2023 Eat Drink Design Awards: Best Cafe Design

Jury comment

This little gem is a brave circuit breaker; it’s not your average pit-stop cafe-sandwich bar. A beautifully crafted bespoke space that aesthetically delivers in spades, it manages to weave together urban chic and Bondi’s laid-back, fashionable culture. The crew at Studio Shand embraced the challenge of ensuring S’wich’s unique cafe concept would transition with ease from day to night and lead with a strong brand identity. The design embodies every aspect you need in a local cafe – the idea of bringing warmth and comfort to the local community is very much in evidence. Located in a classic Art Deco building, the cafe was designed to nod to its Bondi heritage. The small space has a very tactile dimension, featuring custom lighting; warm, rich, bold colours; and prismatic panels between galvanized metal and original brick. This is an example of how to seamlessly integrate many materials yet leave an impression of a minimalist approach.

Design statement

We approached the brief for a new sandwich bar as a dynamic study in colour and shape through time. Blending brick construction with duotone interiors and custom sculptural furnishings, our design interplays raw and refined elements to present as a casual diner for the future. The project’s site – a tight, dilapidated shell to the base of an Art Deco building typical of interwar Bondi Beach – provided challenges with respect to delineating space and program. Our brief required washrooms, an internal dining area for more than 30 patrons, a commercial kitchen with a bespoke cooking line, a bar, a custom point of sale and a sitewide integration of equipment. A limited budget and coastal site meant all works needed to be cost-effective and robust. Beyond this, the brief represented our client’s first venture, a longstanding dream that needed to boldly actualize, project and cement a new brand and contribute to its success. We proposed bands of distinct colour to wrap the store, metal blades to split prismatic panels, and galvanized plates that suspend crystalline tables. The result is an artful environment with nostalgic inflection that places focus on the produce and products on offer.

S’wich Bondi is built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

Project credits

Design practice Studio Shand Project team Benjamin Jay Shand, Geran Atkinson

See the full gallery of winning and commended projects on the Eat Drink Design Awards website.

The Eat Drink Design Awards are organized by Architecture Media (publisher of ArchitectureAU). The 2023 awards’ supporting partners are Roca and Latitude.

The Eat Drink Design Awards are endorsed by the Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia.