Café Dari Sini

Traditional Balinese housing is mostly structured by the ancient Sanga Mandala scheme. It is a theory that divides the area for a house into nine parts, in which the different „bale“ pavilions and the house’s temple are precisely positioned and organized around the „natah“ courtyard.

The challenge for this design has been how to reinterpret both the nine-part zoning and the meaning of a central „natah“ courtyard. Another, crucial question has been how to adapt a spatial system that was conceived for traditional housing to the functional program of a contemporary coffee house.

The answer is to give the courtyard a new character. Visitors of the coffee house should encounter an unexpected core of the building. A space that works as a hidden paradise garden and is defined by a geometry that is not to be recognized from the outer appearance of the building. 

From the outside the building has to remind of the Sanga Mandala in a condensed, glued way. It is a patchwork of different units, with different sizes, heights and roof shapes. It is wrapped together to enclose and hide the café’s hidden gem. 

The result is an intimate, familiar café that opens up and is entirely organized towards the central ellipsis and its complex geometry. 

On the long sides service functions are positioned. The kitchen and the Coffee brewery and bar face each other on the central axis of the ellipsis. While on both sides two toilettes are programmed, the side next to the coffee brewers hosts a coffee shop and the customer entrance to the café, while the kitchen side has a storage room that is accessed from the street by staff members only. 

The two short sides of the building are both dedicated to workspaces and lounge areas, still with different atmospheres. On one side the facade towards the street is rather closed and protected by a generous patch of plants, to ensure protection from chaos and traffic noise. On the other side the beachside facade is as open as it can be to ensure visual and spatial relationships to nature and the beach. This open pavilion hosts a cocktail bar and a small stage for concerts or dj sets during the tropical weekend nights. Behind those, two parallel staircases bring upstairs where other working and lounge spaces are located. 

The design of only one higher volume is due to two crucial aspects: the first is a clear outer appearance of the beachfront volume as an independent house, effect that is seeked when following the Sanga Mandala principles. The second is a visual connection to the ocean only of the part of the café that is the closest to it. From upstairs people can check the waves while sipping a cup of coffee. Furthermore it is the spot where the elliptic heart of the building can truly be admired. 

In the choice of materials also a strong relationship to the environment is searched, orange roof tiles and a bamboo coverage for the ellipsis column arcade are matched with wooden column structures and flooring.
The walls are roughly painted in white to achieve a sunlight friendly and pure atmosphere.
The elliptic courtyard has a rough stone floor and native bushes and plants. The white stone tables and white textile seats, both with dark walnut wooden legs aim at being an elegant and harmonic item that brings all the materials together. 

Designing a coffee house that consciously deals with traditions and heritage of the place where it is to be built can only mean this: reinterpretation and adaptation of traditional floor plan schemes into a contemporary coffee house.

That is precisely where the project finds its name - in Bahasa Indonesian language: Café Dari Sini - Café From Here.