low down

The previous Low Down cafe was pretty much and institution for many of the neighbouring office workers and city dwellers. Owned and run by the two charismatic brothers, it had one of the highest coffee outputs of anywhere in the city. So the new replacement cafe on a nearby site needed to handle a rather extreme procession of take away customers – designed so that there was a natural service flow with a highly functional production area.

The brief was to create an engaging space, as the name suggests, with a bit of soul, funk and grit. An escape or reprieve from the sharp corporate world that so many customers were immersed in 9 to 5. One of the main challenges here was creating a captive intimate space out of a glass “fish bowl” tenancy, open to public thoroughfares on three sides. Of course the space also needed to carry the cultural branding that the brothers had created in the old Low Down.

After overcoming exhaustive resistance from building owner’s agent, form-ply screening was finally approved that carried symbolic branding, and enabled the creation of an intimate little get away from the world outside. A palette of honest, raw material where carefully chosen and worked, like exposed aggregate concrete, plywood and hand thrown clay, to add to the Low Down branding of keeping it real. Drop by for a coffee sometime and check it out!