According to the food art design company Bompas & Parr, physically drinking alcohol is not the best way to cope with a long week at the office. Instead, the U.K.-based studio thinks unwinding with an “alcoholic weather system for your tongue” is totally the ideal way to de-stress. Because of this, Bompas & Parr plans to open what it calls Alcoholic Architecture — a fancy way of saying a roomful of alcoholic mist — in London at the end of July, and intend to run the unique “bar” for six months.
For those across the pond lucky enough to enjoy such a bar, just $20 (or £12.50) buys visitors access to this walk-in cocktail for up to one hour. Before stepping foot into the inhabitable drink, the company urges guests to don a special poncho-style cape to avoid drenching their clothes in the mist, and subsequently reeking like alcohol upon leaving. The room itself utilizes a powerful humidifier which saturates the air with various spirits and mixers resulting in a 1:3 ratio. Visibility inside the room will also be at an extreme premium — no more than three feet — as the designers aim to set the humidity to a muggy 140 percent.
While inside the box, attendees absorb the alcoholic mix via mucous membranes, as well as through their lungs and eyes. Bompas & Parr consulted with a host of respiratory scientists who helped devise the proper alcoholic mixture, as well as how long people should feasibly stay inside. The results of the collaboration showed 40 minutes spent in the room allows people to feel as buzzed as they would after having one fairly stiff drink. Due to these findings, the company limits people to visiting Alcoholic Architecture for just 60 minutes, once per day. Though for those who want to double dip, the studio says it plans to sell liquid alcohol meaning patrons have the ability to fill nearly every available orifice with alcohol for a solid hour.
For as unique as Alcoholic Architecture and Bompas & Parr’s idea is, what it plans to serve inside the box is even more intriguing. Focused on solely serving beer and alcohol concocted by monks, the studio’s drink list consists of Trappist beer, Buckfast, Benedictine, and Chartreuse, among others. The company also decided to construct this alcoholic weather system in London’s Borough Market, right next to one of the area’s oldest gothic cathedrals and smack dab in the middle of an ancient monastery.
Our lone grip with this killer concept is it remains a London-only gig, otherwise we’d be first in line to see what all this fuss about alcoholic mist is about.
