Nurtured Industrial – Mr Robertson Café by Maria Danos Architecture

As an embrace of its industrial setting, Mr Robertson Café combines the weighted robustness of concrete and steel with warming natural elements. Maris Danos Architecture proposes an appeal to match the wide-ranging patronage, brought together through a shared need for nurturing and comfort.

Surrounded by other remnants in the industrial park it is situated within, Mr Robertson Café takes occupancy in an existing concrete shell in Nunawading. Following the success of their previous café within a similar suburban setting, Mont Albert café, the operators sought to combine lessons learned together with an embrace of place in establishing the robust and welcoming place to gather. In its context, the café serves a wide-ranging demographic of clientele, and ensuring the space felt welcoming and allowed a sense of connection for that varied aesthetic group was key. Drawing therefore on the existing industrial surrounds and expressed framework, new insertions are conceived from a similar place of hardiness, while layering in elements of warmth and bold gestures. Maria Danos Architecture avoids the ornamental and instead cements the café in place, through a congenial approach.

Maria Danos Architecture avoids the ornamental and instead cements the café in place, through a congenial approach.

By breaking down the inherited volume of the space into more relatable proportions and the inserting datum lines to create a sense of enclosure, Mr Robertson Café utilises a banding approach. Built by Builtrite Group, the cool resilience of the polished concrete flooring is brought up into a custom Fibonacci counter moment. As a considered collaboration, the sculptural addition to the space marks the movement and transaction experience through the café, while being its own bold statement. The interesting combination of natural stone set within the whole adds interest and connects to an industrial strength without imposing.

Timber is then woven in as a warming agent, grounding the seating area and adding an element of the familiar. The Tasmanian blackwood is then contrasted by a darkened clay colouring used sparingly to add further warmth, while also referencing the natural. During the day the space is a café, and it is also a function space able to be hired out after hours. This in itself required an inbuilt flexibility, while also ensuring the space was both suitable to large groups and robust enough to hold events. Through a commitment to the design being anchored and honest, each element was able to suit the extended brief, with its industrial base an ideal influence.

The interesting combination of natural stone set within the whole adds interest and connects to an industrial strength without imposing.

Mr Robertson Café combines both its past and surrounding contextual cues to inform its present. In doing so, Maria Danos Architecture has created a place able to age and patina slowly and gracefully, over time.