The vibes out in the world may not be so good, but inside, there’s music in the air. As a broader movement toward analog nostalgia and intentional listening gathers momentum, new hubs emerge for listeners to find collective respite. Nightclubs rediscover their rhythm with experiential, design-driven concepts. A recent swell in artful hi-fi speaker design only further reflects a transmuted landscape of musical appreciation. From Miami to Minato, Japan, explore elevated interiors designed in service to sound.
Car Part Time
Brooklyn
A 2,000-square-foot concrete shell in Williamsburg is revived by Office of Tangible Space into both a classic car gallery and a hub for design, architecture, and culture. Vintage lighting and floor-to-ceiling linen curtains soften raw interiors populated with modern furniture. Custom millwork pieces flank a central lounge to form a bar and listening station.
Silence Please
New York
Sound, hospitality, and community create a clear visual rhythm in an environment designed for intentional listening on the Bowery. The linear gallery for the hi-fi company Silence Please is endowed with custom Baltic birch plywood furnishings by Graine Studio, including tables, chairs, and tripod speakers wrapped in a medley of materials. Low ceilings instill intimacy in the rear cafe, while a skylight enlivens the loft’s central axis, where a pair of darkly washed tables abut a listening area populated with black leather sofas and aluminum horn speakers.
Shyboy
Dallas
Redolent of post-World War II Tokyo jazz kissas, this 3,000-square-foot hi-fi bar spans subterranean bank vaults converted by 5G Studio Collaborative. Upon preserved raw concrete, cove lighting is cued to change color in sync with musical tempos generated by custom Ojas speakers, while an artwork by Lachlan Turczan composed of water and light also responds to sound waves in the air.
Ojas Tokyo and Karimoku Furniture: Between Space & Sound
Minato, Japan
The Japanese cultural concept of ma, which explores distance and space across physical, temporal, and psychological realms, served as the inspiration for a new partnership between sound-system designer Devon Turnbull and Karimoku Furniture. The space features three new Ojas speakers and a minimalist seating design comprising curved tatami mats with or without a storage base showcased in a trio of transformed settings, including a tearoom as well as a listening room outfitted with wooden horn speakers and custom acoustic screens.
Midline Miami
Miami
SINCLAIR COLLECTIVE and Moyano Productions reposition a 2-story industrial space in Wynwood into an experiential nightlife escape. Molded-fiberglass grating panels and translucent acrylic sheets frame linear LEDs that line walls and ceilings, appearing to respond to the rhythm. Clubgoers animate the hypnotic light design as they dance.
Colbo Next Door
New York
The downtown retail concept expands with a vinyl and wine bar touting a refined industrial flair designed by Of Enso. Custom pendants and sconces made from Colbo’s own deadstock fabrics infuse soft tactility across raw steel and concrete walls. Modular wood furnishings are accented by six bright-red custom speakers crafted in collaboration with hi-fi producer One-a-Way.
Green Room
Brooklyn
Discreet d&b audiotechnik speakers minimize the footprint of the sound system, allowing heaping greenery to become the visual anchor inside East Williamsburg’s newest club. Designed in collaboration with Jack Simonds, the space is wrapped in black leathered marble, and interiors place emphasis on unique tactility, with plywood, natural velvet, and calf leather enriching the sensory experience. Cloudlike glass bulbs and bent neon tubes imbue the space with an ethereal radiance and soft color as well.