inspired by japanese listening bars, isern serra’s JAÇ hifi café opens in barcelona
JAÇ Hifi Café: A space for listening in barcelona
The newly opened JAÇ Hifi Café is a celebration of music, interior design, and coffee along Barcelona‘s Avinguda Diagonal. Curated by Spanish designer Isern Serra Studio for clients Ligia and Arnau, the café opened in July 2025 with a name that resonates on several levels. It’s a nod to jazz itself, a reference to Japan’s jazz kissa culture, and in Catalan, the word ‘jaç,’ meaning to recline and let go.
Inspired by Japanese jazz kissa — intimate listening bars that emerged in the 1950s — JAÇ embraces the tradition of music-first spaces. These historic venues favored wood-paneled interiors and speaker-focused seating to bring an atmosphere of shared listening and quiet attention.
images © Salva López
isern serra’s catalan design through a japanese lens
Designer Isern Serra reinterprets that kissa philosophy for a contemporary Mediterranean context, balancing tactile materials with a relaxed sense of hospitality. Covering 95 square meters (1,022 square feet), the café unfolds in a sequence of zones, each designed to create a different relationship with music and people, and with the city outside.
Visitors enter through a lounge hosting a concrete-based sofa with custom cushions. A sculptural Akari E lamp by Isamu Noguchi and walnut tables with lacquered beige tops set a soft, welcoming tone, while a Chidy Wayne artwork lends a graphic visual counterpoint.
JAÇ Hifi Café brings a Japanese jazz kissa tradition to Barcelona
furniture as sound architecture
The layout flows toward a monolithic walnut bar crafted by Fusteria Vidal that doubles as a giant speaker cabinet. Integrating a baked-goods display, vinyl shelves, and custom Bloom Island speakers, the bar reflects the kissa tradition of treating audio equipment as part of the architecture. The design team, led by Isern Serra, wanted the sound system to feel inseparable from the furniture, so that music becomes part of the room’s physical presence.
At the center, a stainless-steel table with a subtle brutalist edge occupies the space. Above it, Antoni Arola’s Lámina pendant casts a diffused glow, softening the crisp geometry and enhancing the table’s sculptural quality.
Isern Serra designs the warm and refined interiors
Toward the rear, a sweeping walnut installation curves across the walls and ceiling to form a semi-enclosed listening alcove. Built by Fusteria Vidal and divided by a cylindrical column lined with vinyl records, it houses stainless-steel Bloom Island speakers and low walnut tables with custom cushions. A Disco wall lamp by 20th century designers Jordi Miralbell and Mariona Reventós adds a sense of theatricality and creates an intimate cocoon of sound.
Additional nooks include a window niche that frames street views, and a facade clad in iroko wood stained as a continuation of the walnut interior. Four circular indents on the door allude to speaker cones, giving passersby a glimpse of the café’s sonic spirit.
a listening alcove creates an intimate cocoon for sound
the walnut bar doubles as a massive speaker cabinet
warm beige microcement contrasts with rich walnut surfaces
midcentury lighting shapes the atmosphere and marks transitions
custom Bloom Island speakers are integrated into the furniture
project info:
name: JAÇ Hifi Café
interior designer: Isern Serra | @isernserra
location: Avinguda Diagonal 335, Barcelona, Spain
team leader, styling: Aasheen Mittal
photography: © Salva López | @salvalopez
carpentry: Fusteria Vidal
metalwork: Cabestany
sound system: Bloom Island
lighting: Akari E – Vitra by Isamu Noguchi / Lamina – Santa y Cole by Antoni Arola / Disco – Santa y Cole by Jordi Miralbell and Mariona Reventós
technical lighting: Wever & Ducre
artwork: Chidy Wayne
graphic design: NRJ Studio
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