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Issue 61 - Vintage Modern Issue

Issue 61

Vintage Modern Issue

The breadth and scope of Habitus has always been extraordinary. With how we live at heart of every issue, we have stepped it up with Guest Editor David Flack of Flack Studio shaking the ‘how’ and looking at new ways to make a house a home. With Vintage Modern as the issues theme, we look at the way iconic design has stayed with us, how daring pieces from the past can add the wow factor and how architecture and good design defy the pigeon hole of their era.

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Project 281 Offers Something New In Melbourne’s Crowded Café Scene
HospitalityAlice Griffin

Project 281 Offers Something New In Melbourne’s Crowded Café Scene

Australia

While the passage of time will continue to evolve this warehouse café, a clever, considered design by Splinter Society means its industrial past won’t be left behind.


For fear of stating the obvious, good cafés aren’t hard to come by in Melbourne. Victoria’s capital has long been a world leader in the coffee scene and those after a decent flat white don’t have to search for long before finding one. With this badge of honour, though, comes more pressure on owners to offer up cool, comfortable and most importantly, original venues to pique the interest of spoilt-for-choice Melbournites.

This was just the challenge posed to architecture firm Splinter Society, when they were approached to design a café space in an old warehouse building in Melbourne’s Brunswick. The clients wanted a café that felt uniquely local; somewhere that responded to the history of the site and the neighbourhood’s industrial roots, but also worked in a contemporary context.

Project 281 Splinter Society cc Tom Ross busy

“The warehouse was a printing factory, and connected to a heritage Victorian terrace which housed the printing offices,” explains Chris Stanley, architect and director of Splinter Society. “We wanted to work with the textures and fabric that had been created through the previous printing processes and usage. This included scars in the floor where pads had been poured to support the machines, cut-outs in the brickwork of the old heritage building, and [the] exposed steel structure that supported machinery and the factory shell itself.”

 

The expansive footprint of the warehouse was broken down into more intimate spaces by the statement stacked cast concrete forms.

 

The raw and unrefined materials selected to update the site remain typical of what one might find in a warehouse. Steel and concrete were used liberally, from the feature lighting fashioned from offcuts of rebar steel to the mighty custom-poured concrete service counters. In fact, many of the materials used in the renovations were sourced in the warehouse itself, and later upcycled. This approach meant that almost no demolition or landfill was required on the job.

Project 281 Splinter Society cc Tom Ross greenery

The expansive footprint of the warehouse was broken down into more intimate spaces by the statement stacked cast concrete forms, which double as plant pots. The site boasts a coffee roastery, yoga space, kitchen garden and a large kitchen, prep and storage area.

 

The raw and unrefined materials selected to update the site remain typical of what one might find in a warehouse.

 

The hard raw materials are tempered by the array of indoor plants and garden beds, designed to grow and develop naturally over time. “The building was designed to live and breath,” Chris says. “Additional skylights were put in to allow the significant indoor plants and garden beds to grow. Over time these will start to take over and feel like a greenhouse.”

In a city inundated with cafés, Project 281 stands out as an unfussy, honest, and welcoming ode to a neighbourhood that’s central to Melbourne’s story. This – coupled with the promise of exceptional coffee and meals, of course – will entice locals to the venue for years to come.

Splinter Society
splintersociety.com

Photography by Tom Ross

Dissection Information
Blackbutt tables
Studio Italia light fittings
Precast concrete sumps planters from Frankston Concrete Products
Plants by Eckersleys Garden Architecture
Steel mesh from Nepean Mastermesh
Tarnished mirrors from Varga Brothers
Benchtops are Insitu Concrete with CCS black oxide mixed through in layers, poured on site by Integrated Construction Services

Project 281 Splinter Society cc Tom Ross layout

 

“Additional skylights were put in to allow the significant indoor plants and garden beds to grow.”

 

Project 281 Splinter Society cc Tom Ross bar
Project 281 Splinter Society cc Tom Ross menu
Project 281 Splinter Society Tom Ross overview
Project 281 Splinter Society cc Tom Ross cast concrete planters
Project 281 Splinter Society cc Tom Ross exterior

We think you might also like Java Café by IKSOI Design Studio


About the Author

Alice Griffin

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Alice GriffinBlackbutt timberBrunswickcafé design ideasCast ConcreteChris StanleyconcreteEckersleys Garden ArchitectureFrankston Concrete ProductsMelbourbe cafes


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Issue 61 - Vintage Modern Issue

Issue 61

Vintage Modern Issue

The breadth and scope of Habitus has always been extraordinary. With how we live at heart of every issue, we have stepped it up with Guest Editor David Flack of Flack Studio shaking the ‘how’ and looking at new ways to make a house a home. With Vintage Modern as the issues theme, we look at the way iconic design has stayed with us, how daring pieces from the past can add the wow factor and how architecture and good design defy the pigeon hole of their era.

Order Issue