Qubik Café

2016
workshops

Integrated design workshops are one-week design experiences that the Department of Architecture at the Università Degli Studi di Trieste provides each year for the students in order to enrich the educational offer. The brevity of the workshops generates conditions that differentiate the workshop days from the normal six-monthly or annual courses: with concentration on the pre-trial phase, rapid identification of the best strategies for response to the programme, contact with teachers from different countries and the introduction to an office working environment.

The design theme of the intensive workshops is always interdisciplinary, involving more than one subject, in this case the composition of architecture, interior design and layout, plus a focus on lighting design.

In 2016, the aim was to broaden the range of research and to integrate the skills of the students with specific aspects that preceded the workshop. Two seminars, dedicated to the theme of lighting in commercial spaces and food retail areas were held by Alberto Pasetti, of Studio Pasetti Lighting Design. These seminars explored the relationship between commercial aspects and space from the point of view of function and aesthetic requirements of the cafeteria namely places for the provision of food and drink, places to experience taste and places in which to socialise.

The result was a rich and complex experience that offered everyone, not only students, but also teachers and guests, the opportunity to reflect, from a broader perspective, on the relationship between an interior design and its potential to express an identity – a concept we have tried to express here.

The 2016 edition counted on the presence of EMBAIXADA/UNLEASH, and followed a request from the promoting company, Qubik Caffè, to research proposals, concept design ideas for a flagship bar for their brand, a design that reflected their innovative character.

Lo Spazio del Caffè

For the period of a week the students were divided into groups and challenged to produce design proposals for a flagship bar for Qubik, the Italian coffee brand. Starting with precise locations (two real places in Venice were given as a choice) with specific sizes and different characteristics such as position with respect to the urban space, number of places for users, number of staffs, etc, students had to create proposals for a new model of cafeteria, concept bar, place of socialising and meeting.

Qubik flagship café, as defined by the client, should be "curious," and "social," away from the language of marketing, a space that would be seen as a meeting place open to innovative ways of  experiencing the new coffee, unadvertised, different from the usual. The theme was to tell the story of the identity of the brand, of how architecture could provide better instruments to promote participation in the market, than could other forms of aesthetic promotion which would be subjected to economic and commercial constraints.

Working with a real client, being able to describe functional, but also cultural and aesthetic requirements, was an uncommon and invaluable opportunity for these students in the academic field. But the task of the University and of this workshop was not only that of training for the profession, but rather: teaching to "profess" a discipline, and drawing awareness to the responsibilities and critical sense that this "professing" involves with regard to the community and the discipline itself especially when planning that special place, as we shall see, which was, in this case, coffee.

Year – 2016
University – Università Degli Studi di Trieste
Coordination - Giuseppina Scavuzzo
Location – Gorizia, Italy

Lecturers – Giuseppina Scavuzzo, Albuquerque Goinhas, Nuno Griff, Cristina de Mendonça

Assistants - Mattia Marzaro, Anna Dordolin

Students – Alessia Pelizon, Alessia Troian, Alessio Pacor, Andrea Scarabo, Davide Pecorari, Elena, Elisa Cacaci, Enrica Michelazzi, Enrico Leghissa, Eva Lepore, Federico Galvagni, Giulia Bonetti, Giulia_Paron, Giulia Piovesan, Ilaria Zaupa, Laura Vidali, Luca Fano, Martina Piazzi, Matteo Pojan, Mattia Chiarottini, Michela Battaglia, Michele Gammino, Sophia Noacco, Valentina Comar, Veronica, Veronica Tombolato

Seminars - Alberto Pasetti (Studio Pasetti), Filippo Vidiz (Qubik)

Final Juri – Diego Vidiz, Blaz Bajzelj, Alberto Polojac, Roberto Celic, Mattia Marzaro, Giovanni de Flego, Claudio Meninno, Luigi Di Dato

Photography - Anna Dordolin, Alessio Marzolino, Martina Micalizzi