BAR JANUS

JANUS is a whisky and cocktail bar with a social aspect. Our client had two demands: one was that the audience should not interpret this place according to the literal meaning of JANUS or their traditional concepts, and the other was that the audience should have more than two different spatial experiences in this place. These different spatial experiences combine as an integral whole rather than to be independent ones.
According to the operational function of the project, the first floor is the supporting space and the second floor is the main venue. The first floor is loose, open, relaxed which serves coffee. The seating is relatively spacious. Bar counter and loose seating area on the second floor is different, more compact but not crowded. The sense of distance between people familiar or unfamiliar is more subtle. We hope more conversation and stories can happen there.
I began to take a step back and think about the big picture. What exactly are we talking about when we talk about spatial ambience? Is it sunlight, air, sound, materials, textures, or colours? I began to think about the overall relevance of the façade in relation to the first and second floors. They are at once traditional, strong and thick, even a little archaic and they are at the same time receptive, inclusive, interesting and experimental. I tried to use postmodernism to summarise the atmosphere created inside and outside the building.