Profile: Foolscap Studio

From a tiny closet-cum-cafe to a 450-square-metre Vietnamese restaurant, the projects created by emerging practice Foolscap Studio are functional and detailed, with a playful edge.

Start small – that’s what they tell you when you’re embarking on something new and challenging. When Adele Winteridge began her Melbourne-based practice Foolscap Studio, she took this advice literally. Foolscap’s first project, completed in 2010, was a thirteen-square-metre cafe in Collingwood aptly named Tiny. For this project, the studio turned a cleaner’s cupboard under a staircase into a twelve-seater cafe, squeezing in a kitchen, coffee machine, storage, tables and seating. Fold-out joinery and a clean, simple palette make the space feel as large as possible. As many first projects go, no money exchanged hands. Adele lent her services in return for some visual branding from Tiny’s owner.

In the prophesying Melbourne cafe scene, Tiny was one of the city’s first micro cafes. Today they’re much more common – it seems fortune-telling is something Foolscap is good at. The studio’s portfolio is rich with hospitality projects and much of this work has been “firsts” and has had a transformative impact on Melbourne’s eating and drinking scene.

Patricia, completed in 2011, was Melbourne’s first standing-room-only espresso bar. Working with graphics studio Beyond the Pixels, Foolscap embraced the simplicity of what Patricia was trying to do. The space employs an Italian-esque palette of dark joinery, marble and brass, while a custom-designed neon sign suspended from the ceiling reads “Sunshine” (interpret that how you will in often-overcast, caffeine-dependent Melbourne). Patricia reflects what Foolscap’s work has since become – functional and detailed, with a playful edge.

The first standing-room-only cafe in Melbourne: Patricia, completed in 2011.

The first standing-room-only cafe in Melbourne: Patricia, completed in 2011.

Image: Ben Glezer

Shebeen, Australia’s first not-for- profit bar, was completed in Melbourne in 2013. It took more than three years to finish and was a labour of love for Foolscap. Four sites were scrapped before its current Manchester Lane address was finally realized. The design concept for Shebeen was spurred by the illegal, dilapidated drinking dives of South Africa. An old picket fence lines the bar and squares of made-in-China plaid plastic bags line the walls. The studio prioritizes collaboration in its projects and Foolscap worked with a number of different people to bring Shebeen to fruition.

“We came up with the idea of something being ‘Shebeeny.’ The core concept was that we were in someone’s house that was taken over by Shebeenites – people who, like in the developing world [where the concept was born], might not have everything but they find something and they make it beautiful in their eyes.”

Custom-designed furniture and lighting is a signature move of Foolscap’s. For Adele, this is a two-pronged approach – custom-designed objects help achieve a more holistic design and also satisfy her OCD tendencies. “We custom-design it because we are providing a unique space for the user and a unique space for the client. When we’re coming up with an identity for our client’s brand, sometimes something that is proprietary isn’t who they are, and that’s why we make it ourselves. When we want a light to do a specific thing, or a chair to be a specific height, we make that item. It’s about control. We’re control freaks.”

The three-storey Vietnamese restaurant Uncle, in Melbourne’s St Kilda, is perhaps Foolscap’s most holistic space. Wheel-able waiters’ stations were custom designed and made, as were the skeletal lanterns that float within the space. The lanterns are CNC routed and come flat-packed for easy delivery and assembly. Uncle’s design aesthetic is based on the five elements governed by the Wu Xing approach to cooking – spicy, sour, bitter, salty and sweet. These five tastes relate to the five materials and concepts used predominantly in the fitout – metal, wood, fire, water and earth.

While Foolscap is known for its hospitality venues, the studio has delved into other sectors. In 2013, Foolscap designed a space for Clemenger BBDO’s digital innovation teams at its Melbourne headquarters. This project required the studio to reconcile two separate teams, also linking them to the adjoining reception. Positioned under a glass atrium, the space features custom-designed cellular lights and sculptural canopies to intertwine the two teams.

As with its other work, the studio’s retail projects are refined and immersive. Its fitout for menswear store Vanishing Elephant in Melbourne drew on the 1980s film Out of Africa to create a sentimental, safari-like backdrop for the clothes. More recently in Port Melbourne, Foolscap completed a wine shop and bar whose design celebrates traditional crafts. Harry & Frankie wine bar features custom-printed cork panels on the vaulted ceiling and a handmade leadlight window with an H&F inscription.

Located in Melbourne’s QV building, Vanishing Elephant retail store was completed in 2011.

Located in Melbourne’s QV building, Vanishing Elephant retail store was completed in 2011.

Image: Tom Blachford

Foolscap has accomplished a lot for a young practice, with forty-two projects completed over five years, but Adele still revels in the challenges. “The details are still a small challenge. Our job is identifying the problems and designing solutions well before you get to the end, when it would be too late. It’s like fortune-telling, in a way.”

Source

People

Published online: 29 Nov 2014
Words: Cassie Hansen
Images: Ben Glezer, Clint Presso, Martina Gemmola, Tom Blachford

Issue

Artichoke, September 2014

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