The restoration of the Caffè Nazionale in Arzignano is an open-ended project.

Overlooking the portico of the 19th-century Town Hall of Arzignano, in the province of Vicenza, the newly restored spaces of the historic Caffè Nazionale re-emerge on the city’s main square. The renovation project is signed by AMAA – Collaborative Architecture Office for Research and Development.

The Caffè Nazionale: a local landmark returned to the community

Since its opening in the 1950s, the Caffè has played a central role in the city’s identity, serving as a social meeting place for generations. After nearly three years of closure, the local administration launched a revitalization project in May 2022, with the goal of preserving the Caffè’s historical character.

The intervention by AMAA has returned to the community a place of great cultural value, built around an ethos of preservation and historical respect. At the same time, the project sparked a reflection on the public and social dimension of a venue like the Caffè Nazionale.

Relational spaces

The interior layout follows a trajectory that leads from an open public space to progressively more intimate and private rooms.

The entrance, from Piazza Libertà, is marked by a burnished iron door with a diamond-shaped design and a handle made of green serpentine marble, the only non-transparent opening along the portico. The glass panels flanking the door ensure visual continuity between interior and exterior, further reinforced by the furnishings that extend into the outdoor area.

In the main hall, the custom-designed seating draws inspiration from the work of Donald Judd and the benches of the New York City subway: visitors, facing the square, become spectators of the urban life unfolding outside. At the same time, they participate in staging the relational and functional dimension of the café, with a fully open kitchen visible from the portico.

The theatrical inspiration takes shape on the back wall of the bar area, clad in folded steel sheeting that evokes the drapery of a stage curtain. From this backdrop, a large semi-transparent pivot door opens onto the more intimate spaces of the café.

A vestibule and a minimalist birch garden transport visitors into a metaphysical backstage: a deliberately unfinished space, devoid of color and almost entirely empty, sets a meditative, timeless atmosphere.

The project is infused with the notion of the threshold as a place of passage, transformation, and ritual. This idea takes form in two pivot doors equipped with FritsJurgens systems: one welcoming visitors from the outside, the other mediating between the space that opens onto the square and the more intimate area oriented toward the inner garden—at once dividing and uniting the two realms.

Between memory and the unfinished

The concept of the unfinished is part of a broader notion of temporality that underpins the studio’s approach. The wooden beams in the kitchen find resonance in the imposing coffered ceiling made of plywood in the main hall; the steel curtain wall echoes the shapes of the historical arches, which, in transparency, reveal drawings by artist Stefan Marx—creating a dialogue between the restoration of the existing structure and a contemporary visual language.

In the vestibule, the space resembles a worksite in progress. A sink and tray rest on exposed steel brackets; essential lighting and a glazed view onto the sober inner courtyard: only a few elements inhabit the room, suggesting a non-definitive state, one still evolving—what the architects describe as a “frozen process of construction".

La volontà è quella di rendere visibile e onorare la temporalità del luogo, celebrando il suo passato, come dimostrano, ad esempio, le azioni di restauro che hanno portato alla luce le superfici decorate nascoste sotto alcune contropareti tecniche, ma anche immaginando un futuro possibile, di cui il non finito si fa simbolo, a sottolineare la vivacità di un ambiente che vive di storie, dove la dimensione sociale racconta, e allo stesso tempo riscrive, lo spazio.

The intent is to make visible—and honor—the temporality of the place, celebrating its past, as demonstrated by the restoration work that uncovered decorated surfaces hidden beneath technical wall coverings. At the same time, the project imagines a possible future, symbolized by the unfinished, which highlights the vibrancy of a space shaped by stories—where the social dimension both reflects and rewrites the architecture itself.

>>> Also discover Golden Box, an architecture within architecture, also designed by AMAA.