New interpretation of nostalgia
Coffee is a pleasure, and can best be enjoyed in stylish surroundings that set the right mood. This is exactly what the coffee roaster Heimbs has been offering its customers since March 2007 in the Braunschweig Castle Arcades. The recently opened Heimbs Café offers coffee, tea and chocolate specialities as well as cakes and other tasty treats – and only of the best Quality.
In fact, high quality is the number one item at Heimbs. The task of the architects was to convey this approach to the outside in a visual way as well, by creating the sort of atmosphere that prevails in coffee growing countries. High-quality materials are effectively presented in the café: Gently shimmering, bronze-coloured metal fabric is applied in waves along the ceiling to evoke the setting sun. An elegant curtain of textile threads demarcates the sides of the room, while furniture with cream-coloured leather upholstery stands out from the parquet floor of heat-treated wood, the dark green shade of which symbolises the link to the earth. Like the coffee bean, this wood has been improved through exposure to heat. But, without doubt, the particularly eye-catching feature is provided by panes of glass with coffee beans enclosed within the cavity. They line the entire front of the monolithic sales counter and create a direct reference to the product in question, namely the coffee bean.
The classic principle of the bean dispenser chute provided the inspiration for this original design element that was developed in cooperation with OKALUX. The coffee beans are spread onto a bed of silicone, thereby guaranteeing an even arrangement of the material within the window cavity. A U-profile in the edge seal ensures that the system is air-tight. Colour-changing LEDs in red, orange and yellow provide backlighting for the coffee beans with diffuse light, based on the roasting process.
The successful combination of materials in the Heimbs Café creates an inviting atmosphere for customers to come in and spend time sampling the products. This goes to show what sort of individual and, above all, attractive design possibilities are offered by placing items in the cavity between panes of glass.
