Cake Architecture and interior designer Max Radford have decorated a subterranean cocktail bar in London's Soho with colours borrowed from Indian artworks.
Situated near Central London's Picadilly Circus, on a side street in Soho, SOMA is a basement cocktail bar that takes design cues from the "spirit of India" and is organised around a communal bar.
SOMA Soho was designed by Cake Architecture and Max Radford
"We started the design process in April 2021 asking ourselves the question of what does it mean to create a new bar for a post-pandemic city," Cake Architecture and Radford told Dezeen.
"In response to that question, we have tried to create a contemporary interpretation of the Soho subterranean speakeasy, inspired by the spirit of India and beyond," said the team. "We wanted SOMA to be a space for communal festivities that encourages physical interaction and in-person exchange. Where friends and strangers can meet across a communal surface." Spherical pendant lights are suspended above the nine-metre-long communal bar
Radford and Cake Architecture explained that they looked to 15th-century depictions of the ancient Hindu Holi Festival when designing the bar, which led them to use hues including indigo and saffron across the interior.
The walls are painted shades of deep blue and enveloped by similarly hued curtains, a nod to the nearby theatres of the West End.
The draping curtains serve as a soft backdrop to the cocktail bar whi...