Location: Maros, Indonesia

Design Team: INS Studio

Area: 269 m²

Year: 2025

Photography: Akasa Rana

Design Features: On the emerging commercial edge of Maros, outside Makassar, INS Studio uses a 269 m² three-storey building to respond to a still-open urban setting. The cafe is conceived as more than a single retail floor: eating, working, meeting and community activity rise through the building, bringing everyday occupation progressively closer to the view of Bukit Cenrana.

The ground floor is the project's most open social level, with the coffee bar at its centre. A quieter coworking area and private meeting rooms occupy the floor above, while the stair continues to an open rooftop garden. From there, views pass over the low-density district toward the distant hill. Circulation does more than connect programmes; it choreographs a continuous movement from urban interior to landscape.

Andesite sourced from nearby mountains appears across walls, floors and the coffee counter in a disciplined square pattern. Its dark, tactile surface gives the exposed concrete frame a geological register tied to the region. The stone is not treated as an isolated finish. It remains present wherever visitors walk, lean or pause, establishing a physical connection to the surrounding terrain without resorting to scenic imagery.

Locally made terracotta brick defines the second-floor terrace and rooftop spaces. On the facade facing the strong morning sun, a perforated brick screen filters glare while allowing air from the hills to move through the building. As the viewing angle changes, the grid alternates between a substantial wall and a lens for sky, planting and distant landscape, allowing shade, ventilation and architectural identity to emerge from the same construction.

A full moss wall, cultivated and installed by local gardeners, introduces a moist, finely textured layer against the harder field of stone, concrete and brick. The rooftop garden can also host small exhibitions, gatherings and outdoor events, extending the building beyond its commercial role. Through local material, passive airflow and a vertically unfolding public sequence, Common Days Cafe turns an everyday venue into a gradual ascent toward the landscape.

Design Team: INS Studio is an architecture practice based in Makassar, Indonesia, led by architect Wisnu Wardhana. Its portfolio spans houses, cafes, hospitality interiors and community-oriented projects, including ES House, Roket x Backhaus, MKO Culture and Tao Bun Literacy House. Across these works, tropical climate, everyday use and locally available construction resources become closely linked parts of the design process.

Wisnu Wardhana served as lead architect for Common Days Cafe, working with design team members Rima Pratiwi and Wina Syahrir. Fauzi Surjan led the technical work, and Mata Ruang was the general contractor. The project continues the studio's interest in local material and open social space, integrating andesite, terracotta brick, moss planting and natural ventilation as one architectural system rather than a series of separate effects.