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Architects: UP2DATE architects
- Area: 18 m²
- Year: 2024
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Lead Architects: Akhat Baimenov, Almira Nussupova, Baurzhan Kalbayev
Text description provided by the architects. Kosh Coffee is a small project by enthusiasts who love coffee and want to transform their neighborhood. A tiny 18-square-meter coffee shop in Almaty's residential district opened its doors in May. It immediately became a favorite spot for locals who love coffee and appreciate minimalist aesthetics. It is worth noting that residential districts in post-Soviet countries, including Kazakhstan, are residential areas where residents commute daily to the city's business center or industrial district and return home to spend the night (hence the name). These areas have never had particularly developed infrastructure. The development of these districts is usually standard, with the housing stock mostly consisting of typical multi-story panel buildings. The area provided minimal infrastructure to maintain a proper standard of living, but for work and leisure, residents would go to other areas, mainly central ones.
In recent years, this trend has been changing. With the appearance of new residential complexes, developers have started to provide commercial spaces on the ground floors, creating a good foundation for entrepreneurs. However, entrepreneurs still tend to avoid investing substantial funds in opening conceptually interesting spots in these areas. This fear of risk leads to interesting and conceptual cafes and restaurants with good service still being concentrated in the city center, and residents of residential districts continue to travel to the center for leisure.
The coffee shop's concept is based on the founders' idea of quality coffee and minimalist aesthetics with meticulous attention to detail, from carefully selecting coffee bean roasting and grinding methods to the shape and thickness of the cup walls.
We tried to convey this approach through the interior as well. The coffee shop's interior is quite restrained and calm, using only three materials for finishing - wood, micro-cement, and tiles. In this way, we wanted to emphasize that the main focus of this coffee shop is coffee, and nothing else should distract the customers. However, attention to detail is also present in almost every square meter. Technologically complex wooden panels, monolithic concrete benches, curves, and roundings at the corners and joints of materials – all these details reflect attention to the interior and, consequently, to the product itself.
