Image Credit : Architectural Photography by Lee Hopkinson
Food Photography by Life Grain
Project Overview
Life Grain cafe is a new brand & interiors project for a food & beverage operator previously called The Street Canteen. The Great Indoors worked closely with the client as a complete brand transformation exercise, and as a result, Life Grain, the new company name, was born. The Life Grain motto evokes and aspires to provide excellent quality, nourishing, healthy food and beverage options, including great coffee for the hospital community. The new design offers a comforting and warm environment for staff, visitors, and patients.
The grab-and-go menu provides balanced meals, hot & cold, and snacks made fresh daily with the support of a full-service commercial kitchen in the back-of-house area. The Great Indoors team designed the front-of-house and back-of-house areas to support Life Grain commercially and practically to ensure the design functions operationally for the client in every way.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Life Grain Client team: Rouby Sidarous
Interior Design & Project Management: The Great Indoors, Lee Hopkinson & Gesa Hopkinson
Builder: James McDougall from Inline Interiors
Landlord: NSW Health
Brand & Graphic Design: Stevens & Co, Brad Stevens
Project Brief
The brief was to ensure the project aligned with the client's objectives to have a functional and continuous customer service flow to the front-of-house counter, an efficient service line counter, and a barista coffee bar with order, strategic point of sales, coffee, and pick-up. The design of the cafe has been previously built in other locations; however, this project, due to its location and scale, is viewed as the flagship site. The project is in Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick's new acute services building atrium.
The Life Grain brand suggests nourishment and grains as a life source, the building blocks of energy and health. The interior should reflect earthy and natural tones. The branding design is a common thread throughout the signage, uniforms, and product packaging.
Project Innovation/Need
Life Grain has a direct connection with food that originates from the earth, which is directly connected through the application of strategic biophilic design principles. The design focuses on material colours that connect with the brand palette of Life Grain, indoor plants are used to connect with nature, warm timbers are used for the horizontal planting boxes behind the counter, wall claddings, and counter front finishes.
There is a deeper connection to the earth and nature through the use of the warmer materials and earthy tones; studies indicate that the use of timber within the built environment significantly positively affects our well-being.
The hospital environment can be challenging and stressful. The cafe has been designed with this in mind to bring peace, tranquillity and a welcome break for staff, patients & visitors. The project celebrates the client's desire, Life Grain, to vastly improve the quality of food served within the hospital network.
Design Challenge
The design challenges were around the existing building constraints of the leading emergency operating theatres directly under the cafe, which restricted the placement of core holes for drainage for both the cafe counter and the commercial kitchen.
Budget constraints were another design challenge to ensure we achieved the desired look and feel while working with the client and the builder to review and administer cost control measures for the client.
The design of the counter requires careful attention to detail and planning to ensure the operational aspects are able to fit within the counters and correctly align with the food operation business objectives.
Coordinating and designing the food and kitchen equipment to ensure that it fits within the desired space requirements.
Sustainability
We have applied environmentally sympathetic and sustainability principles by using the following materials within the design.
We work closely with our Australian-based commercial suppliers to ensure we achieve the highest rating for hard-wearing, durable materials and that, where possible, the materials can be recycled or reused in the future.
In particular, we have used Polytec Steccawood ceiling battens with exposed ceilings, suspended LED track light fittings, and the plywood-look laminate product from Forest One & Egger, which uses recycled timber waste products in its production.
The counter and wall tiles by Skheme are commercial-grade, hard-wearing, and durable. The blue-coloured continuous countertop is from Corian and has a high rating for sustainability and its effects on the environment.
All materials and paint use Low VOC emissions.
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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