Image Credit : Photos by Patrick Rodriguez
Project Overview
The western end of Flinders Lane can be a lonely place after hours with a lack of quality eating establishments. The client felt that there was a gap in market for beautifully prepared food in this part of town where the community could hang out over a cup of specialty coffee. Hence the client’s brief is to bring a warm and natural space into an otherwise grim part of the city and to reactivate this space into a lively precinct buzzing with people and activity. As the team digs deeper into the area’s history, they discovered that the space was originally used for storing grains and stock a century ago. Immediately the concept of a refined country parlour - the Grain Store - was born.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
The team consists of:
Creative Branding Director - Michael Tan from BrandWorks
Artist and designer - Nani Puspasari
Interior designer - Brandon Hng from Betty & Wolff
Creative minds - Ingo Meissner, Annika Kreusel and Melanie Stolpe
Project Brief
To reactivate this space into an oasis for coffee and food lovers, we’ve handpicked a selection of natural materials within a warm palette to accentuate the country look. We’ve also brought in natural wooden cupboards and open shelves, and went on to further incorporate a large natural barn door at the back of the room to heighten this effect. We’ve also included contemporary design practices such as an open kitchen to give customers a glimpse of kitchen theatre. The design of the kitchen focuses on a large island bench to encourage interaction and learning between the head chef and his staff. On the front end, multiple island stations centres the room to facilitate operational efficiency for floor staff. To add more theatre, a cold drip flask sits on top of the island station.
Project Need
Following through on the ethos of the client and the brief, the design works honestly with the existing architectural fabric, in taking away what was artificial and returning what was natural. We have exposed the ceiling services but restored them to grace with the warm white palette that follows throughout. Working with the existing windows and doors we have added drapes and joinery to give privacy and visual interest, rather than strip these out unnecessarily we wanted to make the most of what was already there in the language of the frames and the deep reveals. Other key design practice includes:
• A focus on the spatial arrangement of the Grain Store to allow customers a sectional understanding of the food-to-mouth process via an open kitchen layout
• Floating island bench and isolated coffee station to give customers an opportunity to become a spectator of the restaurant theatre
• Mixed seating arrangement to cater for the varied groups of patrons including professionals, residents, tourists and students. The arrangements were also designed to encourage social interaction and to retain the maximum amount of natural light from the window.
Design Challenge
The brief is to create a place for people to enjoy beautifully prepared food and specialty coffee in a casual setting. The site was met with numerous challenges. Firstly, it was located on the ground floor of a high vacancy building with a low foot traffic flow. Secondly it was overshadowed by several tall buildings, including a ghastly multi-leveled carpark which blocked its natural sunlight. Despite these constraints, the design team took this as an opportunity to challenge the traditional design approach, by incorporating large windows throughout to retain the maximum amount of natural light and using only natural fiber for all soft furnishing to provide an added level of acoustic insulation.
Sustainability.
The Grain Store has strong sustainability ethos to follow in every step of the way - from design to construction to day to day operations. We’ve achieved this through numerous channels including:
• Using timber such as Vicash and natural stone to reduce environmental impact. This type of timber was chosen due it to being from a local supplier and because the colour fitted with the overall look of the store.
• Sourcing material from only ‘certified’ suppliers
• Using eco-friendly recyclable natural grout
• Capturing natural light by maximizing window size
• Introduction of a vegetable garden on the rooftop of the building to grow seasonal herbs such as rosemary, thyme and mint- seasonal produce such as pumpkins have been incorporated into the store as part of decorations and ornaments
• Sourcing food directly from local producers to reduce carbon footprint
Further to this, the Grain Store has also teamed up with CERES, a non-profit organization, to become a food depot for local residents. By doing this, the Grain Store also hopes to educate people about the seasonal nature of produce, and do their part for the environment by reducing the food miles of their ingredients.
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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