The program is essentially made up of two parts, a bar / cafe and a space for either retail or small restaurant purposes.
The project plays on the form of the local apartment block, focusing on those which include commercial spaces on the ground floor. It seeks to maintain this symbiosis by conserving the commercial space but abstracting the idea of interlocking apartment units and their common social space to the level of a bar and cafe.
The design is developed using a language of interlocking volumes built into a sloping site. The commercial maintains its traditional position on the ground floor facing the main street. The bar and cafe occupy the spaces above and behind, opening higher up onto another street.
The main idea is to create a variety of comfortable, informal, and visually connected spaces that the clientele can associate with on a variety of levels, whether it be to work, relax, party, or to see and be seen.
For more details, see the analytique.
p r o g r a m
bar and cafe
- main seating area (including stage)
- main bar
- d.j. booth
- quiet bar and cafe
- secondary bar
- pool room
- tertiary bar
- roof terraces (2)
- w.c.
- vestibule
- coat room
- storage (staff w.c., cold room, etc.)
- office
- parking
- 2000 s.f
- 280 s.f.
- 100 s.f
- 1000 s.f.
- 180 s.f.
- 1000 s.f
- 140 s.f.
- 1000 s.f.
- 300 s.f.
- 80 s.f.
- 240 s.f.
- 460 s.f.
- 120 s.f.
- 90 spaces
- retail / small restaurant
- storage
- parking
- 1200 s.f.
- 250 s.f.
- 23 spaces
The matrix identifies the necessary and desirable connections that are to be established between the various areas included in the program.
As far as the bar is concerned, the idea is to have the main area, the quiet bar and the pool room project out onto one of the two terraces. By providing views back onto the building, the street and onto one another, the terraces serve to maximize the interface available for people to interact in. In other words, they serve to connect and animate the building and its surrounding streetscape. This idea of views and interface shall also be developed internally between the three main public areas.
The relationships identified for the retail / restaurant space are simple and direct: it must be oriented so as to have a strong street presence and a direct, but not primary relationship to the parking area.
cover / jumpstation / thesis proposal / design portfolio / resources
site: photos / site: technical / precedents / site & program / code & regulations