Design Challenge and Design Ideas

Nobó is an award-winning Irish food brand specialising in creating delicious, wholesome, plant-based “treats” using only the finest natural ingredients. Minimally processed with nothing added.
Nobó’s new home is located on Dunville Avenue, Ranelagh, and was previously a furniture and interior store. In keeping with the ethos of the brand and the historical nature of the building it was decided to do as little as possible to unlock the potential of the space while using as much of the existing fabric of the building as possible.
Nobó’s brief further complicated the project as the space needed to accommodate multiple disparate functions while making it an appropriate home for the Nobó brand; communicating its core ideals around natural ingredients, sustainability, transparency and simplicity.

How the brief was fulfilled

Nobó’s “Treathouse” is a place for working, imagining, creating, demonstrating, teaching, showing and ultimately tasting and enjoying healthy plant-based treats.
Two walls of arched opes were located strategically to divide the required activities while allowing transparency and interconnectivity between the various spaces. The design allows for effectively 4 interrelated and interdependent functions; cafés/retail, chocolate lab, tasting rooms and back offices, bookended by an outdoor seating area to Dunville Avenue and a work terrace to the rear.
The first set of arches takes on the rhythm of the existing historical facade while dividing the retail from the chocolate lab and tasting room. The rhythm of the second set of arches divides again providing a level of privacy to the offices beyond while always maintaining a sense of transparency and openness from front to rear of the premises. Timber window structures were inserted into the arched opes providing for display, storage, seating, screening, demonstrating, working and showcasing while also controlling light and view.
Bespoke joinery was designed according to the required functionality. Radiator covers were fabricated to allow for the display, storage and a ledge for a coffee cup while allowing light through to the shop floor. Retail tables, with flexible top inserts, were designed to protect, display and store Nobó’s perishable products while also acting as space organisers, allowing for multiple floor configurations and journeys within. The existing floor coverings were removed to expose and retain the original concrete floor which was ground down and polished.