Located in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, the spartan cafe ‘Hoof’ completed by Dubai-based design studio Bone rejects conventional design stereotypes, exploring instead the functional aspects of horse stables while embodying aesthetics of Brutalist architecture.

The space was commissioned by three friends with a shared devotion for horses and show jumping, and a passion for specialty coffee. Using these intriguing aspects as their architectural drive, the studio designed a minimal and familiar space that would functionally and aesthetically recall horse stalls, through earthy materiality, industrial mechanisms, and detailed construct techniques. 

In their own words, “Hoof embodies a Brutalist reinterpretation of countryside equine architecture where the physical discrepancies between noble, interior, and exterior materials, as well as utilitarian and natural finishes, play an integral role in defining a sensorial architecture.”