Café Alpha

photo: Vladimír Novotný / kiva.cz

Do you know what livestock, a helium nucleus, and the Moon have in common?
“…and ALFA was placed as the first letter of the alphabets because in ancient Phoenician it named livestock, which meant not the second or third, but the first of all necessities.”
“As an ALFA particle, the helium nucleus is referred to in particle physics. It is essentially a helium atom from which the electron shell has been removed.”
“According to Plutarch's natural order of assigning vowels to individual planets, ALFA was associated with the Moon.”

CAFÉ ALFA is located in the Alfa Passage in the center of Brno. In the autumn of 2010, the café began operating in a new design that draws on the functionalist tradition of this famous architectural monument by Bohuslav Fuchs.
The interior design was inspired by the purity and simplicity of functionalist establishments and the geometry of Piet Mondrian's paintings. During the reconstruction, some previous modifications of the space by the architectural studio RAW of Tomáš Rusín and Ivan Wahly were preserved. These were complemented by simple furniture combining black-stained wood and welded profiles of polished stainless steel. Mirrors for optical enlargement of the space were placed on the perforated walls concealing subdued lighting.
The most striking authorship intervention is the color composition of the interior in red, green, and black and white. The geometric solution is complemented by interchangeable wallpaper featuring the café's visuals and a distinctly graphic painting on the ceiling beams and edges of the tables.