Fabio Fantolino Reimagines the 1960s Workplace as a Turin Cocktail Bar

Words by Yatzer

19 May 2026

Fabio Fantolino Reimagines the 1960s Workplace as a Turin Cocktail Bar

Words by Yatzer

19 May 2026

Bar Aesthetics

Turin, Italy

It's not often that office design provides the inspiration for a hospitality project, let alone a cocktail bar. Yet in the case of Lève Office Bar in Turin by Fabio Fantolino, the reference feels unexpectedly apt. Not because the project indulges in nostalgia for corporate culture, but because it looks back to a very specific moment in workplace history, the 1960s, when office interiors began shedding the rigid layouts of post-war modernism in favour of environments that were more fluid, expressive and psychologically attuned to the people inhabiting them. It was a decade when Space Age materials and finishes, from chrome-plated surfaces and wood veneers to bold lacquers, replaced institutional greys and muted greens; when the office evolved from a purely functional machine into a carefully choreographed social landscape.

At Lève Office Bar, Fantolino translates the visual language of mid-century office design into a hospitality environment that feels cinematic rather than thematic. Located in Turin's city centre, the bar unfolds as a sequence of three interconnected spaces, each calibrated through material contrasts, colour rhythms and subtle shifts in atmosphere.

The cashier station at Lève Office Bar in Turin, designed by Fabio Fantolino. A curved walnut counter with a red lacquered fascia faces the street-facing glazing, framing a view of Turin's ornate Baroque architecture beyond. Tropical foliage adds an unexpected organic note, while the herringbone terracotta tile floor and pendant lamps visible through the glass reinforce the project's midcentury-modern identity.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

The entrance area of Lève Office Bar by Fabio Fantolino in Turin, where a brushed stainless-steel counter meets deep red enamel walls and walnut veneer ceilings. A sculptural curved wood column frames a stainless-steel staircase balustrade, while a herringbone brick-toned tile floor anchors the midcentury-modern composition. Directional signage adds a deadpan office note.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

The main bar counter of Lève Office Bar in Turin by Fabio Fantolino: a monolithic stainless-steel island set against a deep red enamel backdrop, with walnut veneer overhead and a herringbone terracotta tile floor below. Linear pendant lighting in white descends from a dark ceiling, accentuating the material precision of this midcentury-modern hospitality interior.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

A transitional view across the two main spaces of Lève Office Bar in Turin by Fabio Fantolino, capturing the shift from the terracotta herringbone-tiled bar area to the vivid green resin floor of the dining room beyond. Walnut veneer frames the threshold, with chrome-framed chairs and red tabletops glimpsed through the opening. The stainless-steel counter and red enamel wall anchor the foreground.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

The lower-level seating area of Lève Office Bar in Turin, designed by Fabio Fantolino. A continuous wall-hugging banquette in gathered bronze leather sits beneath modular walnut panelling hung with framed black and white photographs. Mart Stam S33 cantilevered chairs in chrome and black leather face red lacquered tabletops, all set on a vivid avocado-green resin floor — a palette firmly rooted in midcentury-modern Italian design.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

A long stainless-steel counter stretching through the first space sets the tone. Behind it, the back wall in deep red enamel lends the room a cinematic warmth, while a herringbone floor in earthy brick tones softens the atmosphere, tempering the cool precision of steel. Carefully modulated lighting accentuates these material contrasts, allowing reflective surfaces to shift throughout the day while lending the space a subdued glow after dark.

Fantolino leans more explicitly into the visual codes of 1960s office interiors in the double-height second space where stainless steel, mirrors and chrome detailing interact with walnut wood panelling and leather upholstery in a composition that feels both controlled and inviting. A green resin floor extends across the lower level like a continuous colour field, grounding the space in the saturated palette characteristic of the era, against which the red enamel tabletops make a vivid counterpoint. A luminous ceiling grid, echoing the recessed fluorescent lighting typical of forward-looking 1960s office environments, reinforces the room's graphic clarity with Mart Stam's S33 cantilevered chairs in chrome and black leather completing the scheme’s modernist register.

A booth seating arrangement on the lower level of Lève Office Bar in Turin by Fabio Fantolino. Mart Stam S33 chairs in chrome and brown leather face a gathered bronze leather banquette beneath a gridded mirror ceiling with warm luminous panels. A single black and white photograph punctuates the walnut-panelled wall, lit by a small wall-mounted picture light. The green resin floor anchors the midcentury-modern composition. — Photography by Luca Argenton.

A wide view of the lower level at Lève Office Bar, Turin, by Fabio Fantolino. A gridded mirror ceiling — evoking the recessed fluorescent lighting of 1960s progressive office interiors — multiplies the warm glow of embedded light panels above walnut-clad walls. Red enamel tabletops, chrome-framed cantilevered chairs and a continuous green resin floor compose a saturated, precisely calibrated midcentury-modern interior. — Photography by Luca Argenton.

A banquette end detail at Lève Office Bar, Turin, by Fabio Fantolino. Gathered bronze leather seating terminates against walnut panelling, with a brushed stainless-steel panel and smoked mirror above catching the warm ambient glow. To the left, a glass block partition introduces an unexpected textural element, its relief surface playing against the smooth, planar materials that define the rest of the space.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

Another perspective of the lower level of Lève Office Bar in Turin by Fabio Fantolino, with natural light cutting across the avocado-green resin floor. The gridded mirror ceiling reflects the walnut-panelled room back on itself, deepening the sense of enclosure. Mart Stam S33 chairs in chrome and brown leather line the red lacquered tabletops along a lit banquette, the composition at once controlled and warmly inviting.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

The lower level of Lève Office Bar in Turin by Fabio Fantolino, photographed through the double-height glazing from street level. A continuous gathered bronze leather banquette runs the length of the walnut-panelled wall, with red lacquered tabletops and Mart Stam S33 chairs arranged along the avocado-green resin floor. The smoked glass balustrade of the mezzanine level floats above, framing the interior's midcentury-modern layering from the outside.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

An overhead detail of the lower level at Lève Office Bar, Turin, by Fabio Fantolino. Two red lacquered tabletops with polished steel edges and trumpet bases sit on an avocado-green resin floor alongside a Mart Stam S33 chair in chrome and dark leather. The gathered bronze leather banquette and walnut panelling above complete a colour composition that distils the project's midcentury-modern palette to its essentials.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

A table setting on the lower level of Lève Office Bar, Turin, by Fabio Fantolino, viewed from the mezzanine above. A red lacquered tabletop with polished steel edges is flanked by Mart Stam S33 chairs on an avocado-green resin floor. Wall-mounted picture lights illuminate framed black and white photographs against walnut panelling, with the gridded mirror ceiling doubling the warm amber glow.

Photography by Luca Argenton.

The lower level of Lève Office Bar in Turin by Fabio Fantolino, seen through the gridded mirror ceiling that fragments and multiplies the interior into a kaleidoscopic field of warm wood, amber light and gathered bronze leather. The continuous wall banquette, Mart Stam S33 chairs and green resin floor are reflected across smoked mirror panels, dissolving the room's boundaries with characteristic 1960s spatial theatricality. — Photography by Luca Argenton.

A perspective view along the mezzanine level of Lève Office Bar in Turin, designed by Fabio Fantolino. Booth-like seating in textured brown bouclé lines the walnut-panelled corridor, paired with red enamel tabletops and chrome-framed chairs. Retro-inspired pendant lamps with opaline glass shades punctuate the warm, amber-lit atmosphere. Black and white photographs punctuate the panelled wall. — Photography by Luca Argenton.

Above, the mezzanine level offers perhaps the clearest nod to the open-plan office typology emerging in post-war America. Small booth-like sofas with textured bouclé backs in mustard yellow act as soft partitions between tables, subtly recalling the modular workstations that began replacing enclosed offices during the decade. Enveloped by red laminate and timber boiserie accented with slim metal trims, and punctuated by retro-inspired pendant lamps, the space channels the mid-century luxury of the well-appointed executive floor.

What makes Lève Office Bar compelling is the way it reframes the office as a site of social possibility rather than bureaucratic monotony. By revisiting a moment when workplace design itself became more experimental, sensual and human-centric, Fantolino reveals an unexpected kinship between hospitality and the modern office: both are, ultimately, about shaping how people gather, interact and inhabit space together.