Project: The Friendly’s Music Pub
Architects: Kvadrat Architects
Location: Astana, Kazakhstan
Area: 4,843 sf
Photographs by: Gleb Kramchaninov
Astana is a young capital, so locations with history can be counted on the fingers. One of them is a music pub The Friendly’s. The spirit of history is an English traditional establishment with elements of industrial style and American bar.
Here many years ago opened one of the oldest legendary pubs of the city. Changed owners of the premises, concepts, but not the interior. The wood and leather soaked up the smells and aged beautifully, revealing the charm of the natural texture. The current owner has retained the ambiance of an English pub, but has added features of a traditional American bar and industrial style.
The pub lives life to the fullest every night with live music ranging from rock to jazz, standup festivals, and DJs blasting the venue.
There are plenty of entertaining details that open out of the blue. At the far end of the hallway is a secret door with a barn lock. At any moment it could open and the bartender will hand you a pour on the house. Among the pub’s regulars this place is called Harry Potter’s room – it’s mysterious and under the stairs. No one knows exactly when the secret door opens.
In the ladies’ room is a statue of Apollo with a fig leaf covering his nakedness. But unlike the museum sculpture, this one has a leaf that can be lifted. When this happens, a lamp in the bar lights up and visitors greet the girl with applause for her inquisitiveness and openness.
In the men’s room there are also many surprises: a mirror with which you can measure your height (it hangs at two meters level), a urinal with a sensor that starts music.
If you manage to get to the dressing room, pay attention to the gallery wall of musicians from “Club 27” – they are rock legends, who left this world early, but gave it their energy and creativity.
Light, furniture, décor: custom-made by local manufacturers to the design of the authors of the project.
-Project description and images provided by Kvadrat Architects
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