Karamuza Bar

ATHENS, GREECE
2012

DESIGN TEAM: Sofroni Danae, Sotiropoulou Antonia 

Karamuza is a cocktail bar located in Maroussi Athens. It was designed and realized in December 2012 and it was our first project. The first bar was 80 sqm. In 2013, due to its big success, the bar was extended to another 70 sqm.

Idea

Our goal was to create a 60m2, american style, with an urban feel coffee shop/cocktail bar/deli that allowed a relaxed environment for people to enjoy their free time but also a meeting point for the neighboorhoods residents. The result was a cozy but chic overall style with a touch of the industrial feel while using reclaimed materials for an environmentally friendly approach.

The corner position of the shop asked for an industrial style glass fassade with big openings, that makes the boundaries between indoor and public space less obvious and allows people to feel like being on the neighboorhoods square.

This eco-friendly project is completed with wooden shipping pallets to create interesting decoration and furnishings, while plasteboards are avoided, leaving the ventilations and structures bare. For the convenience of the consumer, but also in a view of the eco aspects, seats and tables were made of old shipping pallets, coffee sacks and bobbins. The pallets and the coffee sacks also remind us of the journey that coffee beans take from where they are grown to our delight. Furthermore, the bar and the wooden deck are made from reused wood from concrete forms and all the metal structures are made by scraps of old selving.

The garden’s physical expression is not polished, but rather appears to be quickly and randomly gathered together, a mixture of bobbin and shipping pallet furniture.