What is the link between architecture and pastry? What design strategies are applied in the contemporary interiors of bakeries and pastry shops? While architecture can serve as inspiration for the design of forms and configurations of edible elements, it also contributes the techniques of descriptive drawing, architectural composition, and staged planning to the culinary language. Focusing their thinking on people and their needs, both disciplines strive for precision, with interior design being a broad field where the use of figures, colors, materials, and various equipment can be explored to enhance user experiences.
In the same way that architecture uses sketches, blueprints, and timelines for its development, pastry and bakery arts adopt architectural principles in their planning but according to different proportions, scales, materials, and so on. By employing various molds, utensils, and baking techniques, edible pieces are 'constructed' with 'structures' made up of multiple ingredients in combination.
The act of making a cake is analogous to constructing a building. In both, one must work with form, magnitude, composition, proportion, color, and texture. The exact combination of all these factors allows for the creation of both well-balanced cakes and buildings. - Dinara Kasko
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How to Integrate Your Apartment's Kitchen: 25 Interior Renovations in Argentina, Brazil, and EcuadorEach region of the world has its own culinary traditions and customs that have been preserved in their likeness, passed down from generation to generation, or reinterpreted according to new technologies and tools available for their implementation. Involving everything from furniture design to the introduction of mechanisms for multiple uses, contemporary architecture faces the challenge of bringing together the eating habits of billions in spaces that ensure their needs are met through strategies that aim to enrich their experiences.
The Exhibition of Production and Product Development Processes
In the quest to attract customers' attention, many architecture professionals turn to making production processes visible from both the exterior and interior. While Flink Pangyo Bakery Cafe in South Korea was designed with the bakery's exposure in mind, and Mi Pan Bakery in Mexico aimed to connect the production process with the shopping experience, there are cases like La Madrugada de Javier Moreno Bakery in Spain that achieve almost total transparency, allowing customers to observe the production process from inside as well as outside through large windows. Meanwhile, the façade of Kora Bakery in Greece becomes a stage for producing and displaying bakery products, acting as a transparent spectacle. The baking process and product presentation are visible through a large wall of rotating metal shelves, which function as a shutter, opening, or display surface.
Once inside pastry shops and bakeries, dynamism, flexibility, and multiple uses can coexist harmoniously with the production processes and be revealed to customers. The Bakery by Joost Arijs in Belgium offers a functionalist and minimalist design, with the product as the protagonist alongside an open-view bakery workshop. Similarly, Castro Bakery in Portugal showcases its pastry production process, combining neutral colors, golden elements, and curved surfaces. Another example is Caracas Bakery, which balances different spaces and experiences, involving customers in the bread and pastry-making process from start to finish.
La madrugada de Javier Moreno Bakery / Laura Ortín
Kora Bakery / en-route-architecture
The Bakery by Joost Arijs / Glenn Sestig Architects
Castro Bakery / LADO Arquitectura e Design
Caracas Bakery / Acta Studio
The Phenomenon of Shared Tables, Bars, and Seating
Although many gathering and meeting spaces were forced to adopt new configurations in line with health requirements following the COVID-19 pandemic, many architectural practices around the world continue to embrace communal gathering formats where tables, high bars, islands, or even seating can be shared to foster interaction and spontaneous dialogue. This is the case with Sawerdō Coffee & Bakery in Switzerland and MOSP Bakery and Cafe in South Korea, which integrate cafés and bakeries to create cozy spaces that accommodate various uses and needs. In fact, A.P Coffee & Bakery also features a 20-meter-long wooden table between columns along an extensive side window.
On the other hand, the choice of furniture in these types of spaces supports the definition of the routes proposed to their users. For example, the design of Cakeology Cafe and Bakery in Abu Dhabi guides its customers through the different stages of cake production. Beginning with the entrance as the start of the process to the exit where the final products are displayed, it is an experimental design with a built-in stainless-steel bench and other muted-colored furniture inviting exploration of the complexities of pastries. Avant+ bakery also offers a natural path from the entrance leading visitors from the café to the bakery and the refrigerated drinks counter.
Sawerdō Coffee & Bakery / BUREAU (Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta, Galliane Zamarbide)
MOSP Bakery and Cafe / ATMOROUND
A.P Coffee & Bakery / omo-studio
Cakeology Cafe and Bakery / Tee Vee Eff
avant+ bakery / oftn studio
The Combination of Materials, Textures, and Colors in Flooring and Wall Coverings
Defining the style or imprint that will characterize an interior space is one of the most complex decisions to make when selecting materials for floors, ceilings, cladding, and more. For example, Cara Mela Bakery in Spain places color and materiality as the main protagonists in the overall composition of the project. The spaces are formed with furniture capable of meeting more than one need at a time, such as display, seating, tables, and so on. Another example of a unified atmosphere is Parconido Bakery Cafe in South Korea, where red brick, travertine, and wood are combined to create a warm-toned space that imparts a sense of calm.
The use of monochromatic materials along with a play of shades is a distinguishing feature in the interiors of many pastry shops and bakeries. This is the case with Сukiernia Pastry Shop in Ukraine, where materials such as marble, a unique eggshell plaster, light wood, and noble brass are combined. In this way, the essence of the pastry shop is linked to the architecture through materials chosen from the project's inception. OUR Bakery in South Korea represents another example where the use of concrete, capable of taking on various forms and textures depending on its frame and structure, relates to the performance of bread. Linking the simple, rough texture of concrete with the texture of bread adds a rawer sensation, highlighting the intent to focus on the act of eating bread.
Materials like stainless steel and the incorporation of reflections in interior design allow for the creation of atmospheres related to specific themes, resources, and more. MO Bakery in Saudi Arabia offers custom-made furniture with different seating forms to provide a wide range of experiences for its visitors. A gray and white color palette, along with metallic finishes for the tables and fabrics, creates reflections, while the lighting incorporates a controllable RGB system for different moods. On the other hand, Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store explores gravity versus weightlessness with stainless steel shelves containing meteorites that rise, bend, and twist toward the ceiling, creating the illusion of rocks suspended in space.
Cara Mela Bakery / Casa Antillón
Parconido Bakery Cafe / sukchulmok
Сukiernia Pastry Shop / YOD Group
OUR Bakery / studio fragment
MO Bakery / Masquespacio
Black Star Pastry Shanghai Flagship Store / Linehouse
The Integration of Nature and Various Species in Interiors
On many occasions, the incorporation of natural elements along with durable materials suited to the climate of each region is part of the interior design of gastronomic spaces, aiming to bring nature closer to people. May Café & Bakery in Vietnam features a garden with local flora and a roof that are revealed once inside, as one moves through the large porch or the rest of the old structure. Similarly, Suum Urban Café and Roaster opens the door to a space that surprises with a green garden at its center. This triangular courtyard, with tall maple trees, rocks, and flowering plants that change with the seasons, enhances the site's appearance.
At BEIGE Café & Bakery in India, strategically placed plant beds bring nature into the space, applying a landscape design that harmonizes with it. Another example is Bơ Bakery, which seeks to unravel and restore the connection between people and nature by preserving and nurturing openings of various dimensions, directing circulation, reinterpreting the language of the balcony in the form of hanging gardens, and integrating materials imbued with a sense of temporality. Steel Moment Coffee Shop and Bakery brings the landscape from the vine-covered façade and courtyard garden into the interior, using various spatial movements and compartments to create a space with brick tiles and hot-rolled steel sheets, resembling a small Babylonian garden inside.
BEIGE Café & Bakery / Arch.Lab
Bơ Bakery / Nhabe Scholae
Steel Moment Coffee Shop and Bakery / Assemble Project
This article is part of an ArchDaily series that explores features of interior architecture, from our own database of projects. Every month, we will highlight how architects and designers are utilizing new elements, new characteristics and new signatures in interior spaces around the world. As always, at ArchDaily, we highly appreciate the input of our readers. If you think we should mention specific ideas, please submit your suggestions.
