Van Staeyen Intérieur Architecten has created a gothic-inspired cafe in one of the former chapels of Antwerp's medieval cathedral.
Cafe De Plek occupies the former Chapel of Saint John inside the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp's gothic cathedral.
Van Staeyen Interieur Architecten has turned the chapel into a bar, cafe and meeting space for both residents who use the building as a place of worship, and its 280,000 visitors a year.

Van Staeyen Interieur Architecten designed the cafe based on motifs, colours and structural elements from the cathedral itself.
The main addition to the space is a square, wooden structure that serves as both the bar and cafe preparation and serving space.

Three serving windows are cut out of the sides in three different shapes that match the shapes of existing windows in the cathedral – a four-leaf clover, a pentagon and a triangle with bowed edges. The entrance is a pointed arch. The inner walls and serving counter are painted in a bright, turquoise blue that matches a shade used in the cathedral's stained glass windows.

Johan van Stayen, the studio's founder, described the style as both "contemporary Gothic" and naive in the style of the Dutch children's picture-book Miffy.

"The entire design and furniture has plenty of gothic and thematic references to the inside of the Cathedral: chapels, annexes, porches, cross ribs, vaulted ceilings, objects of art," he told Dezeen.
"The but...