The design of bars and cafes has played an important role in the development of architecture in the twentieth century. This influence has been felt particularly strongly over the past thirty years, in a time when these social spaces have contributed significantly to the rediscovery and reinvention of cities across Europe and North America.
This volume presents and examines this significant urban architectural production, and discusses it against a background of the design of cafes and bars across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Major themes and developments are discussed and illustrated with case studies, from the functionalist pre-World War Two architects in Central Europe representing modern society through the design of public spaces, right up to the design of sophisticated bars and cafes as part of the recent urban renaissance of Barcelona and Paris in 1980s and London in the '90s.
1. The Architecture of Cafés, Coffeehouses and Public Bars 2. Setting the Stage for Modernity: The Cosmos of the Coffee House 3. Scenes from the Café - Gossip, Politics and the Creation of Personalities: A Selection of Texts From and on Cafés 4. Cafés Case Studies Caffè Pedrocchi, Padua (1826-1831). Café Riche/Café de la Paix, Paris (1804/1894 and 1863). Café Central, Vienna (1875). Café Bauer, Berlin (1878). The Philharmonic Hotel, Liverpool (1898-1900). Café Américain, Amsterdam (1902). The Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow (1904). American Bar (Kärntnerbar), Vienna (1907/1908). Café Worpswede, Worpswede (1924/1925). Hotel-Café Avion, Brno (1927/1928). Bar Craja, Milan (1930). La Maison du Café, Paris (1933). Seagram Executive Bar, New York (1936). Coco Tree Bar, Los Angeles (1933). Café Kranzler, Berlin (1958). Splügen Bräu, Milan (1960). Niban Kan, Tokyo (1970). Café Costes, Paris (1984). Zsa Zsa, Barcelona (1988). MAK Café, Vienna (1993). Schutzenberger, Strasbourg (1999)
