A new business cafe concept; the site is located within a conservation
area in Spitalfields- occupying both the ground floor and basement of
what was found in a state of disrepair. The building was given a new
lease of life with this commission.
The vaulted basement was converted into a commercial kitchen with new
ducted exhaust installed through to the roof level of the 4 storey
building. The basement was connected via a new staircase through to the
front of house ground floor cafe.
The material palette was kept earthy, with the old plastered walls
stripped back to reveal exposed brick walls. The contemporary clean
lines of the bespoke furniture and engineered oak flooring contrast well
against the rich texture of the sand-blasted brickwork and the
industrial aesthetics of the exposed galvanised steel ductwork, exposed
conduit runs, air-condition unit on the soffit and brushed stainless
steel casings of the display and server counters. The sea of oversized
naked light bulbs floods the space whilst providing a more intimate
secondary plane below the high ceiling interiors of the cafe.
The boarded up high level ducting snakes through as a sculptural form
providing a change in ceiling heights as a hyper-graphic ‘recipe’ wall
wraps around at an acute angle leading the way into the stairway flanked
with exposed brickwork washed with vertical wall-lights. The hand-written script provides a candid take on the recipes of the
food served in the cafe; a bit of humour and doubles as a playful
‘wall-paper’.
Both the shop front and rear are kept the signature brown colour with a few careful dash of orange splashes.