From Floating Puffs to Flying Stingrays, Coffee Shop Design Reached New Heights in 2022

Daily Coffee News Staff | December 23, 2022

Inside the Rise Coffee cafe in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo by Thanapol Jongsiripipat, courtesy of Space+craft.

As we look back on the year in coffee, we’ve been routinely distracted by some dazzling displays of architecture and interior design.

Some of that was on display in our reviews of the most exciting coffee shop openings in the United States (see our complete 2022 Year in Review coverage), but now we take a broader, more international focus, highlighting some of the year’s most breathtaking cafe design work.

Each of these cafes — a few of which technically opened in 2021 — comes from DCN’s ongoing Design Details series. (Learn more about the series and submit your projects for consideration here.)

Swimming in Blue at Blue Bottle Coffee Osaka

Among the 24 Blue Bottle Coffee Japan retail locations, the design of the first-ever Osaka outpost might be the most literal interpretation of the brand yet… Read more

20th Century Milan Meets ’80s Memphis at Coffeelin

A new coffee-by-day, cocktails-by-night bar in Hong Kong’s bustling Happy Valley neighborhood seamlessly combines elements of 20th-century Milanese cafe style and 1980s Memphis design style within a contemporary urban setting… Read more

The Natural Path to HOH Café in Taiwan

This embodiment of respite in nature follows the vision of Taiwan-based Infeel Architects, which created a series of sleeper walls and textured wood foot slabs that lead to the HOH Café bar… Read more

Flowing Spaces at mtl in South Korea

Opened last year inside a new Lotte department store in the South Korean city of Dongtan, a new lifestyle brand called mtl blends coffee with other retail and lounge spaces… Read more

Coffee is the Color at 43 Factory in Ho Chi Minh City

The progressive Vietnamese coffee roasting and retail outfit 43 Factory Coffee Roaster has opened its second shop, a veritable black-and-white pedestal at which coffee and its provenance are left to provide an abundance of color… Read more

Mud Arches Meet Art Deco at Elixir Bunn Coffee Roasters

Combining the curved, spiraling and columnar forms of mosque architecture with art deco and contemporary coffee touches, the fourth retail shop of Saudi Arabian coffee roasting company Elixir Bunn was designed as a kind of local temple to contemporary coffee… Read more

White Floating Puffs at Birdie Cup in Shanghai

Situated in a tightly packed office and commercial corridor next to a metro station, Birdie Cup Coffee offers a moment of coffee-fueled respite surrounded by white floating puffs… Read more

Rainbow Zinc and Modular Furniture at 23a in Ukraine

The shop is just steps away from the Kharkiv State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, which was damaged by a Russian missile as part of ongoing Russian attacks in the city… Read more

The Bar Meets the Sidewalk at Singular Coffee in Santiago

The shop’s most striking feature is arguably its seamless connection to the streetscape, a feat made possible through the work of a design team at Santiago-based Oficina Bravo… Read more

A Clean Wooden Box Embedded in a Shanghai Street

Located in an area of central Shanghai that more than a century ago was established as a French settlement, a clean, wooden box by the name of YiJian Cafe appears in warm contrast to the grey concrete street… Read more

Curved Kiosks and a Stingray in Flight at London’s Royal Parks

Part of a public space enhancement project in London, England’s Royal Parks, a new brass kiosk serving coffee and other treats stands as a swooping, curvy complement to its regal and natural surroundings… Read more

A Cafe of Containers at Café Kontejner in Prague

In the heart of the Prague 7 district, Holešovice, stands Café Kontejner, a contemporary specialty coffee cafe in a temporary structure composed of three repurposed shipping containers… Read more

90s Apartment Vibes at Đen Đá Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City

Blending commonly found Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) home interior design elements with colorful 1990s vibes is one of the many locations of Vietnamese small specialty coffee chain Đen Đá Coffee… Read more

Corrugation and Clarity at Rise Coffee in Bangkok

Surrounded by offices and high-rise buildings in the Ploenchit district, the 1,614-square-foot Rise Coffee space is divided into two primary zones: a coffee lab geared toward collaboration and exploration, and a coffee bar designed to create approachable specialty coffee connections… Read more