Designed by interior design firm RDD, Tom’s Bar at the Augustine Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic, was celebrated for its modern twist on the historic building’s ecclesiastical inheritance. The Tom’s Bar with its vaulted contemporary has been awarded as the ‘Best Café, Bar, Nightclub or Lounge’ from a European Hotel Design Award. The Augustine is part, and reflecting the group’s mantra: The Art of Simple Luxury, so RDD’s objective was to create a unique lounge bar in keeping with the grand and historic Rocco Forte Collection. The result is a resplendent classic vaulted room which at once reflects the cosmopolitan expectations of its clientele.

Tom’s Bar that named after St Thomas, the patron saint of the 13th century Augustinian monastery that forms one wing of the building, is housed in a beautiful double-height former refectory and later a beer hall, complete with the original ‘Four Angels’ fresco on the ceiling and wrought iron chandeliers. The ceiling frescoes were restored by local craftsmen using traditional lime-based paint to replicate the original colour palette. The barrel-vaulted double height hall provided both inspiration and constraint. In terms of resolution of service problems, a freestanding bar with over-panel display is used to hide the size of air conditioning systems, zone stills and a service elevator while offering an elegant counterpoint to monastic forms throughout the Space.

Interior Design of Toms Bar, modern twist on historic building

Interior Design of Toms Bar, European Hotel Design Award

Interior Design of Toms Bar, Art of Simple Luxury Augustine Hotel in Prague

Interior Design of Toms Bar, vaulted contemporary room

The opaque glass panel behind the bar is internally lit and set in a patinated brass frame, the top bar is located in a beautiful marble Petoria coated glass. Bar character existing doors have been conserved insitu and carefully refurbished, where additional gates were needed, they were designed to complement the existing and new oak flooring has been introduced, under the traditional Baroque . Tom’s Bar takes on Tom’s Arcade, a shaded porch, quiet with comfortable seating where you can crack a book or listen to live music. Lighting plays a key role particularly with uplighters unadorned providing a replacement sympathy for candles of yesteryear.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Interior Design. Tags: air conditioning systems, Augustine Hotel, Bar, Bartending, ceiling frescoes, Czech Republic, Hotel design, Hotel Design Award, hotel in prague, Interior Design, lime-based paint, Lounge music, modern twist on historic building, opaque glass, Prague, Prague hotel, Rocco Forte Collection, Simple Luxury Augustine Hotel, Tom's Arcade, Tom’s Bar, vaulted room, wrought iron chandeliers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.