Blue Bottle Venice

Aiming to Beguile

Blue Bottle Coffee’s Venice Beach location transcends its tiny size through restrained design moves that bring openness, transparency and a sense of craft.

Cool Beans

On the bustling street of Abbott Kinney in Venice Beach, JENSEN devised a sleek, refined coffee house that belies its small footprint. The result both stands out and feels at home amidst the eye-candy murals and street art of the neighborhood. Languid and beguiling, the space blends clean, technical vibes with hints of the building’s raw materiality. From a one-seat outdoor bench to custom casework with integrated components for coffee crafting and display, the spare aesthetic allows the coffee and the customers to take center stage.

Sculpted Light

The space is washed with light from above through slots in the ceiling, a mix of natural and artificial light. The lighting helps the canopy and its original trusses and ducts read as a sculptural object that frames the entire space, preserving history while blending it seamlessly into the contemporary moment of every sip.

Luminous LEDs

A luminous blue wall panel behind the bar is a focal point of the space, serving to make the small, narrow interior feel much larger — a technological twist on the familiar trick of using a mirror to make a space feel larger. The LED panel is illuminated with a subtly changing display that recalls the shifting hues of a cloudless Venice sky, granting a futuristic air to the space.

Manufactured Nature

Being the primary site of encounter and interaction in the space, the ordering counter reflects the care JENSEN took to de-emphasize the boundary between customer and service, echoing concepts they have developed at other Blue Bottle locations. The counter is a floating block of wood that evokes the durably duplicitous aesthetic of the interior: simple yet technically complex; pure, but not entirely natural.

Blue Bottle Venice

Cool Beans

Sculpted Light

Luminous LEDs

Manufactured Nature

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Architects

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Blue Bottle Venice

Cool Beans

Sculpted Light

Luminous LEDs

Manufactured Nature

Press

Architects

Consultants

Contractor

Photographer

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