cobalt & warm orange pair up inside poland's pastry club woda

Znamy się and Paweł Tatara complete pastry club woda

Pastry Club Woda is a buzzing new social space sited in an old boilerhouse within the historic Rother’s Mill complex on Mill Island in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Completed by Polish studio Znamy się and architect Paweł Tatara (see their earlier collaboration covered by designboom here), the 78 sqm project responds to the context’s bustling character that oozes duality. Stepping inside, visitors are welcomed by a pairing of cobalt blue and warm orange tones, of production and leisure — creating space for the ambiance to gradually transforms when the sun sets. ‘A club inside a pastry shop or a pastry shop inside a club? It is a combination of two energies. Day and night, water and sun,’ writes the architectural team.

all images © ONI Studio

evoking mill island’s inland water and grain & flour production

A popular cultural hub in Bydgoszcz, Mill Island is surrounded by water and closely related to the inland water transport of grain and flour production. Znamy się (see more here) and Paweł Tatara wanted to emphasize that character through the interior design of Pastry Club Woda, focusing on unique color compositions. To start, the cobalt-colored floor, bar, and equipment give the impression of water flowing inside. Meanwhile, the streamlined bar halves the interior, guiding customers’ movement as they explore and gather. Ultimately, everyone at the shop flows freely inside to later flow out with the current; according to the duo, the direction of motion is as natural as the moving water.

sited in an old boilerhouse within the historic Rother’s Mill complex

Rother’s Mills complex is composed of a grain and flour granary storehouse, as well as a middle section where the historic mill once sat. This is where flour production took place i.e., grinding, cooling, sifting, and packing, followed by the transport of the finished product to the flour granary. Different production processes took place on each floor by using modern machinery. The grinding required the use of millstones with characteristic grooves. The already grounded grain was transported to the third floor, where machines called Hopper-boy distributed freshly milled flour to cool it. On the fourth floor, Hopper-boys were drawing circular raked shapes. Afterward, the product reached the second floor into steel bolters to be sifted into flour, middlings, and bran. Packing the flour was the last process on the ground floor. When finished, the flour was transported to the flour granary.

Considering that production is such an integral aspect of this place, it was impossible not to highlight it in Pastry Club Woda. The division between the space available for the customers and the manufacturing part is immediately noticeable upon entering the establishment. The open kitchen, equipment, and steel elements refer to the machines used in flour production. What’s more, the distinct, vertical grooves in the structure of the plaster bring to mind associations with millstones and the raked traces of the milled grain distributed by the Hopper-boy machines. Thanks to open technology, customers experience baked goods at every level of its production.

cobalt blue reflects the flow of water

pastry shop by day, buzzing club by night

Those two complementary colors, cobalt blue and orange, predominate the interior. Cobalt blue is associated with water, rawness, the technology of flour production, and flow movement. By day, this interior functions as a pastry shop — its bright, cool-colored, and technical appeal dominating and contrasting with the displayed pastries and warm orange hue. The latter symbolizes the setting sun, the beginning of the evening, fun, warmth, and sweetness. In the evening, with the Polish sunset marking its presence, the shop gradually transforms into a club pulsating with an intimate atmosphere. The prevailing warm lights cause the cold cobalt to change its color, just like the water surface changes in the light of the setting sun.

by day, a pastry shop