Medieval Bar

Our site for this project was the terrace of a four-storey commercial building. The terrace was linear, and its proportions vaguely reminded us of churches and cathedrals. This for us was the starting point, from where our focus was to create a space, that could translate an experience. For inspiration, we went back in time and looked at a few examples of medieval churches. Our idea was to keep the essence and the experience intact, but have our own architectural language and material palette to express it through. 

In order to extract the essence of a Medieval Church, we conducted a brief study of the scale, space, materials and weight. The peculiar features of a medieval church, like the nave, aisle, gallery arcade and vaults; were appropriated to fit our site and the experience we were intending to design. The challenge was to stack this weighted structure on the top of an existing building. To tackle this issue, a lightweight frame structure was introduced to create the skeleton of the bar. The central nave was defined by forming a brick arcade on either side and was covered with a polycarbonate sheet, that sat on an MS frame. The aisles, however, were covered with the local Mangalore tiles. On entering, one would feel as though they were inside a medieval cathedral, though the elements of architecture were morphed by the materials of today. 

The monotone created by the bricks, the Mangalore tiles, the wooden furniture and the floor tiles, with the chandeliers lined up above the nave, add warmth to space. The green planters and the green wall, add the necessary contrast to the monotone and block the views and visual noise of the city. Together, these elements help evoke and contain the experience that reflects the soul of the bygone era, but the body of modern times.