PROJECT : KOFI MICROROASTERY

LOCATION : IOANNINA, GREECE

YEAR : 2018

STATUS : COMPLETED

Photography by Kostis Mouselimis

“Kofi microroastery” is a specialty coffee shop, placed in a central pedestrian intersection of Ioannina city, at the ground floor of a 1966 apartment building.

The concept of the design was to combine a “rough” industrial aesthetic with natural and warm tones, aiming to create a place which could host and make all coffee lovers feel pleasant inside it, unfolding its role as a “lab” with self produced coffee, roasted in the heart of the shop.

Stripped down to its original building fabric, the space features exposed concrete columns and ceiling beams, the latter painted black, and a restored terrazzo mosaic floor, a typical feature of mid-century Greek residential architecture, harmoniously blending together the industrial and the nostalgic. This dual aesthetic is further enhanced by the black-painted metallic window frames and visible air ducts, the porcelain lamp shades, and the vintage display table showcasing products for sale.

If the black-painted ceiling structure and steel window frames are a reminder of the building’s past, then white is symbolic of the shop’s contemporary sensibility with white and light grey tiles featuring prominently in the bar area along with a slim, white-painted metallic shelving unit and the white geometrical forms with  sculptural patterns witch are lightening up the all-black ceiling.

With emphasis on the details, the design is dedicated to make the whole space an unforgettable experience, similarly to the shop’s coffee making philosophy.