A new restaurant/bar/beer hall has opened on Prague’s Hybernská Street. Its name is Rebel Wings, and the interior was designed by architect Kryštof Blažek at studio minio.

The space features high ceilings and two main rooms with spruce plank flooring and solid oak furniture. Brickwork, wood planks and tiles alternate on the walls, with different patterns and colours that break up the tall cold walls. The ceilings are black, the walls grey combined with white and the floors oil-finished to a darker tone. The glass storefront provides passeers-by with a view of the six-meter bar; its shiny black-and- white tiles are laid in an intentionally bold diagonal pattern and held together with yellow grout.

Neutral colours are used in the interior: black, grey and white combined with the warm tone of natural oak. Black oil finish has been use to optically break up oak tables and benches, creating psychologically separate seating areas. This motif also acts as a decorative and aesthetic element.

At first look it is clear that the interior uses sturdy materials, including “unbreakable” furniture. A primary aim of the interior design was to keep the furniture from getting damaged by day-to- day traffic and usage, which is why the most frequent type of seating is oak benches at tables with solid-wood tops on metal legs. The bar stools at the bar tables and along the bar, the top of which is made from a single piece of oak butcher block, are also made of solid oak.

In the front room, miners’ safety lamps hang from the ceiling while custom-made lamps designed by studio minio jut out from the walls. These horizontal lamp posts give the impression that the vast room is smaller and more intimate. The bar is lit by large crystal-shaped hanging lights made of expanded metal. On several walls, extra illumination is provided by brass bulkhead lights. The lighting in the back room comprises several dozen freely hanging light bulbs of various shapes. All of the lighting can be dimmed.

The playful approach to the decor, motifs, materials and surfaces, the horizontal and vertical division of the space, and the clever lighting come together to create a compact, coherent atmosphere inside Rebel Wings.

Photography by Jan Kuděj