Channeling Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich, Monoloko Design has transformed a neoclassical Moscow store into a micro-brewery and bottle shop.
The local firm drew the space’s monochrome colour scheme from the fundamental principles of Suprematism (an abstract art movement championed by Malevich) dedicated to pure artistic feeling and basic geometric forms. The idea was to create an imaginative, open space where light sources and colour will alter visual perceptions of the bar’s three-dimensional geometric furnishings, which are Suprematist in composition and mono-material in implementation.
As well as Malevich’s practise, the designers drew from his personal interest in celestial exploration. Rechristened Galaxy Bar, a deep-blue interior is illuminated by a snaking, polyurethane-coated neon pipe-light tracing constellations overhead. A moon-grey marble bar and industrially-edged wooden booths complete the look.
‘The idea was to create a pure, bright space that facilitates a release of the mind and the expansion of human perceptions, as if walking onto a non-objective art canvas,’ explains Maxim Kashin, the project architect. ‘Colour has great influence over human perception and has an extraordinary ability to influence moods and emotions’ – ideal thinking for a beer bar, where customers might be on the look out for mind-altering tipples.
Offerings – written in white directly onto the blue wall – are almost exlusively locally-sourced; and fit for hop connoisseurs. St Petersburg’s AF Brew brings its Hip Hop Milk to the table, with vanilla notes and ultra-smooth finish. And Moscow’s own WildLab offers its KarmaComa stout brewed with cocoa nibs, chocolate and coffee.
