CYRUS: CHAI AND COFFEE COMPANY • ISLIP, NY

A question posed to us was, “how would you design a space that has everything but doesn’t look crowded?”, and the solution we arrived at was through visibility. Walls that are not structural oftentimes inhibit visibility, connection and functionality. When there is not visual connection, your mind creates separations and in those separations we discover disconnection. By starting off with the mindset of “no new demising walls”, we already were halfway there.

The space in and of itself is long and somewhat narrow, so the next challenge became eliminating any feeling of claustrophobia. We achieved this by maintaining the original ceiling height, building all new shelving into the design / removing it from having a footprint, + pushing for non-fixed furniture so the space can be reconfigured as needed.

The detailing of built elements was limited to clean lines - no curves, arches or angles. The only angles that arrived were along the floor in the market area, as the building itself tapers + we felt it was important to highlight that in the flooring. The material / color palette was kept minimal + focused on the interests of the client: European Brutalism. We were able to showcase blacks, whites + greys by accenting them with the warm + natural tones of refinished, unstained wood, live vegetation + a wonderful copper ceiling tile.

Type: Residential
Size: 1,100 SF
Status: Under Construction
Services Provided: Architectural Design
Photos: Pending