Described as the culmination of the visitor experience within the recently revealed Farsons Brewhouse, the Cisk Tap, located on the rooftop of this iconic industrial building, is seen as the home of Cisk within its former home.
The assignment, as Alberto Miceli-Farrugia, Director and Partner in charge at Openworkstudio, explains, was “to create a space, a place, where patrons can enjoy the freshest brew available at the end of the tour. The Cisk Tap had to communicate the values of Farsons, but it also needed to represent the spirit of Cisk. We also hoped that it would be sufficiently impactful to leave a lasting memory for visitors to take back home with them.”
In collaboration with Forward Architects, the team pursued a design that creates an “uncompromisingly contemporary space, which however purposely references Farsons’ and Cisk’s legacy and history, with a nod towards their future.”
“The Cisk Tap is seen as more than a bar. It is a celebration of the brewery’s most revered brand, loved across the Maltese islands, and an unmissable experience that places the product at ‘home’ – in place and in time – through the visual and physical connection to the company and Malta, its terrain and history.”
The indisputable focal point of the space is the centrally located counter. Its solid appearance complements a more fluid casing, made with pigmented and rammed concrete that is also a reference to layered geological formations.
“It is encased within a crystalline enclosure that serves, in part, as a display case, and recalls in other sections the advertising mirrors that once filled the walls of village bars. The other glazed walls open the space to the ample terraces and views across rooftops towards the nation’s current and past capital cities.”
From the concluding act of the visitor experience tour by day, the Cisk Tap transforms into a premium venue at night. “The subtle references in the décor to the original brewery’s design, and the homely village bar, infuses a sense of familiarity and warmth to those who know the brand and those who encounter it for the first time.”
The Cisk Tap is one piece of the extensive puzzle that saw the Simonds Farsons Cisk Brewery in Mriehel, constructed between 1950 and 1951, transform into a series of modern office, retail and catering spaces.
“Unable to accommodate the exigencies of the modern brewing process, now housed in adjacent structures, the original art deco building’s more industrial spaces have in recent years been transformed into offices,” the team explains.
The original brewhouse, however, and adjoining fermentation halls together with their brewing equipment have been sensitively restored and converted into the new Brewhouse Visitor Experience.
Photos: Alex Attard
