Interior

Babylon Brew House

A modern specialty coffee house built as a procession through Babylonian motifs — the Ishtar Gate as threshold, a glazed-blue bar wrapping a tiled elevator tower like a ziggurat stair, and a hanging garden at the rear.

The plan is a long, narrow shophouse footprint over two floors. Visitors enter through a deep arched threshold lined in hand-glazed cobalt-blue tile, modeled on the Ishtar Gate — a compressed, low approach that opens into the taller volume of the café beyond.

At the center of the plan, a bar clad floor-to-ceiling in the same cobalt-blue glazed tile stands directly ahead of the entrance. Behind it rises a tiled elevator tower, and an oak staircase wraps continuously around this tower as it climbs — visible rising on one side and continuing upward on the other, so the stair reads as spiraling around a glowing blue core, a quiet echo of the Tower of Babel unwinding into light.

Past the bar, the rear of the plan opens into a quieter, greener lounge and study space, sharing the same material language but softened with planting — a nod to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Its roof is a solid plane lit not by a central skylight but by a continuous band of glazing running around the full perimeter where roof meets wall, washing daylight down all four walls rather than pooling in the center.

Massing studies tested sun, wind and noise across two footprint options before the final volume was set — sun to the street in front, a quieter, sheltered garden behind.

The myths are not depicted — they are built: threshold, tower, garden.

Entrance concept board referencing the Ishtar Gate — Entrance — the Ishtar Gate as threshold, drawn from the Babylonian precedent

Bar concept: cobalt-blue glazed tile references — Bar — cobalt-blue glazed brick, a direct nod to the tiled reliefs of Babylon

Stair concept referencing the Tower of Babel — Stair — the oak stair unwinding around the tiled tower, an echo of the Tower of Babel

Hanging garden concept board — Garden — the rear room as a nod to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Ground and first floor plans, with the tower and stair at the centre

Rear lounge render with hanging plants and skylight — Rear lounge — a quieter, greener room lit from a continuous perimeter skylight

At a glance

Program: Café, ground + first floor, quiet rear lounge/study zone
Key materials: Cobalt-blue glazed ceramic tile, oak, sand-toned lime plaster, brass trim
Concept references: Ishtar Gate (entrance), glazed brick reliefs (bar), Tower of Babel (spiral stair), Hanging Gardens (rear lounge)
Status: Concept design

Other practices