Hospitality·1,800 sq ft·Raipur·2025·Full-service design
A Café in Civil Lines
THE BRIEF
An all-day café that needed to feel equally right at 8 AM over filter coffee and at 8 PM over wine. The owner had a clear vision: warmth without cosiness, energy without noise.
We designed backwards from the guest journey. The threshold, the first impression, the bar, the seating zones — each had a different lighting temperature and acoustic treatment to match the time of day.
THE WORK
MAIN SEATING · AFTERNOON LIGHT · TERRACOTTA, OAK
The terracotta floor tiles were sourced from a kiln outside Raipur. Each tile is slightly different — the variation is the point. Under the afternoon light from the south windows, the floor warms the entire room without any help from the walls.
BAR COUNTER · BRASS DETAIL
WINDOW SEATING · MORNING
The acoustic treatment is hidden in the ceiling panels. A café that sounds wrong loses repeat visitors silently. We spent two weeks getting the reverberation time right for conversation at normal volume.
ENTRANCE · EVENING LIGHTING
CREDITS
Design: Midtones Interior — Supriya Sahu
Year completed: 2025