Bespoke furniture and details, including a colourful swan mosaic, help to evoke the atmosphere of a 1960s pavilion that previously occupied the site of this cafe in Almaty, Kazakhstan, designed by local firm AT Interiors.

The project to revive the Aqqu Central Cafe in Manshuk Mametova Park was initiated following a presidential directive aimed at restoring Almaty's historical identity by recreating some of its 1960s modernist buildings.

AT Interiors has completed the Aqqu cafe in Almaty

The original cafe was a popular meeting place for locals, who associated it with a pair of swans that lived in the adjacent ponds and gave the site its name, since aqqu means white swan in Kazakh.

AT Interiors aimed to translate the spirit of the original open-air kiosk, which was destroyed by fire in 1995, into a year-round restaurant that retains the atmosphere of its predecessor.

Aqqu means white swan in Kazakh

"Given the project's deep social significance, we felt a profound responsibility to honour the collective…