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Top 10
Top 5 bars of the future
After creating a glass for intergalactic explorers to sip whisky in outer space, Ballantine’s has asked five visionaries to put their imaginations to the test and design bars of the future.
These are the top five space bars of the future designed by leading visionaries
It may have been Back to the Future Day yesterday, when Marty McFly time travelled 21 October 2015 in the second installment of the classic 80s trilogy, but these futuristic bars are something even Doc Brown couldn’t have imagined.
As Richard Branson keeps busy perfecting Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial space shuttle, the likelihood of needing to create bars suited to a space environment is increasing.
Ballantine’s visualised the future of space travel with the creation of a special tumbler designed to suit a gravity-free environment.
The glass a rose gold-plated stainless steel bottom containing a spiral straw through which the whisky is able to climb. Its base is also magnetic for practicality purposes, thus allowing space travellers to stick the glass to the side of the space ship.
The prototype was “scientifically validated” through testing at the ZARM Drop Tower in Bremen, Germany – a 480-foot tall laboratory facility.
Click through the following pages to see some creative conceptions of futuristic bars in which glass could be put to good use. All illustrations are by Marie Bergeron.
Ben Davis – director of photography, Guardians of the Galaxy
British cinematographer Ben Davis has worked on a number of famous films, including Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Wrath of the Titans and Seven Psychopaths, and has recently collaborated on Marvel Comics’ Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy.
He says: “A bar in space in the near future…I suppose first one would have to think of the technicalities, I’m imagining this bar is on some sort of space station, platform or even on an orbiting asteroid. The gravitational issues would have to be addressed and rather than creating a venue with a gravitational source, let’s imagine zero gravity is embraced.
“Liquid could move around this space and be gathered by the patrons either by a receptacle or straight into the mouth. I see no reason for people to be tethered or strapped in and I think they would move around the space freely. The space would have to be designed to allow this.
“I imagine the station orbits a planet or sun that provides the light source and the main aspect of the bar and opening times would be based on its orbit of the planet, i.e. to coincide with sunrise or sunset. The space would be functional and industrial as I am picturing pioneering space travel and a place for workers to relax; music would be a part of this and technologies would be basic and purely functional.”
Simon Guerrier and Dr Marek Kukula, authors of The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who
Simon Guerrier is a science fiction author and dramatist, and one of the principal writers behind the much beloved fictional universe of Doctor Who. Alongside Dr Marek Kukula, the Public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, they have written the The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who, which explores the possibilities of time travel, life on other planets, artificial intelligence and parallel universes.
They say: “A lot of what we think of as cool 1960s design is really an attempt to answer this question, imagining a space aesthetic imported back to Earth. It would be fun to make the most of being in space by building the bar into the rock of an asteroid or the ice of a comet, or have it focused around enormous windows to emphasise the view.
“But if you were really to construct a bar in space, perhaps you’d want it to remind you of the comforts of home, like the English pubs you get in tourist resorts in other countries.
“How can you even have a bar in a weightless environment? On the International Space Station, they use Velcro to stick things down, so perhaps there’d be Velcro strips on the bar to stick your glass to, and Velcro on the bar stools to stick you down, too. For all you might have glasses that work in zero or low gravity, you’d also need to think about spillages. There’s a reason pubs on Earth have dark and patterned carpets – but what about when blobs of liquid can float anywhere?
“So we imagine our bar as a traditional English pub looking out on the majestic landscape of an asteroid. There’ll be plenty of Velcro on all our furniture and dark, stainhiding carpets on the walls and ceilings. Our microbrewery will offer a range of flavoured vodkas, each with its own special kick guaranteed to make your eyes water. Patrons are advised to drink in moderation as vomit in a zerogravity environment is not nice.”
Jamie Bamber – Captain Apollo, Battlestar Gallactica
A favourite among sic-fi fans, Jamie Bamber is famous for playing Lee “Apollo” Adama in the hit television series Battlestar Galactica.
He says: “I’ve done bars in space. And they were no different to those on earth. I’ve been there to find someone. I’ve been there to forget someone. I’ve drunk alone. I’ve drunk to share. But they were windowless places to put your back to the world. And that was fiction. When I hit this space bar it would be just that. Space. The space to contemplate. No backs to the world, all glass, a sphere, like our own, orbiting our own, with everyone facing out, the bar circular. But there would be two choices. Inner or outer.
“Those choosing inner would face our planet as they orbit closely, contemplating, the different continents as the scroll past, our past. Those choosing outer would face the stars and galaxies beyond, contemplating our aspirations, the space we might be pushed to.
“But each section would have its own inner and outer. Outer for buzz. Inner for peace. A convenient vacuum soundproofing them from each other. This might be our future, but this space honours our past. The only concession to technology would be an individual glass screen on the bar top, at each table; a screen to enhance whatever you are contemplating, whatever has drifted into view, images, live events, histories, theories, or simply to connect and share your thoughts with loved ones back on Earth or further out into the dark.
“The only rule would be no straws or squeezable packaged space drinks. Real glasses, real ice. Real ale, real scotch, all sipped from stools and booths you lock onto magnetically, from glasses with magnetic bottoms. How you keep the froth from floating off is your concern (the retractable glass caps might help).
“But at least you can’t slip, and drunkenly bang your head.”
Lucy McRae – body architect and artist
Describing herself as a ‘body architect’, Lucy McRae trained as a classical ballerina and an architect, and her body of artistic work involves inventing and building structures on the skin that reshape the human silhouette.
She says: “My impressions of a weightless bar, takes the form of a malleable swimming pool that serves various functions; first and foremost the volume of water surrounds and protects the body from cosmic rays (radiation).
“Each inhabitant wears a liquid textile, made from transparent tubes delivering air and consumable-able liquids to the mouth. This neutrally buoyant environment, feels sublime as the body floats in water, as it floats weightlessly without gravity.”
Studio Swine – Designers of the Future 2015 (Telegraph Luxury Design Visionaries)
Studio Swine is a collaboration between Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves. Operating in the fields of design, fashion and architecture, Studio Swine has worked with Swarovski & Droog and have exhibited at the Barbican, V&A, New York & London Fashion Week and Gwangju Biennale curated by Ai Wei Wei. Swine has been awarded international awards including the Gold Prize at BIO23 Biennale of Design Slovenia, and were awarded Designers of the Future at Design Miami/Basel in June 2015.
Studio Swine says: “When one thinks of bars in the future who doesn’t get that Cantina jazz music in your head or the three breasted prostitute from the bar in Venusville, Mars, that iconic red light district. According to Sci-Fi the bars will get sleazier and more dangerous and aliens from different species will communicate in the language of jazz.
“Pluto would be a great place for such a bar, as we know from the latest New Horizons mission the planet is a giant ice bucket. It takes nine years to get there so really the punters have no other choice and it’s the first port of call for visiting aliens from other solar systems. It’s far outside Earths legislation and so unregulated mining, gambling and brothels will make the Wild West look like daytime TV. It’s going to be wild and what happens on Pluto stays on Pluto, or at least in the Kuiper Belt.”