A Western Imprint to the Heritage

Garage Inc., Mumbai, AND Studio

Built by refurbishing an existing heritage site, Garage Inc. is a modern style café designed by Architecture and Design Studio. The ambience of the café speaks loud and clear about it being a relaxing space despite it having a certain industrial look and feel.

Garage Inc. is a modern style café located in Colaba, Mumbai. It has been designed by refurbishing an existing heritage site. The raw textures and appeal of the whole café has been kept in mind. The café design is in sync with the whole city fabric in its raw, archaic and rustic feel. The 28-year-old fresco, ceiling and flooring have been left untouched to retain the old world charm, the ambience speaks loud and clear about the café being a relaxing space. Also, the café has a certain industrial feel attached to its design.

IDEA
The idea of the café was to create the space that has an American vibe attached to it and at the same time preserve the beautiful heritage site with unique Indian architectural elements such as the curved brick roofing and the terracotta tile work on the floor. Natural shades of brown have been used that prove to be a versatile hue with its wide usage in American as well as Indian indigenous architecture.

ZONING:
The café is situated on Walton Street in the Plush area of Colaba in Mumbai. The main door or entrance of the café opens up on the main road, the café lies on the ground floor. As the user enters the café they are greeted with a wide vista of the magnificent café interiors. The wet areas and dry areas are segregated well with the bar kitchen and washrooms placed at the end of the café on the right side keeping in mind the smooth functioning of the café during rush hours.

CLIENT BRIEF:
The client requirements were of an industrial rustic American all day pub cum diner with a vintage vibe along with warm and cosy ambience that serves all age groups.

CONCEPT:
The numerous framed images of the noteworthy inventions and discoveries made in the past that are hung all over the place call out attention to the fact that how all great ideas start either in a garage or a workshop. Garage Inc. is a watering hole celebrating such creative and innovative minds and places of work. The name ‘Garage’ comes from the idea that great ideas are flourished within small minds.

DESIGN ELEMENTS:
The café’s design is replete with rustic, industrial and out of the box design elements that compliment the nostalgic vibe of the whole space. Be it the hipped roof ceiling with unfinished paintings or the terracotta flooring the café is designed to remodel the aura of the former property. The roofing and flooring have been preserved in its purest form and walls have an unfinished fish scaled texture adorned with various wall hangings depicting inventions and discoveries made in the past.

FURNITURE:
The restaurant is spread across a vast area and houses plenty of wooden tables and comfortable wooden chairs and couches strategically placed in while ensuring enough space to move around with ease – a good example of well-executed space management. The chairs are alternatively designed with a very easy-to-miss feature of mixing different fabrics which proves to be another unsaid move by the designer. The beige and mustard checked fabrics with copper button work detailing gives the furniture an edgy look.

COLOUR-PALETTE:
The monotonous colour palette used adds to the charm of the place making it pleasing to eyes because of the absence of pop
and neon colours, the muddy brown roof and flooring add to the indigenous effect of vernacular Indian Interiors. Modest shades of brown and mustard have been used for the furniture while the walls are adorned with beige hues. The bar area witnesses the use of blue coloured wall elements that are highlighted by blue lighting.

LIGHTING:
The colours used for lighting are extremely subtle. Yellow coloured lighting for interiors having a majority of pastel shades adds depth to the spaces while a hint of blue lighting is used for emphasis to add to the requisite quirk of the space.

INNOVATION:
The design team decided to preserve the existing elements and use common grounds from the client brief, site and design sense to create a well-crafted masterpiece that has plenty of design elements.

SUSTAINABILITY:
The project is a design triumph in itself at the same time it qualifies to be a sustainable project because of the fact that it does not unnecessarily use design elements while destroying the existing ones, rather the design team believes in sustainability and avoiding wastage of resources.

Garage Inc. does not miss a single chance to enthral the user with its rustic and indigenous design feel and garage-inspired interiors.