Get-together

Board Game Cafe

SUMMER 2016
DESIGN STUDIO IN-BETWEEN – MEETING IN THE CITY
MENTOR BASMA ABU-NAIM
HONORS ENTWERFEN AUSSTELLUNG 2017

In this digital age, tabletop games serve as a very analogue medium of human interaction. The main goal of this establishment is to encourage people to get away from their superficial cyber-relationships, even if it is only for a short while – sit down, enjoy a drink and play.

The game aspect of this gaming cafe has an additional side to it. The locale is situated on Wallensteinstraße in Vienna’s 20th district, Brigittenau.

The street is home to a number of gambling dens. This cafe aims to turn people away from playing for monetary gain and towards playing for fun and for the pleasure of somebody’s company.

Because board games can be quite costly, a cafe like this offers people an opportunity to experience something they wouldn’t otherwise be able to, especially in Brigittenau, one of Vienna’s poorer districts, that has a fairly high unemployment rate.

Ground Floor
First Floor
Facade
Section A-A
Section B-B
Section C-C
The memory wall is a bridge between the interior and the exterior. It is a game that connects the players inside with regular passers-by. The window sills inside the cafe are used as shelves whereupon a variety of objects can be placed. These objects will always come in pairs - as they would in a regular memory game.
The players inside can rearrange the objects - they “mix the cards” - while the passers-by participate in the memory game by opening the doors on the perforated metal sheet that covers the wall and windows. This transforms passers-by into players.
The interior design of the cafe started with those shelves/windows. Their shape and size dictated the formation of a raster for the concrete slabs on the walls and floor. The slabs are fastened to their corresponding surfaces with screws that represent the pips on domino tiles. Three layers of concrete “domino tiles” are followed by a layer of wood. The wooden tables emerge from the walls and the floor, a continuous loop throughout the locale.