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Warm adaptive lighting, acoustic panelling and woodblock columns cocoon Space Talk, a listening bar in London designed by local architecture practice EBBA and designer Charlotte Taylor. More
Architecture studio EBBA has completed a store for coffee brand WatchHouse that draws on modernist design to provide a calming environment in the heart of the City of London.
Situated in the 30 Fenchurch Street building of the Square Mile financial district, the store was designed by EBBA for coffee company WatchHouse, which has several cafes around London and also sells its own roasts.
The store interior references modernist architectureHaving previously completed several other stores for the brand, EBBA was tasked with transforming an empty unit in the landmark office development into an inviting space aimed at attracting visitors from the adjacent lobby.
“This store offered the opportunity to think carefully about how to make a high quality and calming retail environment that also caters to the flexible operation of the visitors and the building in which it sits,” EBBA founder Benni Allan told Dezeen.
The space aims to offer a calming environmentThe project brief called for a space focused on retail that also integrates a bar for serving customers. The interior has a more open and relaxed feel than the brand’s other locations, which operate more like typical coffee shops.
With ample comfortable seating available in the adjacent atrium, EBBA chose to incorporate different settings where customers can rest while waiting for their coffee.
Furniture including lounge chairs arranged around a coffee table and bar stools at the counter allow the space to be used in a variety of ways.
Wooden seating is provided in an adjacent atriumElements of the shop’s design are informed by European modernist architecture. In particular, Allan drew on the large lobbies of banks and civic buildings such as libraries, which he said seem to “carry a particular feeling of calmness”.
Referencing the work of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, EBBA used grid patterns and clean lines to bring order to the interior, while sculptural objects help to partition the space.
“The overall concept was to create the sense of a box within a box,” Allan added. “The reference to Miesian buildings can be understood in wanting to establish a clear logic to the space through its grid and making objects that help to demarcate space.”
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EBBA designed and built all of the furniture for the store, including the eight-metre-long stainless steel counter that forms the centrepiece of the space. This monolithic element is used for coffeemaking as well as providing a communal workspace.
The large coffee table made from blocks of solid oak is intended to resemble stacked timber. Its construction echoes the grid of slatted timber panels cladding the ceiling.
EBBA chose a material palette that reflects WatchHouse’s goal to create places people want to spend time in. Warm and natural tones and textures offer a respite from the busy urban setting.
An eight-metre stainless steel counter centres the space”We opted for warm oak panelling, which gracefully cocoons the space, and a unique Ceppo stone floor, which enhances the store’s gridded pattern whilst complementing the feeling of civic grandeur,” said the architects.
The rear wall is lined with full-height cabinets that conceal the necessary utility spaces, adding to the store’s sense of cohesion and simplicity.
Minimalist shelving used to display WatchHouse’s simply packaged produce blend in with the relaxed setting.
All of the furniture was designed and built by EBBAEBBA has worked with WatchHouse on several of its venues, including another site within the 30 Fenchurch Street building that also looks to balance contemporary aesthetics with nods to the City of London’s heritage.
The studio, founded in 2017 by Spanish architect Benni Allan, has completed a number of projects in London including a temporary education centre built using only reusable components and a residential extension that combines brutalist-style materials with details inspired by a Roman villa.
The photography is courtesy of EBBA.
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London-based studio EBBA Architects has channelled the environmental ethos of fashion rental platform Rotaro for its pop-up boutique at department store Liberty.
The project aimed to show that beautiful and interesting spaces can be created for temporary use, while still considering the environmental impacts of materials and construction.
“We are very aware of our environmental impact and we believe design should speak to this, while also trying to make a unique experience for the visitor,” EBBA founder Benjamin Allan told Dezeen.
EBBA designed a pop-up shop for fashion rental platform Rotaro”Rotaro is all about fashion rental, as a response to waste in the industry,” he added. “Circularity is key to their ethos and we wanted to connect to this, both in the use of material and form.”
Bringing definition to Rotaro’s space within the wider store, EBBA has demarcated the area with a pair of substantial columns, each with an elongated, semi-circular cross-section.
“The position and shape of the columns create the sense of walking into an entirely new space within the historic context of Liberty,” said Allan.
The studio demarcated the area with a pair of substantial columnsEntwining the two columns, a pair of metal rails have the dual function of creating a display area and introducing a sculptural element that further defines the space, with soaring, free-form curves.
“The two rails rotate and wrap around each of the columns, while also simultaneously responding to the opposite rail, a bit like a choreographed piece,” Allan said.
Cork is the project’s primary materialContinuing the theme of duality, just two key materials have been used in the space – cork and metal.
EBBA was influenced by the work of artists Donald Judd and Carl Andre and their elevation of humble materials through detailing and construction.
A pair of metal rails have a dual function”We always look to push the potential of a project, to make the most impact through the simplest of means and also address the need to be economical,” Allan said.
“Essentially the design revolves around only two materials which, working together, give a sense of regularity in the layouts of the blocks, combined with the sculptural forms of the rails.”
Curated garments hang from the railsCork was used as the primary material, cladding the two columns and creating the backdrops that zone Rotaro’s area.
EBBA aimed to use a material that had an environmental quality, while using the standardisation of the blocks to set parameters for the design.
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“We chose blocks of a specific dimension that could then be adapted to create both the walls and the columns themselves,” Allan said.
“The cork is a natural material that has an inherent warmth and depth, while also being incredibly versatile and easily recycled,” he added.
Texture characterises the pop-up shopBrushed stainless steel was used for the metalwork, with each rail comprised of a single piece of metal that was bent and sculpted to wrap around the columns.
This rail’s curving form relates to the idea of circularity in Rotaro’s business model, while also bringing an adaptability to the space by allowing the garments to be shown in a variety of ways.
Brushed stainless steel was used for the metalwork”The primary purpose is to display the continuously updated collection while also adding a sculptural aspect that helps to create a sense of space,” said Allan.
Within the ornately-detailed Liberty store, the project offers a bold, contemporary response to the interior, while finding common ground with the wider building.
The rail’s curving form relates to the idea of circularity”The tones and textures in the warmth of the cork, tie in with the timber and natural colours of Liberty’s interior spaces,” Allan said. “Detailing and decoration in the original columns relate to nature and vegetation, which also tie into the use of cork and its qualities.”
Because the Liberty building has Grade II listed status, no fixings were allowed into the building fabric.
“The benefit of the lightweight cork material meant we could also adapt the Rotaro space with minimal impact on the wider building,” he added.
Cork was chosen for being lightweightTo create a plinth that provides a flat surface for displaying objects, EBBA used the same semi-circular form of the columns, but flipped onto its side.
This element has been given an ultramarine blue coating to add a sense of playfulness and catch the attention of visitors, using one of Rotaro’s key colours to connect with the brand’s identity.
A semi-circular plinth features an ultramarine blue coatingWhile the space has been designed as a pop-up, EBBA worked – through the quality of the materials and the construction of the walls and blocks – to give it a sense of permanence.
“All of our projects aim to achieve a quality of permanence through the use of natural materials and the detailing of the construction,” Allan said.
“We believe that this level of quality helps to create a design that feels purposeful, even for temporary uses.”
Other recent projects by EBBA Architects include a shop for Cubitts in an old pie-and-mash restaurant and a house extension with brutalist-style materials.
The photography is by James Retief
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Local studio EBBA Architects has designed a store for eyewear brand Cubitts that preserves and draws on the original 1930s interior of the traditional F Cooke restaurant on London’s Broadway Market.
The restaurant, which sold cockney dishes such as jellied eel and pie and mash, had been located on the east London street since 1900 but was given a modernist update in the 1930s.
The Cubitts store on Broadway Market is located inside a former restaurantEBBA Architects turned the space into a 145-square-metre Cubitts store but kept almost all the original interiors of the Grade II-listed restaurant, which had been unoccupied since 2019.
F Cooke’s marble tables were given new legs made from stained birch plywood and now hold eyewear display cases in a sunny hue that matches the original wall tiles.
Pale yellow tiles clad the walls”The tables are original but we designed the legs to kind of make it feel like a new feature,” EBBA Architects founder Benni Allan told Dezeen.
“The table has just been scrubbed up,” he said. “Imagine how many nice pies have been eaten on that table.”
“I think what’s nice is that everything below [the tables] has had this quite warm treatment to bring in a nice texture and tone, and then everything above is much lighter.”
Different coloured material samples are displayed on wooden shelvesThe studio also kept the original stained-glass windows and the counter that used to serve food, turning it into a point of sale, while a repair station for glasses fills the window facing the street.
Pale yellow tiles bordered by bands of contrasting blue and turquoise tiles decorate the walls. These are the original interior from 1930 and were cleaned using “loads of elbow grease”, Allan said.
The former food counter was turned into a point of saleIn the main showroom of the two-storey store, the studio also kept the restaurant’s mirrors, only removing one to create a display case and sales point.
“All the additions are kind of appendages or accoutrements on the base of the original structure,” Cubitts founder Tom Broughton told Dezeen.
An orange staircase leads to the lower floorDownstairs, EBBA Architects made more interventions, as the space was dark and hadn’t been furnished to the same level as the main upstairs space.
“It was really quite dark and dingy down there, so the colours from upstairs informed this really bright orange in the staircase,” Allan said.
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The studio used stained plywood to create a sliding wood screen with a square pattern based on the tiles in the main store, as well as creating a bright-coloured staff room with a “secret door”.
It also added tiled floors with a decorative pattern in a colour palette that references that of the restaurant.
“There’s that really beautiful intricate detailing upstairs, so we wanted to sort of mirror that down here with these different patterns in the floor,” Allan said.
EBBA Architects designed a sliding door for the eye-test roomDownstairs also holds the eyewear testing centre, which is located underneath the street above.
Broughton and Allan tried to keep as many of the original details from the restaurant as possible. The tank where the live eels were once kept before being boiled is left standing in an outdoor space downstairs and the restaurant’s sign remains above the front door.
The store has retained its original signage and one of the benchesOne of the benches, on which people used to sit and eat, has been placed outside the store. And the Cooke family behind the restaurant chain – which still has two outposts – has lent Cubitts some of its original pie tins alongside the bowls used to serve jellied eels and a picture of founder Bob Cooke.
The Cubitts Broadway Market store is located in an area that has become increasingly gentrified over the past decade, with many local shops being taken over by chains.
Original stained-glass windows decorate the interiorThough some people have been nostalgic about the time when the store was a pie-and-mash shop, Allan and Broughton said there have also been positive reactions to the refurbishment
“People have actually been really chuffed that it stayed the same,” Allan said.
“Someone could come in here in a decade or two and actually put it back into a pie and mash shop. Even though [the changes] feel purposeful, it’s quite a light touch. If anything, we’ve kind of given it a new lease of life, because it was actually pretty grimy.”
A repair station sits in the windowThis is also the general tactic for Cubitts, Broughton said. When looking for new stores, the brand focuses on finding spaces that have existing interiors, with other outposts set in a 19th-century townhouse in Belgravia and a Victorian arcade in Leeds.
“Ideally, [the store] already has this existing structure and framework that you can clean up and add a bit of product and a few fittings to,” he said.
“And that’s the really nice thing, right? If you can take something that’s already beautiful, give it a new lease of life and make it relevant to someone today, that’s really cool.”
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