Client: SKRIK
Architectural design: Chrisoula Fotsitzi Project location: Listed Building, Old Town of RethymnoBuilt area: 47,00 m2 Design Phase: 2023 Completion Year: 2024 Photo credits: David Movsesyan Graphic identity: HUT creative studio
Skrik (Norwegian for “The Scream”) draws its identity from Edvard Munch’s iconic painting, where color intensity and fluid form transform emotion into space. The new architectural concept aims to translate this vibration into a spatial experience, expressing the painting’s curved lines through form, materiality, and light.
Flowing curvilinear gestures organize the composition, guiding the gaze toward the central core — the preparation bar. Designed as an open-kitchen-style bar, it creates direct interaction between barista and visitor. Transparency, immediacy, and participation shape the atmosphere, as the space “breathes” around human connection.
Wood is chosen as the main material, celebrating its warmth, natural texture, and ability to take on fluid forms. Pine plywood becomes both a structural and expressive medium: its layered edges evoke the swirling skies of Munch’s painting, while its flexibility allows the creation of curved, embracing surfaces that define the space.
The chromatic simplicity of the interior is enriched by the color palette of the new brand, designed by Hut Creative Studio. Shades of deep blue and vivid pink create contrast and personality, bringing a street attitude that reinforces the urban and youthful character of Skrik. These tones inject energy and dynamism, balancing the emotional tension of Munch’s work with the warmth of natural materiality.
Material, light, and movement converge to create an atmosphere of emotional intensity and calmness — much like the duality within the painting itself. Skrik is not merely a coffee shop, but a spatial expression of emotion, where the daily ritual of coffee transforms into an aesthetic and sensory experience.
