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Project Oumuamua

Smack in the summer of 2019, Oumuamua landed in Amsterdam Noord. A strange and temporary creature, no one quite knew what it was. A bar? A restaurant? A club? Workplace, expo, stage? Instead of boxing it in in definition, we decided to celebrate. All of the above!

Named for a comet that traversed our universe in 2017, originating from another galaxy and continuing on through another one still, it bore the traditional Hawaiian name for ‘Messenger from afar’. And we let I guide us beyond the space we knew.

How to design for the temporary without succumbing to the clichés — plywood! Second hand furniture! — of all the pop-up spaces that litter Amsterdam North? How to to make it cosy, yet still multifunctional? We contrasted the original wooden roofing with a spacy, seemingly liquid, mixed cast epoxy floor. Three extraterrestrial objects, a pyramid, obelisk and monolith strategically marked, connected and divided the space and its functions. Furniture and mobile walls filled with earthly plants orbited around these cosmic solids to allow for infinite layouts, while programmable LEDs lit up the sky against the wooden beams.

Besides designing the space, Beyond Space and Space Encounters initiated and funded Oumuamua out of a deep love for nightlife and adventure.

Location Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Program Restaurant, bar, club, gallery 

Client Self initiated

Collaboration Space Encounters

Status Completed in 2019

Floor area 500m2

Project team Remi Versteeg, Stijn de Weerd, Gijs Baks, Joost Baks, Vera Tamburlin, Clara Jansen, Marius van der Pol

Bespoke furniture Roord Binnenbouw, Amsterdam

Plant design het Groenlab, Amsterdam

Contract furniture Lensvelt, Breda

Sheet materials Finsa, Vlissingen

Natural Stone Lucas Schoot natuursteen, Oss

Floor Senso gietvloeren, Amsterdam

Fixtures Xenz, Dronten

Curtains Siersema, Amsterdam

Led lighting Invent design, Amsterdam

Glass walls Qbiq Wallsystems, Alphen aan den Rijn

Photography: Peter Tijhuis

Bar team: Alex Ketel, Jasper Vollaard, Studio Buik, Casper de Heer, Quintin van de Spek, Carlyn Hendriks and many more

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