Located in Kavala, Northern Greece and designed by Ark4lab of Architecture, this café is a happening place because it gives an impression of being simply that – happening, going on, in process. Surfaces of contrasting materials like a ceramic mosaic, wood, exposed concrete, copper, terrazzo and others are juxtaposed with each other over walls, panels, seats, tables and counters which make themselves visible outside even from the recesses of the deep, jagged layout through the porous, undefined exterior. One could choose to step in through any of three different choices of entry – onto a stepped wooden podium facing the road outside, into the central alley leading to the deep interiors or to the barstools across a terrazzo counter from the copper clad brewery. 

In the inner zone, the furnishing finds many interpretations from cushioned armchairs to parametric wooden installations. The décor, too, is variously contributed by a ceramic mosaic panel, potted plants, rough-edged exposed concrete and brickwork patches, quaint looking suspended artworks and lamps. And, amidst all these crazy, contrasting but attractive interactions, is a line on the wall that says, ‘feel our coffee, drop the story’ that invites visitors to participate in the experience that coffee here is meant to be. As per the designers. ‘the black drop is a coffee shop where coffee is treated more like an experience, an urban act’.

Designed by Suppose Design Office, this café in Shizouka, Japan, offers a feeling of limitlessness in the truest sense as there is a joint-free merging between its interiors and exteriors. While this is often seen in many designs where the greenery/ garden from outdoors is brought into the plan of a house using courtyards or a provision of expansive openings makes an unhindered connect with natural elements outside, the case here is quite different. At Café/Day, located next to a driving school, a road and a parking lot, the black asphalt surface of these three neighbouring elements continues into the interiors and becomes the entire flooring of the café! 

Complete with white markings of zebra crossings and other road signals, the road continues as the floor of the café, making it a part of the unending road activities outside. The profusion of yellow vehicles at the driving school gets reflected in the yellow applied to various furniture surfaces like the service counter, ceiling bands and chairs to enhance the continuum. Out of the seats at the tables here, some are fashioned like bus stop benches while others are recycled from old car seats. The continual feeling is also enhanced by placing a few tables and seats outside in the precincts of the two-story building in which the café is located. One must notice how the hard landscape created by these elements is softened by the use of sheer curtains and potted plants, bringing stylistic finesse to the scheme. Café/Day articulates an aspiration to shed its individual existence by becoming an indistinguishable part of its surroundings.

This Seoul café, named after the address where it is located, is a tiny little start-up by a young South Korean lady that quickly became the hottest, most happening joint in town. Operating from a wee little shop and a small adjoining courtyard, the café attracts crowds which have to queue up outside to wait for a place! And, more than the great reviews about its food and drinks, it’s the one-of-a-kind décor that attracts these crowds in the Instagram era. 

The interiors of Café Yeonnam-dong 239-20 are completely covered in black-and-white 2-dimensional pen sketch lines, including the furniture and even some tableware, which makes the place look like a comic book set. Thus, visitors are made to feel as though they are entering the pages of a cartoon or comic book – a 2-dimensional world of black pen sketches on white paper which can really mess with one’s mind! So, you could be sitting and waiting at the B&W sketchy table for your beverage to arrive and when it does, your mind can go trippy with the play between 3D consumables and 2d projections. Disruptive? Absolutely!!