As almost anywhere on the planet, coffee culture is booming in Jakarta, and since a couple of years, it’s design-led coffee parlours that make their mark in the urban landscape. Kyoto-based café chain first arrived in the sprawling Indonesian capital nearly two years ago, and only a little while ago, already a third outpost has been inaugurated in Menteng, a leafy downtown area dotted with Dutch colonial residential buildings. The Kurasu café occupies 122 sqm. (1,313 sq.ft.) space on the premises of a redeveloped historic building, and once again featuring an interior design by Japanese architecture practice Kousou. The chosen aesthetic pairs cues from the café’s location with emblematic elements of a typical jazz bar in Tokyo, creating an intimate living room-style space, albeit a fancy one, with matching outdoor seating areas.
A meticulous curation of furnishings and well-planned configuration accentuate Kurasu‘s effortless homey atmosphere. The design also emphasises the seamless integration of Kurasu‘s established brand elements, such as signature paper lamps and merchandise shelving, reimagined within this specific context. Mind you, the paper lamps are integrated into the walls and ceiling, creating luminous planes that provide highly decorative lighting. In line with Japanese aesthetics, natural materials such as wood, stone, textile, and paper have been used in a meticulously layered palette, albeit in a subdued manner, allowing their inherent qualities to further enrich the customers’ spatial experience.
The latter is further instigated by Kousou’s design philosophy of the understanding of architecture as a journey, and as such, the creation of spatial transitions. A low-hanging white box forms the façade, compressing the entrance to heighten the sense of arrival. This portal leads into a semi-outdoor corridor with a skylight, and lined on one side with seating, guiding visitors along an extended path before they finally enter the main space. Large windows allow ample peeks of Kurasu café’s interior when approaching the entrance, capturing the sight of passing trains, and which is a playful nod to a common Japanese association of cafes by the train tracks. The menu at Kurasu café list a wide variety of expertly made coffee concoctions from various blends, artisanal matcha, various cocktails, in addition to savory bites and pastries. © superfuture
Kurasu
Jalan Latuharhary 9 (Menteng)
Jakarta 10310
Mon-Thu 7am-8pm
Fri-Sat 7am-10pm
Sun 7am-8pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
