Upbeat and Trendy

Compiled by Pari Syal

Photography: Courtesy the architect

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Design practice Ippolito Fleitz Group redesign a café in Stuttgart suburb Ostfildern as a multi-dimensional full-of-beans space catering to differing scenarios throughout the day... 


Bar, bistro, stage...  Café Pause, as its name suggests revitalizes one’s senses, almost instantly preparing one for any kind of hospitality experience.  With the evolution of ways in which one perceives one’s entertainment and dining out choices, the new café offers a dynamic spatial configuration that can be adapted to a bar scenario; a live performance – planned and impromptu – music or cabaret; a family diner... et al.

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Already a popular place in the heart of town, the redesigned eatery spells high-end from the word go! Its sophisticated interior combines modernity with a cosy feel to ensure that it can address a broad target group.

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Using a central bar as the focus, various seating options are grouped around it, creating pockets of ambience that can be easily merged into a complete happy affair at the drop of a hat.

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Whilst the diner-style seating niches along the street window with a more intimate character, the bar tables and more freely aligned seating at the opposite end represent an open coffeehouse-style ambience. The most striking element is a circumferential, upholstered bench that encompasses two existing columns in the centre of the space. The free seating along the façades can be moved to make space for a temporary stage or free the way to the terrace in summer.

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The palette is warm, homely and simplified with whitened maritime pine boards as wall cladding and shelving. White marble and brass strips set in concrete create a juxtaposition of ideas as they take centre stage at the bar, while a rear wall of blue and ochre tiles gives the space its overall colour scheme.

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This spatial flexibility with its atmospherically-contained mood-driven design also includes and reinterprets such classic coffeehouse elements as brass and wood panelling.