TRADER HiFi by Vincent von Thien sits within Hamburg’s Ottensen district as a quiet address for sound and coffee, conceived as an interior where listening is treated as a spatial practice.
Developed by founder Vincent von Thien, the project draws from the lineage of Japan’s postwar jazz kissa—rooms calibrated for attention—while recasting the typology for contemporary café culture, with a focus on acoustic clarity, restrained materiality and a carefully measured sense of calm.
Housed within a 70-square-metre unit, the design begins with a clear organisational premise: two anchor elements shape the plan, a monolithic coffee bar and a dedicated DJ HiFi setup. From these fixed points, the room is arranged into two distinct zones. At the front, a low-slung listening area gathers around the booth and speakers in an immersive, near-lounge configuration. Toward the rear, a more intimate nook rises in height, offering a quieter vantage for conversation and the slower choreography of pour-over brewing. A wood-framed glazed shopfront, designed to open in warmer months, extends the room outward and softens the boundary between interior and street.
Material choices reinforce the project’s tonal discipline. At the centre, a single concrete bar was cast in situ as one uninterrupted piece—mineral, heavy and deliberately spare—paired with the polished sheen of a chrome Modbar system. Dark cork, supplied by Corkinho, wraps the ceiling, the DJ booth and key surfaces throughout the interior, acting as both acoustic treatment and atmospheric veil. Its porous texture introduces warmth against the bar’s raw mass, absorbing light and tempering the room’s hard edges.
