A Comeback?

I’ve always been interested in cafe architectural designs and they make up my early posts. In those posts, I discussed these things until I’ve seen too many identical spaces sprung up and they aren’t as intriguing anymore. Overtime, I had enough of a lot of variants of industrialism and minimalism or even tropical. Anyhow, cafe concept design changes throughout the years. If coffee shops take industrialism, tropical concepts and minimalism to the next level, there are spaces where brutalism is taken to the next level. Some also incorporate tropical interpretation to it which is something I am leaning more and into. This post is touching on brutalist interior design & furniture design, also brutalism as a whole, as well as why I would love a brutalist style in my space.

Lately, I’ve been on the lookout for something fresh and I got an inspiration from a coffee shop called “ESEMU” where a lot of its compounds are pretty bare, unpainted yet strangely remain pretty aesthetic and cozy. There are not many places in town with such a concept as they’re often still heavily decorated or with a confused concept. But one thing for sure, they’re making a comeback and seeping into the other more dominant cafe concept.

Brutalism could also be mistaken as a minimalist as though the exterior and interior might look very minimal but they could be a brutalist design. Just remember that minimalism doesn’t always mean brutalist as if we go by definition, brutalism exposes the raw material of the building and without much of a touch. And though brutalism gets a rep for being cold, in recent years there are a few interpretations that make it pretty unique and warm such as example from the space A brutalist coffee shop in seoul or this studio in India a lesson in tropical brutalism.

Is this the most reasonable way to beautify our space?

When you look at those examples, they are pretty rough but still offer that cozy and aesthetic feel to it. I personally feel like living in a tropical area and as someone who likes the cold, they offer a great alternative. Not to mention, beautifying the space with brutalist style interior,furniture and design are pretty reasonable too. Afterall, they’re made of concrete and it’s an inexpensive material and can be found anywhere.

The place I went to was still incorporating chairs though some of the tables and chairs were made of concrete and slightly unpolished. It’s unfortunate that they don’t go full blown brutalism. They also added layers of chairs that were made with concrete as well. At the same time to add the tropical flair, they added some plants surrounding it making it a little more interesting as usually people don't like full blown brutalism. Although if you plan on sitting for a long time, adding a bit of cushion on top of these chairs would be ideal.

Even when I was telling my mom that I wanted to transform our place into brutalism, we had a heated argument that it doesn’t suit her style at all and that our house is already beautiful as is. But at the same time, I am going to find a way to incorporate what we already have into a flair of brutalism and similar space as that one. There are already parts of our home that are unpolished and have yet to be used in its fullest form and something needs to be done about them. This is why incorporating brutalist concepts and style on them would be best. But we’ll see who will win as I will be moving back with them and I need a space on my own that is close yet far from other family members.