b
r
i
e
f
Located in a quiet central area of Sofia, SPUTNIK settles near a green, social park. The design brief was to integrate and develop cosmic elements in order to make a relation with the established design line of the client’s restaurant – RAKETA RAKIA BAR, just next door. Raketa along with Sputnik are situated into a socialist residential building and seek to reinvent the spirit of the recent past with playful new meaning. The projects are both reconstructions that seek to preserve and state the honorable sides of specific artifacts from Socialism.
The saloon of Sputnik is in constant communication with that of the next-door restaurant and needs to accommodate various events which require flexible rearrangement of all furniture. The bar’s front facade opens fully towards the common terrace in order to intelace interior and exterior.
The bar is meant to function during the day as the restaurant’s second salon and to relocate clients from the restaurant at nighttime. Flexibility was crucial in the development of the design. Specific tables and chairs are designed to have adjustable height so they can be used for low and high seating. Big industrial rollers make everything mobile and rotational table tops turn into vertical screens in order to provide optional separation.
An industrial design direction was brought by the necessary structural reinforcement, which is further complemented by the existing spatial resources – a single space rectangular shape and a 4 meter high ceiling. The studio developed a specific approach in the crafting of all of the furniture, lightning, door frames and fittings, uniquely produced for that project. Oak, exposed rough steel and brass details are all blending along to create an unobtrusive and enchanting atmosphere.
&lighting
The bar was in need of a special strategy to provide adequate acoustics with minimum cost and maximum design effect. We used old carpets, typical for almost every home interior from the past, and arranged them in a hexagonal grid in order to display the diversity of patterns. Such a geometric design line continues throughout the bar in order to inspire different well-known artifacts with a new spirit.
The lightning is geometrically constructed from interlaced pyramids, which also form a three dimensional hexagonal mesh. The hexagonal pattern is further developed in order to interconnect diverse features of the interior.
The interactive lightning design is sensitive to music which produces dynamic change of atmosphere according to the sound. A special light engineer was contracted to achieve the unique rhythm of colour and vibe.
