NUCLEO
Nucleo is an 80 sqm cocktail bar located in Rome, in the heart of the Ostiense district, within a former mechanical workshop.
The project emerges from the dialogue between the ex-industrial character of the existing space and a contemporary vision of the convivial environment.
How can a residual industrial space be transformed into a place of energy and connection for the world of today and tomorrow?
Nucleo imagines a future that is simple and concrete, yet full of possibilities. For this reason, its design language is built around authentic elements, left exposed and raw, seeking contrast between them—rough and smooth, matte and luminous, massive and reflective—thus constructing essential and functional spaces in an intimate relationship with light.
The layout organizes the space as a linear sequence.
The service areas are located at the far end, while the central area becomes a single drink room of approximately 45 sqm.
At the opposite ends of the room, two black volumes are inserted: the first contains the entrance and a social space in dialogue with the street; the second houses the service areas, defining the limit of the route.
These two volumes articulate the space, creating moments of compression and release, movement, perspective, and boundaries, guiding both body and gaze through the interior, unlike the central volume of the drink room, which is deliberately static.
The latter is a large room interrupted by a central counter clad in custom-designed concrete panels. In certain areas, these panels crumble away, revealing the material’s deeper authenticity.
Along the long wall, only one opening breaks the continuity: a large material and luminous circle—the nucleus, the inner core—where energy is concentrated.
All the other horizontal elements, such as the counter and shelves, are smooth, made of steel and black iron, reflecting the light.
Light, in fact, is the project’s primary material. Controlled in its sources, grazing surfaces and concealed within the architectural elements, and carefully managed in its diffusion and intensity, it is able to shape and define the space.
Nucleo is an essential, almost archetypal space: a compact interior where matter, light, and movement construct a place of concentrated intensity.
