Broche Specialty Coffee Shop

Broche is tiny coffee shop located at an intersection in one of Oxford's historic neighborhoods.

The exterior of the neighborhood is protected, so our task was to revitalize and make this inconspicuous corner attractive and comfortable without resorting to drastic measures and seamlessly blending it into its surroundings.

The size of the project was a challenge for us on the one hand and an opportunity for experimentation on the other, and we took advantage of it.

We decided to use a material that we had recently become familiar with at the last Venice Biennale: mycelium panels grown from mycelium (a fungus!). These panels are one of the most sustainable materials available today. We used the panels in the interior walls of the coffee house, made tables out of them (inspired by the shape of the mushroom) as well as street lamps.

For this project we are working with Grown Bio @grown_bio , who grew the panels for the stunning Growing Pavilion at Dutch Design week 2019.

In the building itself, due to its status as a historic district, we didn't have much opportunity to change anything - but we still managed to revitalize it. We replaced the windows with sliding wooden ones, with beautiful casing, so that it would be convenient to serve customers take away. A few square meters in front of the coffee shop, which are adjacent to it we laid out with clinker tiles, placed benches and three cozy tables on it.

The facade itself was painted in warm calm ivory color.

For the next Broche coffee shops, we proposed making other sustainable materials (such as recycled textiles and plastics), as well as offering brooches made from these materials as coffee shop merch.