Long considered either of marginal importance or the domain of specialized firms, the design of bars, cafés and gathering places has recently proved to be an unexpectedly fertile outlet for new expression in ambience design, spawning novel entertainment venues of high-octane conceptual appeal. Often theme-based, the new ambiences have pushed back the traditional frontiers of the discothèque format, giving rise to inspired combinations of materials and color, jazzed-up reworkings of past styles, futuristic and high-tech scenarios of urban living and townscape in which architecture reveals its playful underside.