ukyo X blends cafe, listening bar, and co-working inside historic romanian interior
Designed by in-still, the third ukyo location adapts a historic storefront in Cluj-Napoca into a flexible hybrid hospitality and cultural venue.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- ukyo X occupies a historic storefront in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, designed by in-still.
- It functions as a hybrid cafe, listening bar, and creative co-working space.
- The interior combines natural wood veneer, stainless steel, and restored mosaic floors.
- Large sliding glass doors dissolve the boundary between the interior and the public street.
Designed by in-still, ukyo X occupies a historic storefront within the pedestrian center of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, marking the third location for the ukyo brand. Conceived as a hybrid cafe, listening bar, and cultural venue, the architecture adapts an existing commercial space into an environment suited for hospitality, creative activities, and informal work. Large sliding glass doors allow the interior to open completely toward the street, dissolving the boundary between the public realm and the indoor space while extending cafe activities into the surrounding urban context.
The spatial layout is organized as a flexible environment where social, cultural, and creative functions coexist within a continuous framework. Drawing cues from domestic settings, the interior enables visitors to transition fluidly between socializing, co-working, and quiet individual moments without rigid programmatic divisions. A modular furniture system supports this adaptability, allowing the layout to accommodate various group sizes and patterns of occupation.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Adaptive reuse of historic buildings has become a prominent architectural approach in urban centers, allowing designers to preserve material history—such as the restored mosaic floor seen here—while injecting modern functional flexibility to suit contemporary lifestyle demands.
At the center of the interior, a continuous communal table reinterprets the traditional family table as an extended social element. Its linear arrangement allows individuals and groups to share the same setting while engaging at different levels of interaction. This setup establishes an open and egalitarian spatial structure where no single seating position takes precedence over another.
The material palette selected by in-still pairs natural wood veneer with stainless steel, balancing warm, tactile surfaces with reflective metal accents through a restrained color scheme. Furthermore, the original mosaic floor has been carefully restored to preserve the material history of the building while integrating it into the modern interior. This synthesis of retained and new materials bridges the site's architectural past with its contemporary use.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Source: designboom
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