Second chances don’t come around often, but when they do, they hold the power to transform the past and curate the future. Combine that with the concept of serving up the best in gastronomy and you get the art of the restaurant renovation. Finely attuned to this area of expertise, Enrike de Villiers from Sketch Interior Architects sat down to collate her thoughts on this niche practice.
Curating what remains
Approaching a restaurant renovation carries all the usual approaches of a new build: an initial consultation with the client and assessing their needs, defining the brief, budget, and goals, and a site survey and analysis. The uniqueness of this art comes forth in the challenges that renovation projects present. You’re not starting with a blank canvas and there is so much existing fabric to consider.
My key approach to this creative challenge is what I call ‘stripping back’. The process of stripping back is not physical (yet), but rather conceptual, through which I make three essential decisions: which parts of the existing design will remain as is, which parts will be changed or modified, and which parts will be demolished entirely.
Consulting the past
Then there is the heritage status factor. When that comes into play, albeit very rare in the industry, a large part of this process entails historic research, too. Historic architectural plans, old photographs, and articles about the building or interior in question are ideal resources. The general period of time and the architectural and design styles specific to that era are also invaluable in this process. In most cases, other professionals such as architects and engineers would be consulted to assess the structure of the building, and at times also a heritage consultant that specialises in preservation and restoration if required.
Balancing good and bad
Navigating this process alongside a client requires balancing the good and the bad, while always being straightforward and honest. A renovation project can be tricky in that you can only see the surface of the existing space. Often when demolition starts, we then uncover structural issues or degraded services that need to be fixed or replaced. The wisest move here is always to make sure that the client is aware of the risks and ‘unknowns’ in advance. Luckily, it is not all doom and gloom. One of the main benefits of a restaurant refurb is that you can reuse the existing services’ infrastructure and improve only where necessary. From this comes a huge advantage: added flexibility within the budget. You can then allocate more budget in areas that are more impactful for the customer experience.
The guardians of heritage
Honouring the existing design and build always plays a primary role, but it varies from project to project. Restaurant interiors are high traffic spaces that are subjected to a lot of wear and tear. Restaurants are often renovated every 3-5 years, in which case the existing build is not as significant and has no historic value yet. Once in while we get the privilege to renovate a restaurant that is in the region of one to two decades old. These types of places are icons, having survived the test of time. Naturally, honouring them becomes an integral part of the approach.
Even less often — perhaps a few times in the span of a career, if you’re lucky — a designer has the opportunity that I have now, which is to design within a host building that is older than 200 years. A unique case, these projects prioritise the survival, protection, and restoration of the existing design elements. The heritage comes first, everything else second. As a designer, you become the guardian of these elements.
The appeal of the reno
All design is a process. Renovation design is even more of a process. Anyone who designs renovations will tell you it is much more challenging than any new build. It is this challenging yet stimulating process that appeals to me in the short term while the project is ongoing. However, on a long-term and deeper level, there is something special about relinquishing the need to wholly author and fully own a design. Instead, it’s about embracing collaboration and co-ownership with the creative minds that came before you.
Refurb on the rise
Restaurant renovations have always been and will always be a significant part of the industry, because restaurants will always have to refurb as a way of implementing large scale maintenance (again due to the high traffic nature of these interiors). However, reno projects are increasingly more in vogue now as people are more aware of their footprint on the planet. Reuse and refurb come out on top, rather than building from scratch, while also refreshing the look and feel of a space and keeping up with trends.
In the blend of functional restoration, creativity, and aesthetics, the restaurant renovation is not only rewarding but it’s also essential for the evolution of the industry. It is in this space that architects and designers are given the opportunity to honour the history that’s embedded in a building while also propelling an evolution of design.
This Article is an extract from our October Issue. Read the full issue here.
