROUNDS in Prague, Czech Republic by KOGAA

Located in Prague’s developing Karlín district, this 120-square-meter (1,291-square-foot) shop was designed to include an inner room used for barista education workshops, competitions, and its own in-house roastery and related storage needs. A suspended tangerine-colored metal staircase leads from the front service area to the upper-floor working space, which comes with a careful arrangement of nooks, handmade furnishings, and plant life selected to mitigate the humidity created by the roasting process. About 80% of the space is derived from reused construction materials taken from a previous dismantled project.

Milky’s in Toronto, Canada by Batay-Csorba Architects

Here again, this small, 300-square-foot café is aimed at pedestrians in a hurry and uses 1,300 modular panels and interlocking marble segments to stimulate the experience of its users. Torontonians will quickly enjoy a "caffeinated" space achieved through the careful placement of interlocking pieces of light and dark wood that produce a highly-contrasted tessellation that expands and contracts. There is no furniture included, and the designers say circadian lighting combined with a curated selection of beverages served in custom-designed ceramic ware energize customers welcomed by a floor-to-ceiling glass facade.

Coffee shop in Strasbourg, France by Dominique Coulon & associés

Located in the historic center of Strasbourg, the design takes advantage of an existing lime tree on the site to provide shading to its large outdoor terrace. Five arches make up its facade, masking a "bright white homogeneous box" interior that further enhances its visibility. The geometry of the facade arches is also repeated around the interior of the shop, which retains an existing staircase as a central feature. Light-colored untreated materials like speckled white terrazzo combine with an exotic array of plants to create a milky, enlivening ambiance. As its designers say, this is a "sleek cocoon, a lantern, totally at odds with present-day standards."

The Gut’s Coffee in Osaka, Japan by Hidenori Tsuboi

This small Osaka project occupies a tiny 34.5-square-meter (371.5-square-foot) space in the warehouse of a local film manufacturer, incorporating elements such as an R-shaped counter, hanging walls, and reused wood benches to communicate a sense of incongruity between the stand and the building’s function in order to attract the attention of would-be customers passing by.

Blue Bottle Coffee, Koreatown in Los Angeles, CA by wrk-shp

Taking a two-story 1929 structure originally designed by Morgan, Walls & Clements as its canvas, wrk-shp integrated a Churrigueresque exterior with historic elements such as wrought-iron elements and fluted wall panels before further enhancing the space with amber-toned Italian marble and walnut furnishings to create a welcoming addition to the company’s roster of 17 locations throughout Los Angeles.

Campos Barangaroo in Sydney, Australia by Woods Bagot

Situated in a kiosk in Tower Three of the firm’s International Towers development in Sydney, this Italian-style stand-up coffee bar configuration comes with outdoor seating accompaniment that matches the metallic mesh siding, marble counter, and brass frame to achieve a stylish minimalistic design the firm says is more comparable to an art gallery than traditional workplace settings.

The Crown Coffee Laboratory in Oakland, CA by Studio Terpeluk

Located in a former auto mechanic’s shop in the heart of Oakland, the project for bean importer Royal Coffee uses a program of interconnected spaces defined by a timber superstructure and activated by green wall tiling to invoke an overall laboratory-like atmosphere for its customers.

Voyager Craft Coffee - The Alameda in Santa Clara, CA by STUDIO BANAA

Another Bay Area design features nautical motifs, fixtures, and an all-wood coffee counter shaped like a hull. Seating is arranged "like continents united by passages of water." The design team says that its benefits "become obvious the more you explore."

COFFEEBAR in Menlo Park, CA by NICOLEHOLLIS and Walker Warner Architects

This reimagined former nail salon in Menlo Park uses traditional Italian coffee bars as its inspiration and is complete with a cool bicycle chain chandelier, a large walnut communal table, copper elements, and a further alcove partitioned by a metal chain curtain to evoke the sense of Silicon Valley rise-and-grind work culture.

Le Cafe Coffee in New York, NY by Wid Chapman Architects

This Columbus Circle design is one of ten projects completed throughout the New York metropolitan area for the company and uses timber elements and soft lighting to create a warm and inviting interior completely in tune with the mood of Manhattan's modern West Side.

Verve Coffee Roastery Del Sur in Los Angeles, CA by Design, Bitches

The studio’s 2021 AIA LA Restaurant Design Award-winning concept features maximum visual transparency to give customers a behind-the-scenes look at the process that goes into making each cup. A mezzanine is also installed that provides a view of the busy pedestrian activity in the shop and the Downtown LA streetscape below.

DUENDE.Eat.Real in Sofia, Bulgaria by SOFT CASE Studio

In English, 'Duende' translates loosely to "the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm." Per the Architects of this delightful Sofia location: "This definition provided inspiration for an inviting and light interior design accentuating the beautiful structure of the building with a combination of hand-painted wallpapers, custom upholstered seating, and vintage furnishings."

Xinzhai Coffee Manor in Lujiangba, China by Trace Architecture Office (TAO)

This renovation and expansion project delivered a multi-use coffee storage, processing, tasting, sale, hotel, coffee museum, and auditorium geared toward tourists in China’s Yunnan Province. According to the architects: "The building uses two types of material: brick and concrete, which is consistent with materials commonly used locally, yet presenting variations. Its spatial quality integrates the heaviness of brick construction and the lightness of concrete structure, which is resulted from a thorough consideration of material, structure and program."

LUMA CAFE in Mexico City, Mexico by Michan Architecture

Tucked into a corporate building inside Mexico City’s otherwise Art Decor-rich Condesa neighborhood, the studio says "the design of the project seeks to generate a subtle atmosphere full of interesting effects and textures that are archived by glitching traditional materials with different finishes such as exposed concrete, terrazzo, stucco, and felt. The general atmosphere of the space brings a tension between rough and polished materials which creates a coherent but unexpected ambiance."

Iconic Cafe in New York, NY by studio vural

This space in Manhattan's SoHo district is inspired by the Hindu God Krishna and his chief consort Radha. Its designers say it offers a "contemporary reflection of a timeless love story," and leverages geometric repetition, century-old wood joists, and wax-finished white oak panels to enact a contemplative space for customers to drink in divine inspiration.

JOE COFFEE, UPPER WEST SIDE in New York, NY by Shadow Architects

For their commission, Shadow turned what used to be a flower shop into the popular New York City chain's latest location using a new corporate lookbook as its guide. The result, they say, is "an incredibly functional mix of oak wood, blackened metal, stone and brightly colored tile that has already become a neighborhood favorite."

Boonma in Chiang Mai, Thailand by Sher Maker

Another minimal project offers itself as a kind of treatise on the ever-important architectural concept of boundaries and transitional spaces in its design. Opaque curtains disguise the building itself, while the exterior wall is covered by mirrors which "dissolve the elevation and create[d] a curved curtain frame that encircles by the reflection for reflect the environment and the surrounding landscape."

Coffee for Sasquatch in Los Angeles, CA by Dan Brunn Architecture

Located on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles' Fairfax District, the materials and a living green wall coincide with a central mural to evoke the mythical creature’s woodland home. Seating is built into its curved wall, and its inverted pitched roof creates an illusion of vertical space above customers. The use of "Calacatta Nuvo" Caesarstone for the bar, backsplash, and menu combine with terrazzo surfaces to counter the forested theme. Outside, an 11-foot-tall Sasquatch mascot welcomes customers into its catwalk-like entry path.

Counter Culture Coffee Training Center in New York, NY by Jane Kim Architect

JKA shares that the company's focus on sustainability "led to the use of recycled materials such as reclaimed factory flooring, wood bowling alley countertops, and vintage metal kitchen cabinets." Each individual counter displays a unique approach to coffee-making. Overall, their creation delivers the national chain with a cutting-edge space useful for both training baristas and further showcasing its state-of-the-art brewing equipment.

Where would you prefer to sip on a creamy latte macchiato or re-energize with a quick cup of espresso? Let us know in the comment section below.

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