Architecture-Old English/New Taiwan

An interior design project that was done for a friend. They wanted to open a bar/restaurant/office/art gallery here in Taipei, but wanted it to have a ‘traditional English’ feel to it.

So with the limitations of their budget in mind as well as the restrictions to the traditional decoration methods used in British pubs. I decided that the best way to design the space was to keep the was to keep all the walls as large as possible and plain white to allow for their use to display artwork. The main bar area would contain an open kitchen space to maximise the use of space and keep uninterrupted wall space to a maximum. The office space and bathroom were pushed to the back of the space to keep them out of the way and fitted around the existing load bearing structures that were in the space.

The look of the design kept the overall inside space plain white for the art gallery function, a dark timber beam ceiling was to be installed to start the ‘traditional’ elements of the space. The main ‘traditional’ feel of the place was to come from the bar and furniture, all were to be made with a dark natural wood and finished with brass fixtures and fittings with dark red leather trim.

Some of the furniture had double uses, the chairs were specially designed to save space and were made from old beer/wine barrels, and the tables could be dismantled and the table tops used as window shutters to increase the wall space for an art show or to protect the windows in the event of a typhoon.

The office space was kept small, but the walls were lined with a grid of shelves for maximum storage space. The shelves actually wrapped around the window or the office and one section of shelf extended into the middle of the room to create the offices communal desk, capable of seating three workers at a time.

The bathroom was specifically given a male and female area, unlike some shared bathrooms found in Taipei. With special care given to the facilities provided for the female bathroom, giving it more space and more than the minimum single toilet cubicle. All bathrooms were finished with an art deco black and white tile pattern and brass fixtures to give a classic and classy look.