Upcycled Pop-Up Coffee Kiosk

For the best cappuccino at the Delft University of Technology you should pay a visit to the Sterk2 espresso bar located in the central hall of the architecture faculty. This indoor coffee kiosk is designed and built by 2012 Architects, a recycle architecture office from Rotterdam. The whole construction is made out of pieces of a rather famous building ‘The Black Madonna’ in The Hague. The Black Madonna, a remarkable social housing block built by the neo-rational architect Carel Weeber back in 1985, had to be pulled down in order to build two new towers of the Dutch government. The frames of The Black Madonna could be re-used in this new micro construction. As Jos de Krieger of 2012 Architects told me, he and his colleagues had to literally enter the building site to strip the frames out of the 7 story high apartment building.

The espresso bar is a remake of K*, their other coffee bar which was sadly destroyed by a huge fire last year. The K* consisted of used washing machines, as one can recognize in the windows. This way of working characterizes 2012’s approach. They believe in Superuse, which stands for getting inspired by recycled material used as raw and recognizable as possible. In this sense, their design philosophy is a shortcut within the recycle circle compared with the cradle to cradle ideas as explained by Jos de Krieger at our Pecha Kucha on the Road of last Saturday.