Image Credit : Fraser Marsden Photography - Photographer
Project Overview
Whether it's a place to recharge or unwind from today’s society, MICAH’s minimalist café is a break away from a traditional cafe's normal design, creating a superior vibe and sense of warmth with a simple, aesthetically pleasing environment, through a unique timeless design, truly embracing a 'Zen', subtle, new progressive approach of casual café dining.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Rptecture Architects & Function Fitout
Team
Vincent Choi, Matt Preston, Mony, Juliet Teo, Jerry Hor
Project Brief
The pure, minimalist design is integrated into the scene of daily life, where it naturally invites people to stay, chat and relax. The coffee drinkers can capture the precious western afternoon sunlight through the large glass curtainwall or a season of emotional weather, Although the habitués and consumers will be more aware of appreciating the pleasant surrounding environment of being by the foothills of the Dandenong mountains.
In comparability to an 'ordinary' café style, RPtecture designed a pure yet striking approach that celebrates coffee in an original and different way, where the owner believes in the best way to taste and enjoy coffee in such a place like this is with no distractions, bringing the design back to basics focusing only on coffee.
The existing, elongated rectangle-shaped footprint and how to communicate the café’s coffee and sell the message through a minimal design is the primary focus. Such an approach gives the customers an authentic way of appreciating coffee with main inspiration from 'Bench Projects'.
Project Innovation/Need
Captivating minimalism to the next level with no seating, no artwork, no cashiers and only best-selling items are on the innovative, creative wall menu. This is an exciting new innovation that leads into the one and only important focus of coffee.
In terms of colour, the building composed of a sophisticated yet calm palette, where the warmth from the wood balances out the cool tones of grey, matching the brand personality of the rawness of coffee.
We came up with an idea of adding another colour to the design scheme, namely greens taken from a range of green colors in the surroundings including the leaves of oak trees, the vibrant green picturesque reserve located behind the building, and the iconic Dandenong mountains on the left views.
Design Challenge
In regard to the design challenge, the one and only mission is the coffee, leading to the bold design solution and the risk-taking decision of stripping everything to bare minimum. To celebrate a ‘food theatre concept’ with the centre focus on coffee, while excluding the unnecessary heavily traditional decorations of coffee advertising, the design takes on 'what you see what you get' attitude. Although the intention was to not make the space 'too cold' the design has employed authentic warm lighting to give just enough highlight to the walls with an uplifting feel.
As a result, the room is surrounded by varying shades of warmth and natural green accents, and various pieces of furniture composed of materials in different shades of light brown timber which resonate with the interior. In addition, we created a bold statement of an island in the middle of the venue with a built-in sink and drain system, not only being a strong, powerful, expressive solution to encourage customers to interact and take-part visually in the whole process of roasting, making, and drinking coffee, however, proposes MICAH Cafe with a new, risk-taking type of furniture piece to explore deeper into new ways of their 'image' and merchandise promotion.
Sustainability
Standout 'ecological' features consist of LED Lighting throughout the timeless design, to naturally sourced timber for the furnishing, however, polished concrete is the biggest risk-taking material used for the project, as concrete can be portrayed with rawness yet courageous with an authentic feel. This standout choice of material is used on the floors where the reflectiveness of natural lights on the concrete surface brightens up the space, minimising the use of artificial lights. It also controls the right thermal comfort as it absorbs and stores heat during the daytime hours, releasing it at a slower rate throughout the evening, minimizing the use of the electrical heaters. The concrete material and installation followed best practice where the materials were existent and present on-site, as an alternative to requiring additional flooring from external suppliers. This design solution not only resulted in a cut down on resource use and costs, however, it also lead to the outcome of no leftover materials that normally result in waste sent to landfill. This mechanically polished concrete can also prevent any future renovations that can last a lifetime. If it is properly maintained on the owner's behalf, it never needs to be replaced.
Interior Design - Hospitality - On the Go
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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