Client Recess Cafe
Date 2009
Size 2,500 ft2
Budget $400,000

Fabricated with rapidly renewable and recycled materials, this location is the first ‘prototype’ for Recess Cafe. Recess is a new culinary venture, employing the themes of playground, escape, and health.

The design creates an intimate environment for its customers, engaging the physical habitation of the spaces by ergonomically adapting to the activities of ordering and consuming, enabling customers to both lean and sit on its surfaces.  Through the sensorial interplay of light and reflection, the design evokes different moods responding to music, seasons, and times of the day.

The space is divided horizontally, with the lower half , a rapidly renewable laminated bamboo composite, constructing a figurative landscape of lean-to-walls, tables, counters and benches. The upper half, of fabric and recycled metal, configures a mutable field as a backdrop for different activities.