SOMA 2.0 is a smooth speakeasy-style bar by London studio Cake Structure, tucked underneath the DLR railway at Canary Wharf, with a “intentionally austere” facade.
Named SOMA 2.0, the bar is the sister location of SOMA Soho, an underground cocktail bar on London’s Denman Avenue cloaked in plush blue curtains.
Cake Structure designed the second iteration inside a former transport safety station underneath the rumbling DLR railway at Canary Wharf and added an not easily seen coffee-coloured door that nearly matches the prevailing tile cladding on both facet.
“The facade of SOMA Canary Wharf is intentionally austere, with minimal detailing to mix into its industrial environment,” studio director Hugh Scott Moncrieff advised Dezeen.
Inside, a central chrome steel bar was laser-etched with intricate pinstripes to reference the world’s many towers.
A contrasting cedar pole crafted from a single piece of domestically salvaged timber protrudes from the bartop, nodding to the marshland previous of the close by Isle of Canines.
A duo of outsized geometric lights was suspended from the ceiling, echoing the Bauhaus-inspired kinds that outline the Cake Structure-designed A Bar with Shapes for a Identify in Hoxton. The fixtures emit a delicate purple and yellow glow that displays onto the gleaming metallic surfaces.
“The purpose was to create a heat, atmospheric and considerably mysterious surroundings – one which feels each up to date and intimate, regardless of the extra industrial context of the house,” defined Scott Moncrieff.
Low lighting continues all through the bar, which features a collection of intimate seating areas wearing a spread of laborious and softer supplies.
The “comfortable” is a cavernous house completed in a floor-to-ceiling burnt orange hue, from the delicate banquettes and padded partitions to the delicately coffered ceiling, illuminated by minimal globular sconce lights.
Cake Structure creates London workplace house unfold throughout two contrasting flooring
A lot of the furnishings was custom-designed for SOMA 2.0, together with dark-coloured round barstools and different upholstered items lined in wool.
“The fabric palette blends industrial rawness with tactile heat,” thought-about Scott Moncrieff.
Elsewhere, the all-indigo bogs had been characterised by gleaming painted partitions and chunky, utilitarian metallic basins.
Cubicles characteristic tubular peach-hued lighting encased in black metallic grates, that are the same form and design to the skinny industrial lighting that welcomes visitors to the restaurant.
“Whereas each SOMA bars share a typical design language rooted in industrial aesthetics and refined particulars, the Canary Wharf department diverges in its context and method,” mentioned Scott Moncrieff.
A collection of dramatically lit bars and eating places have been popping up throughout London, comparable to BAO Metropolis, an immersive eatery with karaoke rooms and a “cinematic really feel”.
Examples of different subtly hidden bars embrace this espresso and pastry store in New York Metropolis’s NoMad district, which offers a entrance for a secret subterranean bar.
The pictures is by Felix Speller.
