Full dining room perspective render with central glass aquarium centrepiece, azulejo sailing ship tile murals, half-timber canopy Y-columns, festoon string lights, and warm golden atmosphere

Old Port Bydgoszcz

Architecture, Interiors

LOCATIONBydgoszcz, Poland

YEAR2020-2023

CATEGORYArchitecture, Interiors

AREA330 m2

STUDIODiogo Leitão, Founder, Rise.Design

The Old Port job came through CDI 2 Sp. z o.o. and Grupa Kapitalowa IMMOBILE, the listed Polish property group, where Marek Szofer already had a working relationship with Rise.Design. The building is an 1830–1840 Prussian granary on the Bydgoszcz riverfront, and there was a restaurant in it already, Port 13. The brief was to turn that into a Czech-inspired seafood venue. What the granary gave us cannot be bought: half-timber szachulcowa construction with huge branching Y-columns standing like a canopy over the room, exposed brick, and a water channel already running indoors between the dining areas.

The whole shift here was away from literal theming. Port 13 had said "port" with an indoor stream and a working mill wheel. Cesky Port says it with materials. It was conceived as a modern Czech pub, a slightly more avant-garde gospoda, where the feeling of a Central European tavern comes from light and texture rather than props. Three things carry the atmosphere: wood, brick and living greenery. The first two are the building's own 19th-century fabric. The third is what keeps it from turning into a history lesson. Behind all of it, deep navy saturates the walls, maritime enough to read on a riverfront and dark enough to make the oak and brass work. What comes out is Czech in concept, riverside in character and contemporary in execution.

The design centrepiece was a custom glass aquarium channel placed along the same axis as the existing water feature, but resolved as an illuminated glass-enclosed water body rather than an open stream with bridge railings. The aquarium sits between the timber Y-columns, its transparency and LED illumination making it appear to float within the structural forest of the heritage granary. An isometric construction detail at 1:25 scale documents the custom glass-enclosed design, including structural connections and glass panel specifications.

Warm golden-light overview render showing both dining walls, glass aquarium centrepiece, massive timber Y-columns, upholstered banquette seating, and the full Czech-inspired restaurant atmosphere

The part of this closest to home is the azulejo. Hand-painted Portuguese tile murals of sailing ships, imported from Portugal by Diogo Leitão. They are autobiography and they are site-specific at the same time, since the ships belong on a riverside port as much as they belong to him. Fish-motif border strips frame the murals, which is Portuguese ceramic tradition and a seafood menu in the same gesture. Count the layers: a Czech restaurant concept, in a Prussian granary, on a Polish river, tiled by a Portuguese designer. All of it is in the room on purpose.

Half-timber wall side render with upholstered banquette seating, massive timber Y-columns creating organic canopy effect, azulejo tile panels, and exposed heritage structural elements visible

Azulejo tile wall frontal render showing the hand-painted Portuguese sailing ship murals with fish-motif border tile strips as cultural heritage reference connecting Portuguese tradition to the port

Porthole doors, nautical rope and upholstered banquettes carry the maritime line down into the details you touch. Two bathroom options were drawn. Option A: fish-motif border tiles, glossy navy on the lower wall, ornate carved wooden mirrors, brass Art Deco sconces over marble vanities. Option B: navy to the ceiling, dark botanical wallpaper on the gable end, brass oval medallion cabinets, gold-framed mirrors. The aquarium was designed in full and drawn at construction level. It was never built.

Banquette close-up render with azulejo tile panels, porthole door detail, custom upholstered seating, and the massive half-timber Y-column visible creating the organic structural canopy

Aquarium end view render showing the glass-enclosed water channel between timber Y-columns with dining tables on both sides and festoon string lights in the 190-year-old heritage granary

Women's bathroom render Option A with fish-motif border tiles, glossy navy lower wall tiles, ornate carved wooden mirrors, brass Art Deco Narci sconces, and marble counter vanities

Bathroom dark variant render Option B with full navy blue walls, dark botanical wallpaper on the gable end, brass oval medallion cabinets, gold-framed mirrors, and industrial brass pendant

Single vanity frontal render of the dark bathroom variant Option B with brass medallion storage cabinet, gold-framed mirror, industrial brass pendant light, and navy blue wall tiles

Design finished in 2020. The restaurant opened in June 2023 as Cesky Port. The drawing package runs to a floor plan at 1:100, four wall elevations at 1:50, the aquarium isometric detail at 1:25, and a top-down layout render. You draw at that level when you are working inside a heritage building and every decision has to meet something that is already there.

Azulejo tile wall close-up render showing hand-painted Portuguese sailing ship murals with decorative fish-motif border tiles — a cultural design element connecting the designer's heritage to the maritime location

Aquarium bar view render showing the custom glass-enclosed water channel between timber Y-columns, banquette seating, and the detailed material palette of the 190-year-old heritage granary interior

Bathroom render with ornate carved wooden mirror frame, fish-motif ceramic tiles, brass Art Deco Narci sconces, white marble counter on black metal frame, and green potted plants

Top-down floor plan render showing the complete restaurant spatial layout with central glass aquarium, dining zones flanking both sides, bar area, and kitchen within the 330 square metre heritage granary

Dimensioned interior floor plan at 1:100 scale showing the full restaurant layout with all seating positions, kitchen zone, service areas, and aquarium centreline within the 1830s granary shell

Four wall elevation drawings at 1:50 scale showing all dining room surfaces with material callouts for azulejo tile murals, half-timber structure, exposed brick, and festoon light positions

Aquarium isometric construction detail at 1:25 scale showing the custom glass-enclosed water channel design as three-dimensional axonometric with structural connections and glass panel specifications

Before-renovation interior photograph showing the existing dark-stained half-timber szachulcowa structure, heavy wooden furniture, and old indoor water channel with bridge railings in Port 13 restaurant

Before-renovation photograph showing the original szachulcowa timber-frame wall with white plastered infill panels and curtained windows in the dark heavy interior of the old Port 13

Before-renovation photograph showing the old indoor stream feature running between dining tables with wooden bridge railings — the literal port theming replaced by the glass aquarium centrepiece

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