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Project Overview

Feast of Merit is a YGAP charity initiative – a restaurant offering ethically sustainable food in a space that encompasses the communal ethos of the cause. Providing services pro bono as part of the Feast of Merit Design Team, our challenge was to convert a rundown café in Richmond into a flagship for the charity’s new venture. A unique project where design professionals donated their time to create a venue that not only represented an amazing charity, but also a dining venue that encompasses the growing culinary stature of Richmond.

Project Commissioner

YGAP

Project Creator

Ewert Leaf Pty Ltd as part of the Feast of Merit Design Team

Team

Feast of Merit Design Team:
Will Leaf - Ewert Leaf Pty Ltd
Toby Ewert - Ewert Leaf Pty Ltd
Elena Critchley - YGAP
Jean Pierre Biasol - Biasol Design Studio

Builder: Project Group

Street Artist: Dan Wenn

Many other contributors for materials and fittings

Project Brief

A former café, the aim was to unearth the existing structure of the space to expose the tactility of the surfaces and align the interior with the intent of the venue. Bi-fold windows and low bench seating along the Swan Street frontage encourages engagement with passing pedestrians. Communal tables with individual seating types and a suggestion towards ‘touchability’ in materials brings the interior in line with the intent of the dining experience.
The new bar lines the west wall and addresses the space – reclaimed whitewashed timber sits atop the tiled bar face cutting into locally sourced recycled shutter screens while bespoke furniture and light fittings add a layer of subtle colour.. Recycled timber shutters are used throughout the space to separate seating sections whilst hanging planters mingle with reclaimed copper pipe back of bar shelving to add a layer of industrial warmth.
Street artist Dan Wenn was brought in to capture the essence of the Feast of Merit ideology as well as to articulate the corner interface of the building.This addition of color and movement helps reflect not only the restaurant, but the eclectic and evolving feel of the developing area of Richmond.

Project Innovation/Need

In what is ostensibly a volunteer operated, donation based organization, we wanted to ensure the design was carefully considered in its acknowledgment of not only the existing space, but also the location and atmosphere of the area. Many charity based venues appear “pop-up” style, and lack the permanency and finished feel of a traditional hospitality business, so it was imperative for the success of the venture that this was designed as such from the beginning. Relying on donated and locally sourced items and materials was utilized as a sustainable design advantage rather than a budgetary constraint, and the simplicity of the finishes reflect the growing trend in the Richmond area. Clever use of these materials and design features link directly to the charity’s core ideals, and so the patrons experience is all the more evolved. Direct interaction with passing pedestrian blurs the boundaries between indoor and outdoor, which further encourages the venue’s core concept of sharing the wealth and communal prosperity.

Design Challenge

Creating a venue that was consistent with the market in the growing area, on a charity budget shouldered mostly by donated services and materials was a huge challenge. Emphasis on design and product was imperative to ensuring the business would not only be a success as a hospitality venue, but also as a marketing tool and fund raising vehicle for the charity.
This blend of criteria is a unique idea, as most similar concepts struggle to maintain enough revenue to get off the ground for any length of time, and managing the process and build required a massive contribution from all parties involved in the design team, given it was a labour of love rather than a financial obligation.

Sustainability

The ideals behind Feast of Merit are sharing individual wealth and prosperity with others to ensure community sustainability. So sustainability within the design needed to be a clear and evident contributing factor to not only the restaurant but also YGAP’s ethos.
The existing structure was pared back to its original materials; polished concrete floors, exposed red brick walls whitewashed, and exposed timber ceilings. Adding to this, fittings and furniture were all either donated or recycled; timber bar top, reclaimed timber shutters to the bar and screens throughout, and recycled copper piping forming the bar shelving were all sourced locally.
The front façade is open as much as possible to aid in natural ventilation to reduce the requirement for constant mechanical air control.

Interior Design - Hospitality

This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.  

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