Qahwaty Cafe, Sharjah

Situated in a staple neighborhood center such as Sharjah Coop, a lot of families come there to shop. There’s also a strong adherence to the locality that cannot be unfounded, rather, to be embraced. With this in mind, the strategy is to build layers and layers upon cultural and contextual references.

Straight-forward and logical in planning, the spatial adjacency opens up itself as much as possible to be reminiscent of a domestic setting. There is no sense of saturated pretense as much as others do. The bar is split into two and becomes a place to pass by and talk to the barista like an open kitchen. Painted like a hybrid of today’s colors on yesterday’s canvas explored such a strong sense of identity without being too upfront. Undeniably, the contrast of small patterns, blocks, carpets and simple textured paint defined something different without resisting the overwhelming Mashrabiya pattern on the façade of the building. It’s like geometry on Arabesque design, the synchronicity of these elements paved way to the quality and purpose of execution.