Austrian architecture studio Precht has used more than 7,000 handmade bricks to create the floors, walls and stepped seating in this Bangkok cafe for coffee brand % Arabica.
Located within a retail space in Central World ? the largest shopping centre in the Thai capital ? the 120-square-metre cafe benefits from a large, glazed facade that looks onto a busy plaza.
It features stepped seating areas located to the right of the entrance and at the rear of the space, while a counter, roastery and storage room run along its length.
% Arabica's Bangkok store features a brickwork seating landscape
"When we started the design process, memories from previous travels in Thailand came to mind," said Chris Precht, who co-founded Precht alongside his wife Fei Tang Precht. "I was always impressed that Thai culture values the 'chat' ? an engaged conversation that is often depicted in local murals."
"In Austrian coffee house culture, we are reliant on chairs and tables for a conversation," he continued. "But in these Thai murals, the landscape or the traditional architectural topography was used in a joyful way."
More than 7,000 bricks were used to fit out the interior
Informed by these informal conversation settings and the rectangular terracing found in traditional Thai buildings, Precht stacked thousands of bricks, handmade by local craftspeople, to create a stepped "seating topography" within the % Arabica cafe.
Each block measures 15 b...