You can work and play inside Ghent’s pink-hued XYZ Lounge and Bar, designed by Didier Fiúza Faustino.

The Portuguese architect’s first bar design sits inside the city’s Zebrastraat – a mixed-use apartment and culture centre – and blends dreamy pastel shades with Kubrick-style futurism.

‘The XYZ Lounge is an intersection, a space where paths meet,’ says Faustino. ‘It is the central point for exchanges between the visitors of the conference centre of Zebrastraat in Ghent.’

Unfurling across 360 sqm, XYZ Lounge and Bar encompasses several public bar areas, as well as events spaces and mezzanine seating areas that lead to the centre’s lecture halls and conference rooms.

When designing the space, Faustino asked himself, ‘during a time where social, sexual, and gender identities are upturned and questioned, how may one provide a space which is both neutral and sensual, a space free from social markers, without tailoring to a singular identity?’

‘Post-gender’ blush tones take cues from the natural veins found in the bar’s Y-shaped Carrara marble-topped tables. Meanwhile, bold bursts of olive green come from Faustino’s specially designed Delete Yourself chairs and sumptuous drapes hung inside the events space.

Working with the building’s existing shell, Faustino also remodelled the entrance of the bar to frame views of a Panamarenko sculpture, which is suspended from the ceiling.

Exposed aluminium piping and metallic elements heighten the futuristic vibe inside the cathedral-like space and contrast diamond-shaped acoustic panels, stucco and Carrera marble wall coverings.

Zebrastraat 32, 9000 Ghent

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