Category Archives: ARCHITECTURE

Situated in the heart of Kleinbasel, UNION restaurant is a new hotspot of this multicultural neighbourhood where immigrants, expats, students and creative industries coexist. Jérome Beurret and Stefan Grieder, owners of the well-known Rhyschaenzli in Basel, along with their new partner Pascal Salathe, appointed the architect Aurélie Blanchard to design their new restaurant.

The architecture aims to capture the spirit of a traditional American kitchen with fine Eastern influences. At UNION rustic meals such as burgers and ribs are revisited with contemporary touches. The design intends to create a warm dining environment with a vibrant metropolitan bar for both evening and daytime.

The dark green dining room with its oversized oak tables engages with the street whilst the dark envelope creates an intimate environment despite the room’s size. Basel’s traditional painted wooden doors inspired the room’s colour. Copper globes suspended above the tables cast warm islands of light between the diners who sit in clusters around these large communal dining tables. Domestic bliss of home-cooked meals and candle-lit dining atmosphere finally tie the room together.

The bar in contrast is a precious copper niche that opens onto the dark green dining room at the back. Shelves and standing tables emerge from the copper walls; masking the room surfaces with a seamless copper coat. The oversized standing table and new bar are an extension of the wooden floor, finished with a thick copper plate. Rounded corners, solid copper elements and cast glass lamps evoke metropolitan industrial times.

Throughout the space, a dark wooden floor unifies the restaurant and bar. Touches of copper jump into the green room through the folded bar, globe lamps and vintage copper vases.
Next to the bar, the existing courtyard is a lush and fresh space where the green of the plants echoes the Basel green of the restaurant.

Address: UNION restaurant – 95 Klybeckstrasse 4057 Basel
Clients: Jérome Beurret, Stefan Grieder, Pascal Salathe
Architect: Aurélie Blanchard
Graphic design: Ludovic Balland
Completion: March 2012
Area: 200 sqm

Source

East Street is the latest project by Nick Jeffries and David Fox, founders of restaurant chain Tampopo, and offers a diverse and unique take on Pan Asian cuisine, inspired by the pair’s own food discoveries during their travels across East Asia.

‘i-am’ Associates were appointed during the evolution stages to help develop and build a completely new brand identity for the launch of East Street in London. This included the creation of a new name and logo, graphic elements and complete interior design for the site.

We took bold steps to ensure that East Street had a solid brand proposition that resonated with their customer base. The tone of voice is friendly, warm and open the core value was to create a Pan Asian food odyssey. The sourcing of staff, the creation menu’s and the overall delivery of the brand message had to be unified and relate to the brand values of food and travel.

Everything was a direct take on travel, specifically Asia. We wanted to emulate the raw vibe of a South East Asian market and street cafe. From the very beginning we didn’t want to lose sight of how intimate the restaurant should feel, you should be totally immersed in the street market experience. The long benches and plastic tables recreate the feeling of being sat in a busy café in Hong Kong or Vietnam under a low glow of light surrounded by the sights and sounds of the kitchen.

Nick Jeffery and David Fox of Tampopo comment, “To launch a new restaurant in an already overcrowded London restaurant community you have to demonstrate diversity and a clear point of difference. With East Street, ‘i-am’ have helped us to create a brand identity and values that are instantly recognisable from moment you enter the restaurant right down to the service and the food and drink consumed.”

Source