MUGSHOT at Dj Superstore. Sharing the neighborhood

Authors’ Comment

Mugshot is a specialty-coffee and fine-drinks shop in the center of Bucharest, in the Icoanei – Ioanid neighborhood. The interior architecture builds up an experience aiming to activate the neighborhood vecinity. Thus, Mugshot joins other businesses from the neighborhood that help promote this lively part of the city and its small proximity commerce.
The space and the products are designed with the intent to coagulate a small community of people that live or go about in this area, people that love good tastes and artsy living. The interior design follows this concept, in the middle of the space there is a long wooden table, so that people that didn’t arrive together can share the nice experience of a fine-drink or a coffee. In the back of the proposed area, we designed a a cozy sitting area,with a long sofa and large, confortable lounge chairs. The space is tailored for the neighborhood it resides in, everything is conceived with the clear purpose to offer people that come to Mugshot an authentic experience, activating a micro-community around it.
The existing building offers a withdrawn area facing the street, a great space for the small exterior terrace next to the pedestrian sidewalk and the neighbourhood. Through this small terrace a part of the existing space is given back to the public area. From this small exterior sitting area a window showcases a DJ music desk at the semi-basement . During the summertime, the windows open and you can vaguely hear the music when passing by the street.
The used materials are inspired from the different hystorical neighbourhood layers, one overlapping the other. There is a long wall which reveals the old brick, becoming a background for the other materials: the wooden table, the metal surfaces and the lively colours that compose a space which aims to become part of the every-day life of the neighbourhood.