「音樂是這裡的靈魂所在」走進 Formant Studio 用粗獷骨架打造的 Marne Café，體驗聲音與傢俱的共振
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
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Located in Mexico City’s Roma district, Marne is an organic venue that dissolves the boundaries between architecture, design, and gastronomy. Rooted in the local community, Marne is dedicated to interpreting the local terroir through a high-quality dining experience. Beyond offering carefully selected roasted coffee, freshly baked artisanal bread, and cuisine, the space features a dedicated Wine Bar—offering a private, elegant drinking experience distinct from the café area.
Spanning approximately 130 square meters, the space was entirely conceived and planned by the local architectural firm, Formant Studio. Beyond constructing the structural framework, the design team utilized contemporary design methodologies to interpret the tangible form and meaning of "timelessness." They introduced symbolic elements and principles of Brutalism to establish the visual tone, extending the design narrative into every detail of the space. Through a curated, immersive experience, the flow of form, sound, and object creates a deep, interactive resonance.
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
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Dual Experience: Café x Wine Bar
The interior is divided into two primary functional zones: a vibrant café and dining area facing the main street, and a more intimate Wine Bar hidden at the rear. Although these zones differ in function and usage scenarios, they are unified through consistent material selection, color palettes, and a coherent narrative. This integration allows for a seamless transition between the two distinct social functions—shifting effortlessly from coffee to alcohol.
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
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Raw and Honest Materiality
The core of Brutalism lies in presenting architectural materials in their unadorned state. Marne strips away superfluous decoration, communicating the building’s most naked and captivating state through a rough, pure aesthetic.
Internal walls and ceilings retain the uneven textures of plaster and cement. Together with the metal-structured bar, furniture, frames, and dark-toned wood, the space candidly displays the contrast and weight of interwoven materials, heightening tactile perception. Industrial lighting fixtures—including track lights, linear lamps, and suspended metal tubes—cast soft shadows against the rough walls, deepening the overall visual impact.
Contemporary art pieces hung on the walls, paired with bench cushions upholstered in puffy beige-brown fabric, act like staccato notes on a musical score. They inject vitality and comfort into the neutral-toned space, revealing that a warmth of life still resides here.
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
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Bespoke Furniture Experience
To address both design vocabulary and functional needs—ensuring every object aligns with the spirit of the space—all furniture, including dining chairs, tables, stools, the bar, and lighting fixtures, was custom-designed and built by the Formant Studio team.
This approach of creating everything from scratch is a rare, almost luxurious persistence in contemporary design practice. When interior lines and furniture silhouettes emerge from the same hands, the space naturally generates a high degree of harmony.
Aligned with the needs of both the café and the bar, the furniture layout is rationally planned within this brutalist shell, following a rigorous logic. The designers defined zones for "transit," "short stays," and "lingering," allowing guests—whether quickly sipping an espresso or settling in for a drink—to flexibly find their most suitable spot.
Formant Studio also precisely guided the atmosphere through custom industrial lighting. Suspended linear lights illuminate workspaces, while small table lamps create intimate pockets of light and shadow in seating areas. Some custom side tables feature textured stone or marble tops, adding refined layers to the industrial space.
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
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A Multi-Sensory Experience of Sound and Art
While the day at Marne begins with the aroma of coffee and bread, it is the sound that truly settles the mind. Unlike typical cafés that treat music as background filler, Sound Design here is an architectural element as vital as light, defined as an "indispensable part of the experience." Minimalist black cubic speakers suspended from the ceiling use acoustic effects to diffuse sound evenly from above, reinforcing the enveloping sense of the environment.
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
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When sound transforms into a perceptible material, content becomes key. Marne enhances the atmosphere through a carefully curated musical selection. On the shelves, one finds vinyl records such as Kraftwerk’s The Man-Machine. This type of experimental, avant-garde electronic music aptly echoes the venue’s tonal spirit.
Detailed and intentional sound design injects a flowing aura into the cold architectural frame; musical rhythms vibrate continuously through the air, outlining a multi-sensory dimension that is both modern and emotionally connected via the transmission and resonance of sound waves.
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
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The birth of Marne showcases Formant Studio’s ultimate pursuit of "total design." With an almost obsessive dedication to craftsmanship, the team has carved out a quiet sanctuary in the bustling Roma district. A series of opposing elements—hard and soft, visual and auditory, local and contemporary—harmoniously weave architecture, objects, sound, and flavor into a perfect living entity. This, I believe, is Formant Studio’s definition of "timelessness": not fading with trends, but only gaining a more captivating allure as time settles.
Photo/ Fabián Martínez
Photo/ Fabián Martínez