Bar design shaped by experience and operation.
BAR (INTERIOR) DESIGN
Together with our sister agency Studio Numen, we design bars where concept, guest experience and real-world operations are developed as one. From bartender stations, workflow and back bars to complete bar interiors, every decision considers both the people experiencing the bar and the people working behind it.
ONE CREATIVE PROCESS
Design and bar expertise, developed together.
Our relationship with Studio Numen works in both directions. Their design perspective is part of our bar consultancy and beverage projects, while our experience behind the bar informs the spaces we design together.
This means the interior is not developed first and handed over to the bar team afterwards. Concept, beverage, service, guest experience and spatial design can influence each other throughout the process, creating opportunities that would otherwise be missed.
We also collaborate with external interior designers, architects and hotel design teams, bringing specialist bar expertise into a wider design process when a project already has its own creative partners.
BAR LOGISTIC DESIGN
Designing The architecture behind the craft.
Bar logistic design is where the beverage program becomes physical. We design the working architecture of the bar around the drinks, the team and the way the experience is intended to unfold. From bartender and ice stations to back bars, specialist equipment, machinery, storage and dedicated preparation or laboratory spaces.
The starting point is practical, but the opportunity goes much further. A back bar does not have to be simply a display of bottles. An ice station can become a place where guests witness the craft. A laboratory can bring ingredients, techniques and experimentation into view. Even the tools, machinery and preparations normally hidden from sight can become distinctive elements of the bar when there is a reason for guests to see them.
This changes the relationship between bartender and guest. Instead of designing a counter that separates the two, we can create moments that bring them closer to the process: watching something being made, discovering an unfamiliar ingredient, taking part in a ritual or, where the concept allows it, contributing to the creation of their own drink.
We therefore look at the bar not only as a place from which drinks are served, but as a stage for the craft behind them. Workflow, ergonomics, equipment and efficiency remain fundamental, while the physical design decides which parts of that craft stay backstage and which become part of the experience.
BAR INTERIOR DESIGN
turning the concept into A place.
A bar concept takes on a different dimension when it becomes a place. Together with Studio Numen, we translate the creative idea into a complete spatial world: shaping how guests enter, move, gather, drink and experience the bar over the course of a visit. We design across the full spectrum of bars: craft cocktail bars, rooftop bars, beach clubs, members’ clubs, lounge bars, barista bars, and even floating bars.
Rather than designing a single room around a counter, we consider the different experiences that can exist within it. A seat at the bar brings guests closer to the craft; communal settings can invite interaction; intimate areas create a different rhythm altogether. Layout, sightlines, seating and spatial transitions are used to choreograph these moments without making them feel prescribed.
Materiality, texture, lighting, acoustics and bespoke design features give that world its character. Signature moments can create an immediate sense of identity, while quieter details reveal themselves gradually, allowing the concept to be experienced at different scales throughout the space.
Because our interior designers work alongside people who understand beverage, service and bar operations, the design is informed by what will actually happen inside it. The result is not an interior with a bar placed within it, but a bar experience conceived in three dimensions.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
From concept to spatial experience.
Every bar has a story to tell. Our design process begins by translating that story — its concept, character and style — into a spatial world guests can move through and discover. We consider how the narrative unfolds across the venue, how spaces connect and contrast, where energy gathers or intimacy takes over, and how interior design, materiality and atmosphere can give each moment its own expression while remaining part of one coherent whole.
01 - Narrative Spatial Strategy
We translate the concept into a spatial concept & narrative, defining the character of the bar, the experiences it should create and the key principles that will guide the design.
04 - Signature Design Moments
We identify opportunities for distinctive spatial interventions — from the architecture of the bar itself to sculptural elements, integrated craft, lighting features or other moments that give the concept a recognizable physical identity.
02 - layout & guest flow
The narrative is mapped into space through zoning, circulation, seating logic, sightlines and the relationship between key areas — considering how guests discover and experience the bar from arrival onwards.
05 - Bar & Operational Integration
Guest-facing design is developed alongside the practical requirements of service. Bar logistics, preparation, equipment, circulation and back-of-house relationships are coordinated with the wider interior so that operational needs strengthen rather than compromise the design.
03 - Materiality & Atmosphere
Materials, textures, tones and finishes establish the tactile and visual language of the interior, while lighting and acoustics shape its energy, intimacy and evolution throughout the day and night.
06 - Design Development & Coordination
The concept is progressively resolved into a coherent design direction, bringing the spatial narrative, material palette, lighting, key features, bar requirements and operational considerations together for coordination with the wider project team.
SELECTED BAR DESIGN PROJECTS
Different spaces. Different ways to experience the craft.
Our bar designs respond to very different concepts, settings and ways of drinking. From open island bars and bar laboratories to co-creation stations and sensorial installations, each project explores how the physical bar can become part of the experience itself.
Fermentation Lab & experimental bar — CAN REON, Barcelona
Set within a vineyard and farm outside Barcelona, this experimental cocktail bar connects the surrounding land directly to the drinking experience. A dedicated fermentation lab works alongside an experimental bar set-up designed to bring preparation, and transformation into the guest space. Produce grown on the estate can move from land to laboratory to bar, with ingredients and techniques explored in full view of guests — turning the making of the drinks into part of the experience itself.
CTZN — Island Bar & Open Kitchen
For this Basque bistro concept in San Diego (USA), the bar and open kitchen were conceived as part of the same social experience. Both put craftsmanship in full view, bringing preparation closer to the room and creating natural opportunities for interaction between guests, bartenders and chefs.
Bar botan - a botanical laboratory
For Marriott International we designed a botanical bar design around the ingredients and processes behind the drinks. The back bar becomes a working laboratory, while open bartender stations integrate living plants directly into the bar — bringing cultivation, experimentation and service into the same visual world.
Social Club — Craft, Participation & discovery
Designed around different ways of participating in the ritual of drinking. Design concepts developed for Marriott International. Guests can step beside the bartender at a dedicated co-creation station to make a drink together, while discreet private bars throughout the club give members a place to mix and host for their own guests. An Old Fashioned Library brings together forty interpretations of the classic as another experience within the space.
edible aroma station
For a beach club on Bali we developed a signature aroma station as part of the bar itself, inviting guests to explore the aromas connected to each drink. Rather than keeping scent within the finished serve, the installation brings it into the space as a tactile part of a wider sensorial wellness experience.
Bar laboratory - artesian bar jakarta
Artesian Bar is a rooftop bar in Jakarta on top of The Langham hotel. An in-house laboratory is created as part of the bar’s creative infrastructure, providing a dedicated environment for experimentation with flavor, ingredients and techniques. The lab also creates new possibilities for transforming by-products and developing more sustainable approaches to cocktails.
RELATED EXPERTISE
Explore our specialist services.
Bar consultancy
Bespoke consultancy bringing creative strategy, beverage development, operations, training and implementation together from concept to opening.
Bar Concept Development
Bespoke concepts shaped by place, story, audience and guest experience.
beverage & bar PROGRAM
Fine-drinking programs built through flavor, R&D and signature drink development.
BAR TRAINING
Hands-on craftsmanship training that turns the concept into a confident guest experience.
bar branding
Brand identities and creative touchpoints that give a bar its own world.
START A CONVERSATION
Creating an exceptional bar starts with the right conversation.
Planning a new bar, hotel or resort project, or looking to take an existing bar further? Tell us what you are working on.