Tweet

Award-winning London-based interior architecture studio A-nrd has completed the design of No Velvet Rope Society, a new VIP space at iconic nightclub Ministry of Sound.

Housed on a newly reworked mezzanine above The Box – the club’s legendary main room – the project redefines what a VIP experience means, dismantling the idea of exclusivity in favour of immersion.

The commission comes in A-nrd’s 10th anniversary year and marks a departure from the studio’s recent restaurant and hospitality projects. While very different in typology, the project reflects the breadth of the practice’s design language – transportive, highly crafted, and rooted in material expression – applied here to one of London’s most iconic nightlife institutions.

Led by founder Alessio Nardi and creative partner Lukas Persakovas, the design references Ministry’s cult origins, its brutalist context in Elephant & Castle, and its legacy as a rebellious, hedonistic, culture-defining venue. Rather than separating VIP guests from the action, the mezzanine has been opened up to create a direct connection with the dance floor, ensuring that the atmosphere, energy and sound of The Box are shared. The result is a raw yet elevated interior – monolithic, tactile and unapologetic – that embeds guests within the heart of the club.

For Nardi and Persakovas, both of whom have a personal passion for nightlife, the project carried particular resonance. Nardi grew up frequenting Plastic in Milan, one of the city’s most iconic clubs since the 1980s, while Persakovas was a regular in clubs across the Netherlands and Germany. Their shared experiences of clubbing informed the approach, ensuring the space feels authentic to the hedonistic, immersive spirit of Ministry itself.

Guests arrive through graffitied corridors and postered walls before ascending to the mezzanine, where the space unfolds as a layered composition of concrete, terrazzo, velvet and steel. Central to the scheme is a new concrete bar that stretches across the rear wall.

Its monolithic, stepped geometry, topped with a chunky grey-black terrazzo counter, references the brutalist architecture of Elephant and Castle. The back wall is finished in raw concrete, echoing the other surfaces of the mezzanine and reinforcing the sense of weight and permanence. Illuminated from beneath with a warm orange glow, the bar acts as a sculptural anchor to the room, while a linear bottle display creates rhythm and depth.

In front of the bar, a stepped raised floor creates a central seating area, orienting all views towards The Box. All of the furniture was designed bespoke by A-nrd, developing a language of bold, rounded forms that counterbalance the rawness of the architecture. Two distinct zones of booth seating introduce contrast and rhythm. To the rear, generously proportioned booths are upholstered in a Panaz Allure Ink velvet, their simplicity and weight anchoring the space.

At the front, booths in Gancedo Chromatic Wine, a textured chenille velvet, add a more expressive note, distinguished by their double-roll plinths – a layered, rounded base detail that accentuates softness and depth. Across both, the booths are designed with exaggerated roundness to counter the starkness of the bar and concrete shell yet remain true to the monolithic language of the scheme. Their fabric finishes heighten the sense of contrast, bringing tactility and richness against the rawness of the architecture.

All are set on brushed stainless-steel plinths that introduce reflection and light into the otherwise heavy, tactile palette. Tables were designed in the same spirit of tactility and detailing. Each piece features a Verde Alpi green resin terrazzo top and a raw steel square-section frame, with tiered surfaces to hold bottles and glasses. The result is simple yet architectural, industrial in feel yet heightened by material richness.

Along one edge of the mezzanine, a new faceted glazed screen with an integrated ledge visually links the VIP to the main bar below, extending the sense of openness and layering across the club. At the opposite side, full-height velvet curtains in a deep fuchsia frame the view onto The Box. These can be drawn to heighten intimacy or left open to intensify the sense of spectacle. The drapery introduces softness and theatre to the otherwise raw architectural envelope, balancing the weight of concrete and terrazzo with saturated colour and texture.

Lighting is designed to be atmospheric and sensory, with the illuminated underglow of the concrete bar providing the dominant light source and framing the entire space in a saturated orange glow.

The effect is sculptural, almost theatrical, anchoring the mezzanine in contrast to the shifting illuminations of The Box and the dance floor beyond. Wall lights by Tom Dixon punctuate the raw concrete surfaces, their concentric forms casting circular ripples across the walls. Upholstery absorbs the light into its deep velvets, while polished steel and terrazzo surfaces catch and reflect it back.

Even the bathrooms form part of the design experience. Clad in graphic terrazzo with high-gloss red walls, ripple-effect mirrored panels and freestanding brushed stainless-steel sinks, they are conceived as visceral, bold spaces that extend the club’s atmosphere in unexpected ways.

A-nrd have created a space that is both raw and elevated, immersive yet intimate. Referencing the language of brutalism while embracing colour, texture and light, the studio have reimagined the Ministry mezzanine as a stage within a stage – one that dissolves boundaries between guest and performance, VIP and dance floor, architecture and atmosphere.

On the project, Alessio Nardi comments: “We wanted to dismantle the idea of hierarchy and create a space that feels embedded in the club’s raw energy. Both Lukas and I have a lifelong passion for clubbing, so it was important that this space felt authentic to that culture.

The mood is deliberately layered and tactile, with contrasts between concrete, terrazzo, velvet and steel heightened by the play of light. The palette is dark, moody and architectural, punctuated by saturated colour and flashes of reflection. It’s immersive, monolithic and unapologetic – a reinterpretation of Ministry’s legacy for the present moment.”