Image:Elevation showing café, bar and sanctuary space. The space is framed by retractable curtains.
Post Works has just been announced as the winners of a competition to design the central bar at 100% Design 2011 .Created by The Architecture Foundation working with 100% Design.
The competition is a result of a first-time collaboration. Peter Massey, Show Director of 100% Design said “100% Design wanted to work with The Architecture Foundation to support young practices and foster their new approaches to architecture”.
The competition is a gateway for Post Works to display innovative designs and projects to an international audience of architectural practices, designers and manufacturers.
Image:West elevation of café, bar and sanctuaryspace.
The jury felt that Post Works demonstrated a unique talent in understanding a brief and expanding beyond it. They have engineered a unique bar area that can reconfigure itself daily and hourly.
Through a system of moving, suspended props, falling curtains and changeable lighting, the central bar can evolve into a multifunctional and theatrical space. The concept is technically intricate and visually dramatic, and as the central bar it will demonstrate the importance of effect in architecture.
Design critic and jury member Justin McGuirk said “Post Works’ design suggests that architecture is not necessarily a shape, but a condition. There’s a sense that within their bar you’re somewhere special, where things could happen.”
Post Works’ bar design divides the bar into separate areas according to the time of day and volume of people. Curtains can be lowered to the ground from the overhead truss structure, dividing the area to create a separate enclosed room, or sanctuary. Blue lighting and a mist machine hung from overhead rigging will create a relaxed environment, separate from but within the bar space. The bar is surrounded by 50 seats, with a further 30 seats exposed when the curtains are raised.
Post Works’ design also includes a landscape of geometrical props, ‘architectural characters’, that are to be suspended above the bar area. These flat shapes are powered by motor hoists controlled by a set operator who can move and re-orientate each shape, as if acting out a play. Abstract floor-standing flats or frames will help separate the different spaces within the bar area, as well as reinforcing the feeling of theatrical experience.
Post Works
Post Works is a dynamic architectural practice that was founded by Melissa Appleton and Matthew Butcher in 2008. The design collective work with, and take inspiration from, a range of fields including performance, art and architecture. They design in a contemporary idiom and express the nature and diversity of architecture.
www.post-works.com
The Architecture Foundation
The Architecture Foundation is a non-profit agency for contemporary architecture, urbanism and culture. It is an independent, agile, inclusive and influential organisation that believes in the importance of architecture in everyday life.
www.architecturefoundation.org.uk
