Small bar with a pale timber counter, black iron grid frame and oxidised steel wall
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Ai Giudici – coffee & drinks

Food & Beverage2019Palermo50 m²
The project · Food & Beverage · 2019

A café by day and a lounge bar by night: a space of dual value, expressed through two materials — warm wood in the daytime spaces, rust-coloured iron in the night space.

Vertical view towards the counter, with the black iron frame and square skylights
01

Modularity

The entrance opens onto the café, where the wooden furnishings — seats, counters, tables, planters and light fittings — are modules grafted onto an iron grid structure rising from floor to walls and ceiling.

02

Continuity

In the central area, dedicated to the evening, a slanted volume in rust-coloured iron irrupts, embracing floor, walls and ceiling and including the bar counter, lit by soft light.

Niche lined in oxidised metal with two bare bulbs and a timber recess
03

Materials

Few materials: warm wood in the daytime spaces and corten iron in the night space, completed by black-iron structures and suspended glass.

The venue from the entrance: diamond-patterned floor, counter at the back and a black grid overhead
Marble floor of pale and dark diamonds with iron joints
04

Conservative

A glass floor, floating and raised on iron feet, keeps the original marble paving intact — enhanced by LEDs beneath — and reaches the entrance level, avoiding architectural barriers.

Shelves of bottles and a high table beside the glazing, under the iron structure
05

Light

Light keeps time here: clear and even across the daytime surfaces, then low and grazing when the room shifts pace. Linear sources trace the structures, others stay hidden, so the same space can be read in two different moods.

Counter in pale timber strips with coffee machine and a lit shelf of bottles
The project · Food & Beverage · 2019

Fifty square metres in the heart of Palermo, among narrow streets and old stone. A small space demands precision: every centimetre is considered, nothing added merely to fill. The design works by subtraction, until the form feels right.

Gallery
Corner counter and grid frame with timber boxes and plants, seen from a raised angle
Area with high timber tables along the wall, beneath square ceiling lights
Corner near the entrance with the metal niche and bottle shelving
Entrance with glass doors, high timber tables and the counter beyond
The bar from the side: counter, stools, plants and the back shelves with bottles
View along the room with the diamond floor and the counter at the end
Detail of a black iron frame on a white wall, with bottles in a timber recess
Back bar with bottles, hanging glasses and pendant lamps above the timber top
Close detail of the lozenge marble with a cross-shaped iron joint
High table and stool with blue-grey iron frames and timber tops
Oxidised-metal niche with two bulbs and a pale timber box, front view
Inside of the niche, clad in oxidised panels with a timber plank floor
Oxidised metal wall beside a black iron grid and a timber shelf
Niche with bare bulbs in a metal volume, seen over the table in the foreground

Ai Giudici – coffee & drinks is a food & beverage project by Studio Didea in Palermo: Mediterranean architecture and interior design, from concept to construction. With offices in Palermo and Valletta, the studio crafts bespoke spaces uniting matter, light and proportion.

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Year2019
LocationPalermo
TypeCommerciale
Area50 m²
ClientDipoli S.n.c.
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