Two by Two Coffee and Vintage

Authors’ Comment

A corner house that catches a second life. At the beginning was the high ground floor with a shop of objects and accessories made by Romanian designers. The garden and the basement remained, in (almost) direct connection with the street.
The cafe and the vintage clothing store transform a former car garage, positioned perpendicular to the street and open across the width into a “room” to which you have access from the street. The general plan is composed of different rooms, connected to each other.
The car ramp becomes access and a gradient, a mirror of the interior space. In the design process we continued with the common table, the key element of the TwoMinutes coffee shop and we gravitated with the rest of the missing pieces around it. In this scenario, the main countertop has no equivalent limits, but determines different areas of distance and proximity where customers can interact with each other or with the barista, being accessible on both sides.
This area is complete with other seating areas for customers and some furniture inserts to support the coffeeshop function. The furniture is made of solid wood, with a design oriented more to detail than to visible surfaces. The general image of the cafe is balanced by different elements and visual details - lighting fixtures, products for sale, glasses, utensils, menu and last but not least a bas-relief made by Cristian Frone, especially for TwobyTwo.
The rest of the rooms are configured complementary to the main space - bathrooms, storage, booth with vintage clothing store. The garden becomes the common “space” of the house, a mediator of all the functions present in the building. The state area takes on the same intention from the inside and determines narrower, wider areas according to the existing vegetation and the approach or distance from the house.
Detail architecture. The interior space with the bleachers and the garden become a "kitchen" of the street, open two by two to the sidewalk.