Speciality Coffee Shop - Mereu

Authors’ Comment

The mereu. project began with the development of a brand identity and a question: how can a brand that speaks of the joy of simple things, belonging, and the pleasure of slowing down become a physical space?
The interior concept translates the world of mereu. into spatial language—a “little slice of paradise” that feels familiar and relaxed, yet carries the energy of a gathering place. Inspired by a contemporary interpretation of La Dolce Vita, the interior was conceived not just as a backdrop for drinking coffee, but as a space where people can stay, interact, and turn everyday moments into small rituals.
The brand’s warm, approachable, and playful personality becomes part of the architecture. The visual identity, colour palette, materials, forms, lighting, and graphics are developed as parts of a single system, ensuring that the mereu. experience remains consistent from the first encounter with the brand through to the time spent inside. The fluid forms of the bar, mirrors, and furniture draw inspiration from the venue’s visual identity.
The design began with the floor plan and the positioning of the bar, the café’s main functional element. The spatial layout keeps circulation routes clear while offering a range of seating arrangements and opportunities for interaction: individual and group tables, a generous communal table, integrated banquette seating, and more secluded areas. This allows the same interior to accommodate different rhythms, from a quick coffee to work, meetings, or longer stays.
The material palette was developed to create a warm, tactile atmosphere. Natural wood, woven rattan, ceramics, textiles, and greenery are contrasted with metal surfaces and stainless steel details, adding a contemporary touch. The palette of warm tones, terracotta, and green draws from and reinterprets the brand’s visual world without turning the interior into a literal reproduction of it.
Contrasts play an important role. The simple, natural forms of the wooden furniture are paired with sculptural red velvet chairs, while organically shaped mirrors interrupt the regular geometry of the ceramic tiling.
mereu. was conceived not just as a place to have coffee, but as a space where you want to stay. An approachable, familiar interior with enough personality to be memorable, where design, branding, and experience work together.
The result is a space that seeks to create a sense of connection rather than impress through formality: recognizable, comfortable, and optimistic. A place where quality comes without pretension and where design supports what the brand set out to do from the beginning—create moments of joy, mereu.