Café culture, for most of its history, is an alliance of social, economic, and cultural affairs. Tracing back to its European roots, cafés are public sanctuaries fostering community and exchange of ideas. Beyond championing and celebrating its main product – coffee – café spaces are highly favoured as a meeting hub of people with different trades and identities. Cafes, as communal spaces, symbolise community. People can sometimes forget the coffee but not the experience a place brings when people gather together. In the world of contemporary café culture where authenticity and affirming your identity have become commodified, how can café interior design draw inspiration from the café culture’s genuine legacy? How does it play into the consumer’s behaviour towards the expanding choices of consumers where experience and feelings are now part of the unique selling proposition? Building narratives in aesthetic and spatial arrangementsThe ubiquity of café chains throughout city centres have saturated the market. Nowadays, it’s normal to find two or three cafes in one street and probably another two in the next corner. It’s easy to forget the provenance of the physical structure where a business is established. Higher Ground, a fusion of a modern café and upscale restaurant located in Melbourne’s central business district, boasts of a heritage as a former power station dating back to 1890. With its sleek 15-metre-high ceilings creating spacious drama with its exposed original brick walls and pipework, its industrial vibe complements the bustling energy and enthusiasm both its staff and customers bring into the space.Image: Hidden City SecretsIn North Amsterdam, Noorderparkbar tells another story. Completely constructed out of ‘marktplaats’ or the Dutch version of eBay, the second hand materials and low cost construction gave rise to a brand new quirky pavilion made from wood with its own unique history— the shutters were sourced from a bankrupted formwork factory, while the bar’s interior walls came from a huge freight box used for shipping a milk carton filling machine from China to the Netherlands. The cafe’s playful design, the origins of its materials and significance of its construction fulfils a narrative that’s enticing to curious onlookers and café enthusiasts.Image: The Design HomeVoyager Espresso in New York, a space-themed specialty coffee bar in New York, represents the practicality and functionality of its floor plan, maximising its innovative concept as a futuristic-themed cafe. According to its owner, Aaron Barnard, the circular bar, or the barista bar called the ‘Mission Control’ allows for the baristas to perform their work and complete transactions from start to finish. With its aluminium enamel-painted walls and black marble countertop visible in the cafe’s glass storefront, Voyager Espresso’s minimalist café interior design is a fine and subtle approach to express their unique identity versus the clichéd white walls and reclaimed wood aesthetics that dominate most hip cafes.Image: SprudgePutting emphasis, value and meaning into the tactile and integrated foundation and space of cafés brings a sense of pedigree into the brand. The stories that are formed within the natural structures and materials make way for the café interior design to flow intuitively and create an appealing vibe where people can choose to associate themselves.Affirming identities through interior ideationIn café culture, authenticity often refers to artisanal, traditional, and high-qualitycoffee. However, authenticity could also mean the experience or the vibe that consumers look for that relates to them. With thousands of cafes around the world, consider travellers who prefer to look for cafes that resemble familiarity and a sense of identity. Affirmation of identity by a product or a business means that a customer’s preference or taste, let’s say for example, for artisanal coffee gives her or him satisfaction. Artisanal coffee is priced higher than regular coffee because of the perception that artisanal is high quality coffee. It also affirms the person’s purchasing power. Whether customers buy coffee because of the quality, or they pay for the comfortable ambience that certain cafes bring, interior designers can already extract inspiration from these behaviours to put into their café interior design playbook.In café culture, authenticity often refers to artisanal, traditional, and high-qualitycoffee. However, authenticity could also mean the experience or the vibe that consumers look for that relates to them. With thousands of cafes around the world, consider travellers who prefer to look for cafes that resemble familiarity and a sense of identity. Affirmation of identity by a product or a business means that a customer’s preference or taste, let’s say for example, for artisanal coffee gives her or him satisfaction. Artisanal coffee is priced higher than regular coffee because of the perception that artisanal is high quality coffee. It also affirms the person’s purchasing power. Whether customers buy coffee because of the quality, or they pay for the comfortable ambience that certain cafes bring, interior designers can already extract inspiration from these behaviours to put into their café interior design playbook.Image: SprudgeLa Fontaine De Belleville in Paris has a twist of traditional and contemporary character that is quintessentially Parisian. The owners took over a corner café space operating since 1915 to create this new neighbourhood café inspired by the many forms of Parisian sidewalk cafés. The vintage interiors blend with the modern furniture, such as their custom-made terrace chairs made by a local artisan and glass chandeliers designed by Omer Arbel, a global multidisciplinary artist. Their regular customers are a mix of artists, entrepreneurs, retirees, and young people.Image: Secret Tel AvivTel Aviv’s Bana, a vegan cafe, presents a homey atmosphere enlivened by a showcase of colourful fruits and vegetables on their countertop and walls. Bana has a quaint and unassuming presence, the effect of the pale pink and soft green colours of the windows and metal crates for their fresh produce and potted plants, which blends well with the exposed white brick interior. Bana is adored not only for their clean and simple aesthetic but also with their creative take on their plant-based dishes.Image: ARCHITECTUREAUBack in Australia, Third Wave Kiosk is a no-nonsense café situated at Torquay Surf Beach. Overlooking the ocean and with a strong presence of locals and tourists, the structure sits like an art installation where the rusting steel piles represent the natural and eroding forces of the ocean. Furthermore, it illustrates the playful identities of the locals and subculture that inhabit the beach. Third Wave Kiosk, with its semi-organic features, easily belongs to this breathtaking landscape. As the café industry diversifies and the demand for high quality coffee rises, the competition within the market continues, and the need to attract more customers to patronise every café establishment gets tougher. Even independent and specialty cafes still rely on coffee chain operation strategies while staying true to their identities and maintaining their own definition of authenticity. Interior designers, for their part, can ethically take advantage of the consumer’s emotional behaviour to design and customise café spaces that will pique the customer’s curiosity and affirm their identities. Creating a vibe or feel is part of interior design. Though intangible, these ideas are tied to the many identities that shaped the landscape of the café culture throughout history. Think about the merchants, artists, philosophers, and revolutionaries who filled the cultural character of cafes. And of course, applying the important elements of interior design such as lighting, colour, function and ergonomics in a necessary and intentional manner plays a big part in the cafe’s overall look and success.To sum it up, a café interior design that is conscious of the importance of storytelling and authenticity heightens the connection with consumers whose emotions also take part in their choice to support a brand or business.Greater Group is a multi-disciplinary global retail design agency. We have been creating award-winning retail spaces, customer experiences and workplaces since 1989, utilising our combined expertise to deliver high-impact, high-return design, fit-out and manufacturing solutions and provide clients with one point of contact throughout. Learn more about our design and build services, joinery manufacturers and retail design today!Contact us at contact@thegreatergroup.com to discuss how we can elevate your brand through innovative, future-proof retail design solutions.Share :
Café culture, for most of its history, is an alliance of social, economic, and cultural affairs. Tracing back to its European roots, cafés are public sanctuaries fostering community and exchange of ideas. Beyond championing and celebrating its main product – coffee – café spaces are highly favoured as a meeting hub of people with different trades and identities. Cafes, as communal spaces, symbolise community. People can sometimes forget the coffee but not the experience a place brings when people gather together. In the world of contemporary café culture where authenticity and affirming your identity have become commodified, how can café interior design draw inspiration from the café culture’s genuine legacy? How does it play into the consumer’s behaviour towards the expanding choices of consumers where experience and feelings are now part of the unique selling proposition? Building narratives in aesthetic and spatial arrangementsThe ubiquity of café chains throughout city centres have saturated the market. Nowadays, it’s normal to find two or three cafes in one street and probably another two in the next corner. It’s easy to forget the provenance of the physical structure where a business is established. Higher Ground, a fusion of a modern café and upscale restaurant located in Melbourne’s central business district, boasts of a heritage as a former power station dating back to 1890. With its sleek 15-metre-high ceilings creating spacious drama with its exposed original brick walls and pipework, its industrial vibe complements the bustling energy and enthusiasm both its staff and customers bring into the space.Image: Hidden City SecretsIn North Amsterdam, Noorderparkbar tells another story. Completely constructed out of ‘marktplaats’ or the Dutch version of eBay, the second hand materials and low cost construction gave rise to a brand new quirky pavilion made from wood with its own unique history— the shutters were sourced from a bankrupted formwork factory, while the bar’s interior walls came from a huge freight box used for shipping a milk carton filling machine from China to the Netherlands. The cafe’s playful design, the origins of its materials and significance of its construction fulfils a narrative that’s enticing to curious onlookers and café enthusiasts.Image: The Design HomeVoyager Espresso in New York, a space-themed specialty coffee bar in New York, represents the practicality and functionality of its floor plan, maximising its innovative concept as a futuristic-themed cafe. According to its owner, Aaron Barnard, the circular bar, or the barista bar called the ‘Mission Control’ allows for the baristas to perform their work and complete transactions from start to finish. With its aluminium enamel-painted walls and black marble countertop visible in the cafe’s glass storefront, Voyager Espresso’s minimalist café interior design is a fine and subtle approach to express their unique identity versus the clichéd white walls and reclaimed wood aesthetics that dominate most hip cafes.Image: SprudgePutting emphasis, value and meaning into the tactile and integrated foundation and space of cafés brings a sense of pedigree into the brand. The stories that are formed within the natural structures and materials make way for the café interior design to flow intuitively and create an appealing vibe where people can choose to associate themselves.Affirming identities through interior ideationIn café culture, authenticity often refers to artisanal, traditional, and high-qualitycoffee. However, authenticity could also mean the experience or the vibe that consumers look for that relates to them. With thousands of cafes around the world, consider travellers who prefer to look for cafes that resemble familiarity and a sense of identity. Affirmation of identity by a product or a business means that a customer’s preference or taste, let’s say for example, for artisanal coffee gives her or him satisfaction. Artisanal coffee is priced higher than regular coffee because of the perception that artisanal is high quality coffee. It also affirms the person’s purchasing power. Whether customers buy coffee because of the quality, or they pay for the comfortable ambience that certain cafes bring, interior designers can already extract inspiration from these behaviours to put into their café interior design playbook.In café culture, authenticity often refers to artisanal, traditional, and high-qualitycoffee. However, authenticity could also mean the experience or the vibe that consumers look for that relates to them. With thousands of cafes around the world, consider travellers who prefer to look for cafes that resemble familiarity and a sense of identity. Affirmation of identity by a product or a business means that a customer’s preference or taste, let’s say for example, for artisanal coffee gives her or him satisfaction. Artisanal coffee is priced higher than regular coffee because of the perception that artisanal is high quality coffee. It also affirms the person’s purchasing power. Whether customers buy coffee because of the quality, or they pay for the comfortable ambience that certain cafes bring, interior designers can already extract inspiration from these behaviours to put into their café interior design playbook.Image: SprudgeLa Fontaine De Belleville in Paris has a twist of traditional and contemporary character that is quintessentially Parisian. The owners took over a corner café space operating since 1915 to create this new neighbourhood café inspired by the many forms of Parisian sidewalk cafés. The vintage interiors blend with the modern furniture, such as their custom-made terrace chairs made by a local artisan and glass chandeliers designed by Omer Arbel, a global multidisciplinary artist. Their regular customers are a mix of artists, entrepreneurs, retirees, and young people.Image: Secret Tel AvivTel Aviv’s Bana, a vegan cafe, presents a homey atmosphere enlivened by a showcase of colourful fruits and vegetables on their countertop and walls. Bana has a quaint and unassuming presence, the effect of the pale pink and soft green colours of the windows and metal crates for their fresh produce and potted plants, which blends well with the exposed white brick interior. Bana is adored not only for their clean and simple aesthetic but also with their creative take on their plant-based dishes.Image: ARCHITECTUREAUBack in Australia, Third Wave Kiosk is a no-nonsense café situated at Torquay Surf Beach. Overlooking the ocean and with a strong presence of locals and tourists, the structure sits like an art installation where the rusting steel piles represent the natural and eroding forces of the ocean. Furthermore, it illustrates the playful identities of the locals and subculture that inhabit the beach. Third Wave Kiosk, with its semi-organic features, easily belongs to this breathtaking landscape. As the café industry diversifies and the demand for high quality coffee rises, the competition within the market continues, and the need to attract more customers to patronise every café establishment gets tougher. Even independent and specialty cafes still rely on coffee chain operation strategies while staying true to their identities and maintaining their own definition of authenticity. Interior designers, for their part, can ethically take advantage of the consumer’s emotional behaviour to design and customise café spaces that will pique the customer’s curiosity and affirm their identities. Creating a vibe or feel is part of interior design. Though intangible, these ideas are tied to the many identities that shaped the landscape of the café culture throughout history. Think about the merchants, artists, philosophers, and revolutionaries who filled the cultural character of cafes. And of course, applying the important elements of interior design such as lighting, colour, function and ergonomics in a necessary and intentional manner plays a big part in the cafe’s overall look and success.To sum it up, a café interior design that is conscious of the importance of storytelling and authenticity heightens the connection with consumers whose emotions also take part in their choice to support a brand or business.Greater Group is a multi-disciplinary global retail design agency. We have been creating award-winning retail spaces, customer experiences and workplaces since 1989, utilising our combined expertise to deliver high-impact, high-return design, fit-out and manufacturing solutions and provide clients with one point of contact throughout. Learn more about our design and build services, joinery manufacturers and retail design today!Contact us at contact@thegreatergroup.com to discuss how we can elevate your brand through innovative, future-proof retail design solutions.Share :