Workshop Cafe

It's not often you get presented with a concrete platform as a site. Set within an architecturally devoid industrial area the challenge was to provide a welcoming kiosk style cafe setting. The brief included the use of a container as kitchen and WC to allow re-use at another location if required. The first decision was to place the containers as a screen to the prevailing cold westerly, while opening towards the east and morning sun using the standard container doors. Conceived as a 'container within a container' a simple steel canopy was then placed perpendicular east/west across the platform. This allows for good northern sun into the dining area and an open, welcoming aspect from the road. The steel structure allows for drop down clear blinds at each edge of the canopy, from the north or south, while retaining use of two-thirds of the platform for patrons. Keeping with the container aesthetic, container siding was used to provide edge barriers to the platform - low height to the road, but raised higher on the northern side to provide additional visual screening of the industrial premises behind. The industrial aesthetic is balanced with the use of warmer natural timber. Rough sawn horizontal Macrocarpa adorn the canopy end walls, contrasting crisply against the black structural steel. Beech veneer marine ply linings within the container and to the canopy ceiling create a warm, cocooning interior feel. Simplicity of design is extended in the fit out with galvanised tubular construction and plywood surfaces to tables and shelving.