The Chapel in Bukarest by Vinklu

District 1 with its detached houses in the north-west of Bucharest, is not the kind of place where tourists and café-goers tend to stray. However, the area around the historic Bazilescu Park with its amphitheatre, built shortly after the Second World War, is an exception. This is reason enough for the local coffee house chain Boiler Coffee Shop to set up a branch here. This is the client's first new building; they had previously only converted existing shops. 

The roof and sides of the slender structure are clad in corrugated aluminium. © Vlad Patru 

The building is located on a narrow former car park between two residential buildings. There is a strip of gravel at the front where café visitors can sit on benches under the trees. The chapel-like building is exactly 2 m wide, and 6 m long and high. Along the left-hand wall are a bench for bad weather, a kitchenette and a toilet. While the front is fully glazed, the roof, side walls and lower part of the rear wall are covered in corrugated aluminium sheeting. A back door leads employees to a separate storage room behind the building. 

A storage shed separates the café from the courtyard at the rear. © Vlad Patru 

The café's walls and roof were prefabricated in the factory and clad with veneer wood panels inside. As it is difficult to build over parking spaces in Bucharest, the architects mounted the café on the chassis of a mobile home. Officially, it is therefore only parked in the space. The parking space belongs to the neighbouring house, whose owners have sublet it to the coffee shop chain. Three steps made of grating lead from the street up to the guest area. There are no permanent foundations; just a few metal stilts distribute the weight of “The Chapel” evenly across the ground. 


Architecture in Romania: Discover a housing complex in Bucharest in our Detail Inspiration database.