Image Credit : Dan Gosse - www.dangosse.com
Project Overview
The Cumberland is an underground Pre-Temperance inspired drinking den.
Hidden behind vintage icebox doors is a beautiful, sophisticated basement bar. Patrons enter through the rear of the upstairs deli and descend down a dimly lit stone clad spiral staircase which opens up into a custom designed wine vault, reminiscent of an old English cellar, which is filled with period details and is a visual feast.
Hand crafted joinery, spiral stone lined staircase, custom-made dumbwaiter, hand sewn butter leather curved banquettes, curated vintage furniture – it is the minute details that reveal the narrative.
The interior is completely transformative and takes patrons on a journey through the story it tells. The narrative and the detail are a profound partner to the drink and dining offering.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Courtney Todd, Jaimi-Lee Wheelwright, Lucy Erasmus-Green , Jenni Munster
Project Brief
The interiors of The Cove Deli and The Cumberland Bar were conceived to disrupt the convention of the modern building and to contrast the contemporary architecture to transform it into a beautiful vintage inspired deli and speakeasy bar.
Every element was considered, curated and manifested in collaboration with Matt Clifton, owner and visionary of The Cumberland. The historical research by our team was paramount and it was almost as if we were creating a set for a period drama.
The street level space needed to be converted from a concrete box with plate glass frontage into a store that would fit a bygone era.
The Cumberland main lower level bar area needed to be transformed from a disused basement storage to a vintage inspired underground bar, unexpected and full of amazing detail, which is exactly what our client aspired to.
Project Innovation/Need
AZBcreative reimagined an interior from times past out of an existing small store front and empty concrete basement space in a modern building.
We transformed the street level plate glass modern exterior into a striking teal shopfront to create The Cove Deli. The bodega style delicatessen features fine detailed joinery, penny round tiles, custom mosaic, paint combined with wax and plaster rendered to create the illusion of age and depth of colour. Hidden at the rear of the store, behind a wall of wooden icebox doors, is the entrance to the underground Pre-Temperance inspired bar.
Through the custom vintage doors patrons descend down a dimly lit stone clad spiral staircase and into a wine vault, like an old English cellar, all created from a concrete underground storage area. The staircase did not exist in the original space so we had to engineer how to make this all work and not lose an inch of precious space in the already tiny venue.
The staircase opens up to the main lower bar area which is a level of discovery featuring aged brass, ornate period details, hand honed tables, curated decorative and sourced art, inset marble bar top and foot rests, vintage mercury mirror to add depth to the space, custom made brass floor plates and beautiful reclaimed timber flooring.
Every single square inch is AZB designed and manifests our commitment to using artisans and creating interiors that surprise and delight with layers of discovery and a obsessive attention to detail.
Design Challenge
We designed a space within a space with a narrative that unfolds from the street level entry point.
Every element was considered and curated so that the interior appears as if it is a snap shot of a moment in history. The historical research by our team is paramount. The joy and luxury of having an entire year to design and install allowed us to design to the nth degree.
The street level retail space was converted from a square concrete box into a store that would not look out of place on Las Ramblas. The modern plate glass façade was clad with a period wooden frontage, completely transforming the look and feel of the space and setting the tone for the high quality craftsmanship of carpentry throughout the interior.
Every piece of the interior was hand crafted to the most specific detail - from dove-tail joinery to hand turned timber to 5,000 piece floor mosaics to our 17-metre banquette which is made of single upholstered fillets each connected together to fit into the serpentine space.
AZBcreative believe instead of purely designing a space we search for its meaning. We are all about integrity, history and narrative.
Sustainability
Sustainability was a key part of this project as by its very nature – taking all its design cues from the historical brief – we needed to make sure that there was authenticity to the design and this came from our ethos of Reuse, Restore and Repurpose.
The vast majority of timber used (and there was a lot!) was reclaimed – railway sleepers and sidings make up the shopfront and a wall of vintage doors icebox doors hide the bars secret entrance.
The stone clad spiral staircase is lined with repurposed stone and the bar is filed with antique pieces, the entire original décor and furniture used throughout the venue was sourced from vintage suppliers to add integrity and truth to the design.
The level of workmanship required to produce an interior of this type – where attention to detail and historically accuracy is key – requires a great deal of skilled trades people and we were able to find incredibly talent craftsmen to work with from the local area. From speciality renderers to highly trained scenic painters, stonemasons, plumbers who could work with Victorian fixtures and our magnificent band of carpenters who resurrected traditional joinery skills to amazing effect for this project.
Pigment paint was also used to reduce the environmental impact and stay true to the era.
It is not only about bricks and mortar, we find the soul of each project and that is our commitment and approach to interior design.
Interior Design - Hospitality - Eat & Drink
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors where people eat and drink - this includes bars, restaurants, cafes and clubs. Judging consideration is 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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