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ART BAR - RCA

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 / Shortlisted Project - Collaboration with COS ®/
[ Royal College of Art, London ]

At the Royal College of Art, the Artbar is the place we go to celebrate after a presentation, a place where new friendships are made,  great ideas are discussed and creativity has the space to flourish. We see the Artbar as a spatial layering of generations, a treasure box that contains all these special memories of the RCA.

How to redesign a space that has carried out its true purpose for decades?

Our concept focuses on capturing time visually in a space that is, in our opinion, timeless; and holds within it a mythical quality.
Our intervention consists of 3 ‘Totems’:  The Entrances , The Bar and The Stage.

The entrances are designed with a unique material ( Cos wooden floor + patina ) emphasizing their iconic identities.

The bar is designed as a monolithic sculpted piece of concrete featuring pendant lights ( by Joanne Bowles, RCA Jewelry and Metal ) that will bring that section of the space to life and give a poetic dimension with the myriad of shadows they create.

The stage has different uses to offer throughout the day.  It gives the bar a new ‘daytime life’ where activities like life drawing, film screening , crits and pin-up space could also be possible ( the stage is covered with COS metal bar, work with oxidation and magnetism ). At night,  the stage would obviously be used for gigs and as a dance floor during RCA reputable venues.