Platinum Interior · 2025
Arabica Riyadh Roastery Cafe
by Jun Watanabe
- Platinum A' Design Award 2025 in Interior
- CLIENT: no.10, NOMURA Co., Ltd.
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 816,612
- Verification code 5446D026FD · Verify this award
Colors
About Arabica Riyadh Roastery Cafe
Arabica Riyadh Roastery is a theater style cafe set in a renovated warehouse of about 885 square meters on two floors. A large custom roasting machine stands on a stage at the back of the store, framed by a bean cellar. The kitchen counter is placed where an orchestra pit would be, and the atrium above lets the sounds of the baristas carry through the space. The floor is lowered in front of the stage, while upper level seats offer views from above. White artificial marble, brick, perforated metal and painted surfaces add texture, and sheer curtains divide the box seats.
About the Platinum A' Design Award
Arabica Riyadh Roastery Cafe is a Platinum A' Design Award winner, an extremely prestigious recognition granted to truly exceptional, elegant, and magnificent designs. Platinum winners are marvels of creation, testaments to the limits of intellectual creativity, and demonstrate the unmatched professionalism and genius of their designers. These designs are expected to be the most renowned works that define the aesthetics of an era, contribute to the well-being of society, and push the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Arabica Riyadh Roastery Cafe exhibits a transcendent level of excellence and unequivocally makes the world a better place with its advantageous and worthwhile characteristics. Arabica Riyadh Roastery Cafe is a Platinum A' Design Award-winning work that triggers desires, inspires, excites, delights, and sparks great joy.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Like a theatre, the floor is lowered in front of the stage, with upper-level seating around it, so that the main stage can be seen from most seats. The store offers a variety of spatial experiences, with varying ceiling heights, including a low, calm seating area and an open atrium. The entrance staircase is designed at a height that allows the stage to be seen from the outside, as in a theatre, to heighten the sense of anticipation and attract customers.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Store area 885 sqm with 2 floors.
Ground floor ceiling height: 2650mm.
First-floor ceiling height: 2450mm.
Atrium ceiling height: 6500mm - Tags
- cafe, coffeeshop, Japanese, Japan, no__10, nomurakougeisha, ARABICA
- Production Technology
- While unified in white, the color of ARABICA’s stores, the space expresses a deep white by providing variations in texture, such as artificial marble, brick, perforated metal, and flat painted surfaces. The floor is made of top-coated epoxy resin to achieve a clean, white, seamless floor. Indirect lighting was added to the ceiling in the atrium through perforated metal to create a top-light-like illumination.
- Design Challenge
- The process of determining the viewpoints of each seating area was difficult. After verifying how the main stage would be presented from each seating area through drawings and renderings, the seating layout and the viewpoint height from each seat were determined. We also controlled the visibility inside and outside the store through the height difference by creating a staircase at the entrance and lowering only the area around the kitchen counter.
- Research
- In order to make the cafe comfortable for Saudi Arabian people, we visited various local cafes and restaurants for research. Also, we interviewed franchise owners about the Saudi people and local culture. Based on the information obtained, we installed sheer curtains that take into account the distance between men and women, furniture shapes that make it easy to sit on, even in ethnic dress, and mirrors for personal grooming.
- Inspiration
- The store is a theatre-style cafe in a renovated warehouse of approx. 900 square meters, with a custom-built giant roasting machine as the star attraction. The roasting machine is placed on a stage at the back of the store, surrounded by ARABICA’s iconic bean cellar. A kitchen counter is installed in the position of the orchestra pit, and the atrium above allows the pleasant sound of the barista to echo throughout the store. Visitors can enjoy the story of making coffee with all five senses.
- Project Duration
- The project started with a site visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April 2019. The design phase started immediately and was completed in November of the same year. Construction work started in October 2019 and was completed in May 2022. (It took a long time because of the Corona disaster.) The Store opened in May 2022.
- Operation Flow
- Variety of seats are available for various ways of enjoyment. Bench seats where you can watch the barista's performance right in front of you. Box seats on the ground floor where you can see the kitchen and the stage up close. On the first floor, box seats and counter seats are available for a bird's-eye view of the stage and kitchen. Seats for four near the window offers a cozy atmosphere with the sounds of the kitchen as background music.
- Patents
- Copyrights: NOMURA Co., Ltd.
