DUENDE

Located inside the luxury office and residential complex Garitage Park in Sofia’s business district, this café offers not only good coffee and freshly baked croissants but also tasty and healthy homemade food in a welcoming and cozy ambience that’s perfect for business meetings and some quality leisure time. 

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary duende is “the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm”. This definition provided inspiration for an inviting and light interior design accentuating the beautiful structure of the building with a combination of hand-painted wallpapers, custom upholstered seating and vintage furnishings. The overall design intent was to reconcile the client's main request for an open kitchen with the compact size of the double height site. To accomplish this, we spread the new interior across two levels: the ground floor serves as a public area and the partial second floor is repurposed for an office area. The open kitchen and the bar were placed in the middle thus becoming the heart of the space and allowing guests to observe the preparation of food and drinks.

The floor finishes combine concrete tiles marking the main walking line, hexagon terracotta tiles shaping the seating area and patterned tiles enhancing the central position of the bar and forming a “welcoming foyer carpet”. Additionally, the rather attractive terrazzo ivory tiles were used for the inner space /bar, kitchen and service premises/. The fully glazed front facade charms the people passing by and lets in multiple rays of natural and pleasant light.

Working in close collaboration with the client, we created a space that looks bohemian yet impeccably detailed, finely crafted and highly functional.