Bambini Trust Cafe, Sydney
This project has been featured in Belle April May 2006 (article by Kirsty de Garis).
We obtained this job as the builders did not have a clue as to how to realise the cleint's vision, or indeed, how to negotiate through Council red tape.
We sat opposite at the table. Maddalena showed me the space we had and explained the client loved things French. Maddalena's library was extensive and we analysed books. There was one photo that we went back to. A rather elegant plaster ceiling with a small bead forming a circle.
We sensed that the client was interested in a rich and vibrant space, perhaps even a passionate experience, with layers of detail giving a sense of Europe from the past. The building context of the cafe itself carries memories of the ancient Classical world, reinterpreted in an Australian context.
We interpreted our experience of European culture, mine Scandinavian and Maddalena's of Itaian/French and presented images as fragments; a sense of possible memories. We sought to, as in the theatre, suggest a lot with a little, and this theme was emphasised with mirrors giving an illusion of space and depth and screens layered as backdrops. The (re)construction with elements and fragments captures the feel of dreaming and memory; of things remembered. It was to reference the past rather than (re)create the past. The function of recollections of experience are from re- member-ing something of the parts not a whole.
A photo was published by Paul Pellow from Belle April/May 2006
Unfortunatly a few things went missing, but substantially our vision was realised. The carpenters used my perspective below to interpret the drawings. This argues the power of the three dimensional image over even 1:5 details. This was the first image we presented to the client and it went with an option of the plan which was later modified as the bar was moved to be more central and the centre row of seating removed.
The decorative cornice and the partial surround to a mirror vanishing into a wall in the perspective were a suite of referential fragments. They were so fragmentary that some went missing entirely....in fact the corbels would have also gone missing, appropriated by a plastering contractor, except for the vigilance of Maddalena, who desipte not being employed to administer the contract walked past and was bold enough to explain where they went. Again they were refered back to the perspective......
