Serving Culture & Sustainability at this Cafe & Retail Fitout 

Celebrating South Asian tradition within the heritage context of Queen Victoria Market, Original Chai Co had been operating out of a humble cart since 2014 and was ready to scale to a permanent location. Our clients were part of the newer wave of immigrants from India and the brand was in its nascent phase. On the heels of the Covid lockdowns, budget remained tight while the heritage location warranted strict adherence to requirements.

Read on to find out how we balanced all the various elements – culture, costs, operational efficiency, and brand evolution – in this café fitout.  

Showcasing Brand Identity through Culture 2.0

Quintessential Tea Leaves

Not only were our clients immigrants from India, but with their design background, they shared our vision of embracing “Culture 2.0” where modernity and tradition are not opposites but coexistent.  Our starting conversations soon translated into design elements that turned away from kitsch yet retained cultural DNA through colour, motif and material.

Colour: We adopted a limited but vibrant colour palette with earthy terracotta hues and electric blues. The terracotta references the kulhad or earthen cups that the brand continues to use. The blue pays homage to the ubiquitous Chai Street carts of India and evokes memories of Original Chai Co’s initial retail format.

Motif: Everything in the design stems from the circular profile reminiscent of one sipping a hot cup of Chai with the care (and flair!) with which it is brewed taking centre stage. We carried this circular motif through plan, elevation, section and graphics, ultimately tying it back to the arched heritage fabric of the QVM buildings along Victoria Street.

Material: Harking back to the role of stainless steel as the operational and cultural backbone of the Indian chai stall business, we chose powder-coated steel for the counter top. Given the live (and frequently messy) Chai brewing station, its robust nature allows easy cleaning and low maintenance.

Designing for Brand Evolution: Future-proofing & Sustainability

The Aroma

Our design approach favours gradual evolution over sudden transformation—a philosophy we believe is beneficial for many brands. Rather than the big-spend visual identity upgrade that many choose, we nudged our clients to embrace a fit out where the architecture does not compete with the experience in leaving a lasting imprint. Our approach also allows for future brand evolution given the business was in its initial growth phase. In a departure from norms, many of the components are freestanding and the rare seemingly “fixed” elements can either be dismantled /reassembled or unhooked/re-hung.

• The main counter can be easily unscrewed into three sections for future use in a market or increased in length with more modular sections for a bigger venue
• The display shelves have hidden hooks and can be re-hung in a new location or further units can be added to increase display capacity for an expanding product line
• The stainless steel benchtops & Point-of-Sale terminal behind the screen have lockable castors at their base for ease of adjustment and future relocation

By treating space as transient, functional, yet delightful, we balanced heritage with modern needs. This approach has set the brand up for organic success while staying true to their roots.

Milking a Tight Budget

The Milk

A tight $36,000 budget in a Heritage-listed building would have thwarted many. But at andever, we saw this as an opportunity to align our architectural response with the sensibilities of Indian immigrants. Central to the design is “Jugaad,” which describes the behaviour of solving creatively with limited resources.

Enter robust materials, low cost interventions, and a fit-out designed for full disassembly, reassembly and reuse—a fundamentally sustainable approach.  From the easy maintenance and structural durability of the stainless steel countertops, design elements that were easy to paint over and change, to modular functional elements, we delivered and served within budget.

More renovation savings mean more dollars that can be reinvested in other areas of the business.

Negotiating National Heritage Listing Constraints

The Teacup

The building that houses the café was one of several original storage warehouses for fruit & vegetable market traders, and came with express requirements that forbade any major cutting into the walls, floors and roof. This proved tricky because it meant that almost all services (plumbing, electrical, grease traps) had to be exposed yet presentable. This is how we addressed this challenge:

• A simple plan encourages transient movement from the wide front walkway and the rear laneway thus providing “thoroughfare” access to the remaining market sheds
• Permeable workspace zone and services (plumbing & grease trap) are placed to one side with display, sugar station, seating, queuing, and lingering zones on the other
• Light fittings are suspended or surface mounted
• Custom shelves have inbuilt hooks so they can be wall-hung on minimal fixing depths instead of the usual fully recessed options that would impact the wall plaster
• ⁠The slim-line edges and free standing, modular structure of the main blue screen minimises fixing to the floor boards

3 Years Later: Architecting Brand Evolution

3 years on, our Culture 2.0 interpretation that matches authenticity with modernity has proved a successful hook with all patrons, both Indian immigrants who crave “real Masala Chai” as well as the general public. Original Chai Co has served countless cups of Chai and accompanying snacks and the fit-out has weathered well.

With resounding business growth, the clients have approached us to customise the fit-out for their next stage of growth. It is time to put all our freestanding and sustainable elements to good use. Watch this space as we facilitate Original Chai Co’s brand evolution.

If you, as a brand owner, believe in fostering customer loyalty and organic growth over chasing virality or taking big renovation risks, contact us today!