Creating a Café in the Midst of a Pandemic

At Canopy Fitouts it's always our intention to create spaces that inspire people to do their life's best work in, although predominantly we specialise in the office fitout industry, we have a great understanding that not every career is based in an office space. We were given the opportunity to work again with Pierce Widera, an award-winning architecture and interior design practice, but this time in a hospitality format to create a small but inviting cafe in the heart of Hawthorn.

Being such a small space invited some challenges, including providing sufficient service space for staff and customers. Another challenging aspect of the design was the in situ board-formed steel top counter, being it was a first for Canopy with multiple factors to take into consideration as the subfloor required strengthening to allow for the additional weight of the heavy and durable concrete counter. We needed to achieve this accurately as it was one of the main design features of Dux Coffee. The challenging part included the tie in of three different contractors which involved joiners to complete the carcass and sub straight, concreters to install steel reinforcement as well as the boards to be formed up, and the steel manufacturer to provide the 3.6 metre steel top. 

Although we faced a global pandemic during the construction which changed the way we conducted weekly site meetings via zoom, we still were able to ensure both clients and designers were kept well informed of the progress. This showed how technology can still allow us to communicate all aspects of the fitout, as well as give a virtual tour to both the designers and our clients without the requirement of leaving their own home.

This opportunity provided Canopy and its projects team with a better understanding of how to adapt to unforeseen changes and we are pleased with the overall outcome of this stunning cafe. We would like to thank Pierce Widera for this opportunity to work alongside their awesome team once again and we look forward to future collaboration projects. If you ever find yourself travelling through Hawthorn and in need of a coffee, I recommend visiting Dux Coffee and picking yourself up a coffee and peanut-butter choc-chip cookie while you are there.