SOMA 2.0 is a glossy speakeasy-style bar by London studio Cake Structure, tucked beneath the DLR railway at Canary Wharf, with a “intentionally austere” facade.
Named SOMA 2.0, the bar is the sister location of SOMA Soho, an underground cocktail bar on London’s Denman Road cloaked in plush blue curtains.
Cake Structure designed the second iteration inside a former transport safety station beneath the rumbling DLR railway at Canary Wharf and added an not easily seen coffee-coloured door that just about matches the prevailing tile cladding on both aspect.
“The facade of SOMA Canary Wharf is intentionally austere, with minimal detailing to mix into its industrial environment,” studio director Hugh Scott Moncrieff informed Dezeen.
Inside, a central chrome steel bar was laser-etched with intricate pinstripes to reference the world’s many towers.
A contrasting cedar pole crafted from a single piece of domestically salvaged timber protrudes from the bartop, nodding to the marshland previous of the close by Isle of Canine.
A duo of outsized geometric lights was suspended from the ceiling, echoing the Bauhaus-inspired types that outline the Cake Structure-designed A Bar with Shapes for a Identify in Hoxton. The fixtures emit a supple crimson and yellow glow that displays onto the gleaming metallic surfaces.
“The purpose was to create a toasty, atmospheric and considerably mysterious setting – one which feels each up to date and intimate, regardless of the extra industrial context of the house,” defined Scott Moncrieff.
Low lighting continues all through the bar, which features a sequence of intimate seating areas wearing a variety of challenging and softer supplies.
The “comfortable” is a cavernous house completed in a floor-to-ceiling burnt orange hue, from the supple banquettes and padded partitions to the delicately coffered ceiling, illuminated by minimal globular sconce lights.
A lot of the furnishings was custom-designed for SOMA 2.0, together with dark-coloured round barstools and different upholstered items lined in wool.
“The fabric palette blends industrial rawness with tactile heat,” thought of Scott Moncrieff.
Elsewhere, the all-indigo loos had been characterised by gleaming painted partitions and chunky, utilitarian metallic basins.
Cubicles function tubular peach-hued lighting encased in black metallic grates, that are the same form and design to the gaunt industrial lighting that welcomes friends to the restaurant.
“Whereas each SOMA bars share a standard design language rooted in industrial aesthetics and refined particulars, the Canary Wharf department diverges in its context and method,” stated Scott Moncrieff.
A sequence of dramatically lit bars and eating places have been popping up throughout London, resembling BAO Metropolis, an immersive eatery with karaoke rooms and a “cinematic really feel”.
Examples of different subtly hidden bars embody this espresso and pastry store in Novel York Metropolis’s NoMad district, which supplies a entrance for a secret subterranean bar.
