coffee shop "Albina" (St. Petersburg) Igor Erokhov, Mikhail Sosnilo Interior of the coffee shop "Albina". Complicated architectural and spatial solution with the external simplicity and visual ease of the project

Passing the gallery

A photo: Victor Vasilyev

Text: Olga Gvozdeva

Architect: Igor Erokhov, Mikhail Sosnilo

Builder: Sergey Stupak

Magazine: 52 (2001)

In early spring in St. Petersburg, at the corner of Zhukovsky and Vosstaniya streets, the Albina coffee shop, which is part of the French pastry shop, opened. Visitors are attracted by the open joyful space: it seems that in the role of the fore-sketch was used not a dry pencil drawing, but a transparent watercolor. The architects managed to avoid white, while the purple, yellow and lilac coexist in striking harmony. Specially designed tables perform in a duet with glass floor lamps and “launch” the exact mechanism of associations: Paris, Montmartre, a classic French breakfast ... In the morning you can go for a cup of coffee with a fresh croissant, and in the evening it is not a sin to be tempted by a piece of Oltens cake - custard, with butter cream. However, among the gourmets there are also “gourmets from architecture”. These aesthetes prefer to drink coffee in small sips, while viewing the surrounding space. With all the external simplicity and visual ease of the project, "behind the scenes" there remains a complex architectural solution, to a lesser degree decorative, to a greater extent spatial. Today nothing reminds of former disproportionality. Is that the architects no, no yes, and mentioned it in a conversation with some journalist.