Derived from the main idea, I search for a sea themed food court. It took me to a Hawaii food court. from this, I get inspiration for the ceiling. And as the search continue, I know that the trend of food court is no longer rowed small stall that packed with neon signboard, artificial coconut tree and plastic chairs and stabilo colored surrounding that usually get in mind if someone mentioned food court.
From my examination, it appears that the trend among food court developed differently among the east and west country. In east country, especially Singapore and eventually Indonesia, the trend is about nostalgic and full ornamented food court.
For example, take a look at Food Republic in Singapore. The power of the design is small details and properties that create the ambiance.
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| Food Republic, Singapore |
In my opinion, they don’t use the expensive
material, but it’s ok because design is not always about the luxury things but
it’s how to create good design with the material that available. The parameter
to ‘good design’ is the place itself become economicly success and people buzz
about the place’s design. This really happen to Food Republic in Singapore,
because so many Indonesian design people who come to Singapore to do field
study, they always visit it as a reference. And more over, it create trend that
Indonesian people addopt.
In Indonesia, Food Republic is translated into
Eat and Eat. A food court that has the similarly same idea to its design. But
if in Food Republic, it use old Singapore ambiance, in Eat and Eat, they use
the theme of old Jakarta Peranakan ambiance in its branch in Kelapa Gading. As
you can see, good design trigger other people to follow.
Appart from the ‘nostalgic’ theme in east
country, the west country do big leap in food court concept. They run far and
fast, by bringing futuristic concept to foodcourt. The one that very
inspirational is the in New York city.
This foodcourt is designed by . the main concept is that people don’t have to
face the waitress to order food. They simply give order to the computer and
they will pick up the food on the stalls that serve all the visitor. This
progressive concept, also translated into its eating hall. They go with all
white space. In my opinion, on one side, this colour give higienic message.
But, on the other side, all white space is too dull and cold for eating place.
Perhaps combining with wood material will help.
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| Food Parc, NYC |
And there is another foodcourt that becomes my
favorite. It’s called URBAN EATERY. Located on Canada, Urban Eatery really give
the urban feeling from its design. All stall different from one another. They
have freedom to design they own stall. But they all have the red line:
contemporer design and material. The united accent is the glass that divide
each stall, using stainless border and become the signage with stainless plat.
This concept yet artistic and functional. We can imagine that visitor that
browse the stall will not have to step back and see the signboard above the
head, but just glimpse to the stainless plat that on the eye level. Great idea!
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| Urban Eatery, Toronto, Canada |
Second point of interest is the design of all
element in this foodcourt use clean cut finish. It gives efficient and straight
forward environment. This also become plus point for maintainance. In this
case, I can not deny that expensive material do make leverage to the overall
ambiance. For example, they do use rectified floor finish with good quality,
check point. Exquisite marble at some stall, check point. High capacity halogen
light, check point. Wood finish in some ceiling area which give warm feeling,
check point. Solid surface on most of the serving table, check point.
My favorite stall is the Jugo juice and Gelato
stall. Jugo juice use shocking pink and a little silver highlight. With
minimalis element, it really rock me. Notice that they use wood plank on the
front side of the serving table, give balance to its design. Gelato stall, they
pick up the right colour for its signboard above, the mauve purple really
represent the creamy dreamy gelato ice cream that will cool up your hectic hot
day. Overall, i love Urban eatery and hope some day I shall have opportunity to
dine in there.
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| Jugo Juice, Urban Eatery |
Last word, designing a food court need theme.
Decide first what theme do you want to bring to your foodcourt. Then, create
the ambiance with detailing element. In this point, we have to know, which
class to this foodcourt will fit in. Third and most important, cleanliness is
the major issue. We want to give people good food and HEALTHY. So don’t be lazy
to check the work flow and garbage flow to design stage, so that we as an
architect will do strong point on clean and healthy eating place. And after you
do that all, imagine you eating on that place.. Bon apetite..
Reference:
Flickr: studio maris
