A proposal design for a multi storey complex facade and ground floor café, meant to have a minimal aesthetic with limited branding and a larger focus on intricate details. The café is to be a high end coffee drinking and dining experience with focus on the product rather than the brand.
Project Name: Pebble Coffee
Studio Name: Studio Opifex
The brief from the client for the façade was to use high end materials while keeping the design modern and sleek. Use of a combination of stone, aluminium, mild steel and wood brings a lot of texture to the façade which in turn helps us connect with it better and brings in more attention to it naturally even without the use of any branding.
Between the ground floor café and the rest of the building there is a two toned look to the façade and this also helps separate the café from the rest of the building visually. The use of metal fins in the doors and windows helps connect with the metal canopy on the outside and the use of copper as a material and colour helps connect it to the interior tones of the café, therefore the windows not only literally but also using materiality connects the outside to the inside.
The concept of the café is derived from the name itself, “Pebble Coffee”, using a pebble as the inspiration we tried to create a design for the interiors which would reflect the same feel as a pebble. All the interior spaces are to be made as “soft” as possible by trying to mitigate straight lines wherever possible and bring the focus to the large use of curved lines in order to conceptually reflect a pebble. You are initially greeted to the large clear height of the space allowing the space to feel grand, the flooring is made of different marble chunks which look like the silhouette of pebbles which are inlayed in smooth finished concrete, the counter is the first thing visible direct in sight to draw customers towards it, on either side you are flanked by recessed floor plates with seating around it and planters on its edge with tall, beautiful plants and you can look at the back of the counter at the large curved feature wall with minimal custom made mural art to represent the people and connections formed in a coffee house.
The colour scheme of the entire café is tones of a soft pastel green, orange and blue to further emphasize the soft feel of the interiors .The furniture is also chosen to help reflect this theme and so is its upholstery. The use of indoor plants is to help bring connection to the natural world both inside and out. As you go further into the café you see a sort of carousel seating where there is to be more of the fine dining experience rather than just a coffee house setting. There is also a display and storage area for the coffee related products sold by the store, this display made of metal and wood also reflects the main theme and concept of the store.
The cash counter is made of wood and rattan with a marble counter top giving it a classy feel and it also has an inbuilt display to act as a mini patisserie. Behind the counter is the coffee preparation area where the simple coffee needs are prepared, whereas for the more complex dishes there is a large kitchen area behind the curved feature wall. Behind the counter wall is a coffee tasting/coffee experience centre where new customers can sample the coffee of their choosing before making their purchase decision, there is also a counter present for customers to either stand or drink their coffee or choose to be seated at the high seating.
The restrooms are also following the main theme of the café and keep the soft finishing and use of soft colours. The fixtures and the use of art also reflect the same. The ceiling is made of a soft box light to uniformly light the whole restroom giving it a grand feel and making it feel larger than it is.
The whole theme of the café was to bring attention to the details and avoid excessive branding, therefore letting the product and the space do the talking. Providing on the surface simple interiors with a large focus on attention to detail helps bring this project to life.
