Vibrant colour, eye-catching detailing and mid-century modernism combine to create Californian Cool which, along with meticulous spatial planning, result in a charming cafe that customers return back to again and again.
Nakkash Design Studio (est 2015), combines the crisp lines of Californian modernism with PDL’s roots in cycling and barbershop culture. PDL (pronounced Pedal) is a chain of cycling-themed, urban barbershops and speciality coffee houses with two locations across Dubai. The Dubai Mall cafe, which adjoins the American Rag Cie clothing store in Dubai Mall, is the brand’s latest outpost.
The client brief called for Nakkash Design Studio to create a cafe with a relaxed and inviting atmosphere that would encourage shoppers to linger for longer within the busy and distracting context of the mall. It also required the design team to organise ample seating, a generous coffee bar and a kitchenette within a tight 76-square-metre footprint.
Visitors enter the cafe via a huge blue tile-clad archway opening that spans the entire width of the cafe – a feature that is unique within the vast shopping complex. The welcoming form of the cafe’s arched entrance is echoed in the undulating wall feature that is installed above the coffee bar, in the arched frame of the pocket door in the cafe’s sidewall and in the curved backs of the Pedrali Remind 3730 chairs that occupy the seating area in front of the cafe.
Despite the limited floor space, the retail unit’s generous ceiling height and abundance of natural light from a skylight make the cafe feel bright and spacious. To further enhance this feeling of light- ness and to create a visually soft connection with the neighbouring clothing store, the design team used panels of Svensson sheer fabric, from Sweden, to separate the two.
A series of industrial pendant lamps that hang on chains from a steel grid above reference PDL’s as- sociation with cycling while a selection of custom designed teal benches with splayed legs and cane coffee table referencing the mid-century modern furniture style from the 1970s.
Material Used :
1. Interior furniture: Remind 3730 chairs, Pedrali
2. Fabric: Svensson sheer fabric, Sweden
3. Walls: Vogue Ceramic tiles
4. Lighting: Existing
