Surface Design Awards – Complete

• COMMERCIAL BUILDING - INTERIOR
  Commercial Buildings that are used for commercial purposes, and include retail, hospitality, workplaces, factories and warehouses and buildings where commercial services are provided. At least 50 percent of the buildings’ floor space will be used for commercial activities.

Nebula is a new hybrid cocktail bar and restaurant, café, retail space, community lounge and flexible workspace, located at the gateway to London City Island, UK. The proposal has transformed a former failing restaurant and grocery space to offer a newly refurbished community-focused hub with an emphasis on exceptional food and hospitality, combined with flexible and casual workspace facilities and a newly refurbished external terrace adjacent to the River Lea.

The brief called for an overhaul to an existing bar, restaurant and retail space that was lacking cohesiveness, spatial connectivity and an overall identity, to provide a key destination for visitors, workers and the local community of London City Island. The client, originally based in Hackney (East-London), wanted to move to the new location at London City Island and retrofit the existing shell to provide a unique hybrid space incorporating a cocktail bar and pizza restaurant, a café and retail space, and community focused informal workspace.

To create an efficient, cost effective and sustainable approach the scheme retains key existing services and infrastructure, and the new interior design proposal weaves around the existing building shell, providing a datum of timber linings, shelving and custom joinery set between existing concrete, curtain walling, brick and plasterboard surfaces. The design hinges on the use of timber surfaces in a variety of ways to provide for a custom bar, a bespoke restaurant screen, a curved bar and retail /display shelving, and a fluted timber wall lining.
Existing concrete walls have been repaired and enhanced to create a striking double height concrete volume. The timber wall lining has been stained in a bespoke colour-mix that was developed in-house to align with the clients brand, offering a low-cost and high-quality ribbon that wraps the walls of the space and harmonises with the existing tones of grey and concrete surfaces. The bar and shelving is constructed in solid and veneered oak, and has a moulded terrazzo top with a down-stand to provide a sense of grounding and weightiness to the curved and very long feature piece. The footing of the bar is similarly clad in terrazzo.

The restaurant kitchen and servery has been wrapped in a custom timber and punctuated with smoked-mirrored-reeded glass to reduce the heaviness of the timber linings and provide a vintage appearance that is slightly reflective and fleeting in appearance.

A key component in achieving the clients brief was to provide for flexibility and adaptability; the existing infrastructure, services and lighting conduits were retained and modified slightly to suit the revised design. Access under the floor was also an essential component of the brief due to constant leaks and infestation that had negatively affected the previous business. The existing raised flooring has been retained throughout and we have specified an interlocking vinyl tile to maintain a crisp aesthetic and to prevent the danger of needing to rip up the floor to gain access at a later date.

The space is drenched in natural daylight and the unit enjoys a large communal terrace leading onto the River Lea, as well as communal seating and a large upcycled community table internally.

Overall, the project demonstrates the extent to which an exceptional new space can be created where a previous business has failed, not requiring the entire infrastructure and surface composition of the old design to be ripped out and disposed of.

Construction Budget : £550K

Completion Date: April 2023

Client: 'Twin Province Bars'

Main Contractor: 'Maybank Projects'

Project Manager and Quantity Surveyor: 'Project and Building Consultancy'

M&E: 'Inertia Construction Engineering'

Building Control: 'Stroma'

The scheme provides a high-quality and striking aesthetic, utilising a recognisable palette of sustainable materials in innovative ways. The scheme is largely composed of timber surfaces and joinery in oak, and proposes two custom finish applications that blend beautifully with a pink ceramic tile (in gloss), and a bronzed-smoked-mirrored reeded glass infill panels, as well as existing materials including brick and concrete.

The teal-green fluted oak wall linings that feature extensively in the front of house areas, wrapping table seating and banquet seating areas, were derived using a range of timber stain colourings and experimenting in-house with mixtures and balances to find a blend that complemented the client’s branding and preferred aesthetic and the extensive existing material tones. This was applied in two coats to allow for the timber grain to still be visible, whilst providing a very high-quality finish that has been achieved in a very low-intensity and cost effective way.

To counterbalance and complement this monolithic appearance, the bar and shelving is constructed in solid and veneered dark-stained oak, and has a moulded terrazzo top with a down-stand to provide a sense of grounding and weightiness to the curved and very long feature piece. The footing of the bar is similarly clad in terrazzo. The restaurant kitchen and servery has been wrapped in a custom timber and punctuated with smoked-mirrored-reeded glass to reduce the heaviness of the timber linings and provide a vintage appearance that is slightly reflective and fleeting in appearance.

The project is fundamentally driven by two aspects of sustainability:

The first focuses on low carbon design, upcycling and material re-use, and energy efficiency. In order to create an efficient, cost effective and sustainable approach the scheme retains key existing services and infrastructure, wall and ceiling finishes, and the new interior design weaves around the existing building shell, providing a datum of timber linings, shelving and custom joinery set between existing concrete, curtain walling, brick and plasterboard surfaces.

The new interior design interventions are largely comprised of timber, that has been used and treated in a variety of ways, to provide for a custom bar, a bespoke restaurant screen, a curved bar and retail /display shelving, and a fluted timber wall lining. The timber wall lining has been stained in a bespoke colour-mix that was developed in-house to align with the client’s brand, offering a low-cost and high-quality ribbon that wraps the walls of the space and harmonises with the existing tones of grey and concrete surfaces, as well as the newly proposed pink gloss wall tiling and reflective bronzed-smoked-mirrored reeded glass.

The second aspect of sustainable design focuses on the local community and the creation of a hybrid multi-faceted business premises that is financially sustainable whilst providing a destination for residents and a place to meet, socialise and work. When premises embedded in a community go out of business and close (which is fairly common in these locations) they tend to damage networks and connectivity between people; the design of this flexible and agile space provides a framework for longevity and lasting community development and engagement over time.

The project demonstrates the extent to which an exceptional new space can be created that doesn’t require the entire infrastructure and surface composition of the old design to be ripped out and disposed of.

As discussed above, the new interior design interventions are largely comprised of timber, that has been used and treated in a variety of ways, to provide for a custom bar, a bespoke restaurant screen, a curved bar and retail /display shelving, and a fluted timber wall lining.

As discussed above, the new interior design interventions are largely comprised of timber, that has been used and treated in a variety of ways, to provide for a custom bar, a bespoke restaurant screen, a curved bar and retail /display shelving, and a fluted timber wall lining.
The fluted timber wall lining wrapping the main front-of-house areas have been stained in a bespoke wood-stain colour mix that was developed in-house by Common Ground Workshop. This posed significant challenges in terms of the ability to relay the final finish to the main contractor and to ensure consistency of finish across the entire space. This was overcome by setting up dedicated colour workshops and creating full 1 to 1 mock up so that all parties (client, investors, and stakeholders) could review the material in-situ against the plethora of existing finishes to make sure that everything was working in harmony and that quality standards relating to the operator brand could be met.

Other key issues (as above) included working with the requirement for a raised floor throughout and how to select a low cost monolithic material that could both functionally serve its purpose and also pull together and unite all of the existing and newly proposed surfaces into one harmonious experience.

Once again and very importantly the project demonstrates the extent to which an exceptional new space can be created through careful consideration of reuse and upcycling, material specification and adaption of standard approaches to the application of timber (to frame other high quality existing and proposed materials), that doesn’t require the entire infrastructure and surface composition of the old design to be ripped out and disposed of.

The new space has been exceptionally well received and provides a real destination at the fantastic location, facing onto the River Lea.