1888 Restaurant & Bar
My first self-directed module in third year taught me a lot about time management and managing expectations.
I decided for this project to design a high-end restaurant in a grade II listed building based in Barnstaple, North Devon.
The module started in October 2020 on Campus but we went through two Covid based lockdowns during the module leading us to finish the module from home. Due to the fact I have already completed some modules in lockdown before, I feel like I had a better idea of what I was doing this time round and therefore planned early on the type of work that I wanted to produce.
Client:
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Profession: Stockbroker
Income: £122,000
Class: Upper-Middle Class
Grew up in Barnstaple, North Devon
Lived in London
Started a family
Relocated back to Barnstaple
Project Brief:
A high-end restaurant based in a grade II listed building.
The design should:
Have a welcoming, local, sense of community atmosphere
A fun colour palette, made up of rich colours and materials
The history of the site should be integrated into the design
There should be a stand-out room feature
Provide a quality dining experience
Consumer:
Age: 20-60
Gender: Mixed
Profession: Public service worker, retail, accountant
Income: Average Barnstaple salary of £24,000
Class: Middle class
Hard-working individuals
Buy into experiences
The history and story behind the existing buildings were very important for me to understand to be able to successfully integrate the history into the concept. They were built in 1888 by William Clement Oliver for the Shapland and Petter factory. This factory was making and selling arts and crafts style furniture and also began making doors in the mid-1900s. The factory bought a tremendous amount of wealth to Barnstaple and 20% of the population of the town was supported through employment here. The factory closed in 2012 and was officially listed in 2015.
The site can be found just on the outskirts of Barnstaple town centre making it very easily accessible by vehicle or foot. Plus there is the main connection to the Tarka Trail just around the corner making it suitable for cyclists and dog walkers alike. There is a large redevelopment plan underway here with new supermarkets, shops and housing. The Oliver buildings will be turned into mixed apartments also. So for this project, I decided to fictionally design a restaurant which would be situated on the ground floor of one of these buildings.
Below you can see the branding and marketing I produced for my restaurant. I chose to name it 1888 after the year the buildings were built as this incorporates the history whilst also sounding quite high end. I produced mock-up social media pages, designed the uniform, menus and napkins. I had a lot of fun doing this!
I photographed my material board as part of the project submission as I felt it would have looked better than a digitally produced board. My materials have come from companies such as Little Greene and Linwood. I chose to use dark velvets, dark woods and gold/ brass to help bring a luxurious feel to the restaurant. I imagined that I would keep the existing brick walls and wooden flooring to bring some character into the room but would give it a lick of paint to refresh it.
Below you can see the 3D visuals I created for the space to try and portray my ideas easily. I used Sketch Up and Photoshop to create these.
I designed a bespoke bar inspired by a woodworking plane to be one of the features of the room. I also chose to suspend doors from the ceiling and create a wall of doors to pay homage to the factory.
I designed a pre-Covid and post-Covid floor plan for the restaurant, to acknowledge the changes that the hospitality industry has had to endure. My pre-Covid floor plan holds 89 covers but with social distancing measures in place, my post-Covid floor plan goes down to 70 covers. There are multiple types of dining in my restaurant including private, banquette, causal and bar seating. A stud wall puts a divider between the dining area, kitchen and bathrooms which can be found at the far end of the restaurant. The restaurant is extremely accessible suitable for wheelchair users and the ambulant disabled.
I thoroughly enjoyed this project because it gave me a chance to manage and plan the whole thing and it allowed me to delve into the history of the site which I found very interesting. I also produced a construction pack, brand guidelines and presentation boards as part of the submission.