Text description provided by the architects. Historically, architecture has been anchored to the ground on which it stands. However, in contemporary cities, architecture needs greater agility and freedom to increase its chances of participating in and intervening with the qualities of everyday life. Contemporary architectural discourse has been exploring methods of creating temporary and alternative relationships with the ground, aiming to produce provisional and adaptive spaces. The Walking Canopy, situated in the historic city of Isfahan, is a project that pursues this idea to define a new relationship between architecture and urban life at a very small scale, where a radical idea meets low-budget and low-tech conditions.
The project was a renovation for a bistro café. The frontage area became a catalyst for defining a more active and integrated relationship between interior and exterior architectural behaviors. By organizing the kitchen in a linear configuration along one side, we transformed the hall into a seamless urban extension reaching outward. Reciprocally, by positioning the barista station at the edge of the volume, we enabled it to move from inside to outside, turning the exterior area into an inward continuation of the interior space.
To achieve this seamless spatial fluidity in Isfahan’s climate, we envisioned the space as open-air, employing alternative conditioning methods. The radiant heaters and misting fans are positioned alongside lighting fixtures on a deliberate ceiling grid as architectural elements that produce space without physical boundaries, rather than mere mechanical additions. Thus, the hall functions like a shaded portico facing the city which, similar to Isfahan’s historical architectural experience, often requires no active conditioning.
The barista, by detaching the bar from the rest of the preparation and kitchen area and moving toward the outdoor area, settles outside in a theatrical manner, creating their own urban hangout. As the barista steps forward with the espresso bar, a canopy unfurls from a roller, creating a thin, temporary sheltered space in their wake. This space accommodates outdoor furniture beneath it and disappears at the day’s end when the bar returns to its initial position. To support the barista’s new outdoor positioning, the ground is considered an energy source with water and electricity connections, creating the possibility for the café bar to plug into itself. The barista’s performative behavior extends into the interior lighting design and even to the handwashing area. Here, a highly ordinary and mundane daily routine finds itself under focused lighting and different mirrors that, by fragmenting this activity, awaken the performative capacity hidden beneath its surface.
The Walking Canopy project seeks new ways to interweave architecture with the city’s daily rhythm, searching for fresh qualities beneath the surface of everyday occurrences at small scales. The theatrical capacity extends throughout the space – from the performative act of coffee-making to the carefully choreographed movement of architectural elements. Here, architecture itself becomes a performer, inviting urban vitality through the movement of its components, transforming from a static container to a dynamic participant in urban life.
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Project location
Address:Isfahan, Iran
Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
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Cite: “Walking Canopy (3ra Café Bistro) / Paad Architects” 09 Feb 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed .
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