Skrew is an all-day bar-restaurant designed for relaxation and socializing, serving as a favorite meeting point for its guests from morning until late at night. The owners’ desire for a fresh yet timeless space, housed within an existing industrial building, defined the overall design approach. The interior preserves the restrained aesthetic of exposed concrete while incorporating distinctive features, such as a striking bar set against a 3.5-meter-high backdrop and a counter clad in tin. The dining area offers a variety of seating options, including banquettes paired with custom-designed marble tables and vintage chairs. At the rear, the open kitchen with its glass frontage adds vibrancy and a sense of interaction. The presence of plants, combined with a diverse selection of furniture and architectural elements, creates a layered experience, with different spatial qualities unfolding in every corner.

 

 

 

 

In designing the restaurant, the aim was to create a non-conventional space that would actively engage visitors in an experience highlighting the values of art, design, and gastronomy, translating them into tangible forms, materials, and textures. The existing restaurant features a distinctive double-height space with a mezzanine and a spiral staircase, while its façades are clad with large metal openings that provide full visual permeability throughout the interior. Upon entering, visitors encounter the central dining zone, arranged in an open-plan layout with seating, the bar and its counter, and an open kitchen at the rear, allowing guests to observe the food preparation process.

 

 

For more than 120 years, Aigli has been a focal point of Athenian social life. Since its beginnings in 1904 as a small café beside the neoclassical Zappeion building, it has evolved into a shared point of reference for the city. The new Aigli draws on this legacy, while aiming to broaden its reach and become more inclusive, open, and dynamic. The first step in shaping the design proposal was a careful analysis of the existing building and the public space of which it forms an integral part. This process led to the development of a design language that is both classical and contemporary, acknowledging and utilizing the existing decorative elements -columns, marble patterns, and intricate woodwork- without allowing them to take on a dominant role that would compromise everyday use.

 

 

 

07. Mostaza | Muro Studio

 

 

 

Past legacies

Forefathers is a contemporary food-and-beverage venture that celebrates ancestral ways of life through modern design. Conceived by a group of young entrepreneurs, the brand reinterprets traditional regional cuisine and architecture, pairing vernacular materials with current construction techniques to achieve a refined, sophisticated ambience.

 

Context Integration

Located on Road No. 45 in Jubilee Hills -Hyderabad’s premier destination for high-end restaurants and clubs -the project occupies a concrete–steel composite shell comprising a ground floor, two upper storeys, and a mezzanine inserted within a triple-height volume. Commercial buildings flank the plot on either side, while a community park with dense vegetation borders the rear.

Visitors enter between tall, angled walls that frame a 25-foot-high pitched-roof canopy. This volume tapers to a 12-foot flat-roofed reception zone before opening into a dramatic 40-foot-tall interior hall. The progression concludes beneath a 28-foot pitched roof in a semi-open backyard. The orchestrated sequence creates a seamless flow and clarifies the building’s composition.

 

 

Roof & Landscape Design

The structure comprises three generous gabled canopies clad in terracotta tiles. The front and rear canopies remain semi-open, their roofs supported by branching steel columns that evoke trees. Square glass inserts punctuate the terracotta, animating arrival zones with shifting patterns of light and shadow. The central canopy -soaring to 40 feet- melds steel and concrete to hold a multi-level dining hall, performance area, and glimpses into the first-floor kitchen. A mezzanine with a bar project through glass walls toward the backyard, visually stitching indoor and outdoor realms.

The project’s landscape strategy elevates freestanding seating pods at varied heights in the rear yard, fostering privacy without walls. Water features and planted pockets weave between these platforms, while a live kitchen and composite glass-and-tile roofs generate dappled daylight that evolves throughout the day.

 

 

Material Palette & Lighting

Handmade bricks, terracotta tiles, and fly-ash blocks anchor the project in local craft and low-embodied-energy materials, whereas contemporary concrete and steel framing provide precision and stability. A restrained palette -primarily terracotta- yields a timeless minimalism; nuanced brick patterns supply texture and complexity within that uniformity.

At the heart of the lighting scheme, Baaya Design Studio suspends sculptural fabric cubes that showcase Telangana’s traditional crafts -Kalamkari, Pochampally ikat, and leather puppetry. The installation bridges heritage and modernity, echoing Forefathers’ mission to resonate with today’s audiences while honoring the past.

Through this integrated approach, the bar-restaurant manifests a dialogue between old and new, crafting an atmosphere where culinary and architectural narratives alike celebrate the legacy of forebears in a contemporary context.