Public is a cafe, bar and function space located on Franklin Street, a short distance from Adelaide’s Victoria Square and CBD.

The style is an eclectic mix of ‘old and new‘, inspired by the theme of public spaces, such as old railway stations and grand libraries.

The site is approximately 30m frontage to Franklin Street by 10m deep. Being quite a narrow space, the floor plan needed to lend itself to being spacious and functional and utalising every inch.

“I wanted to create an environment which was warm and inviting and one that could cater for the cross over between a café to a bar atmosphere on Friday nights, as well as functions,” said owner and designer Danielle Elia. “A space that had a nostalgic “old world” feel to it, whilst being current and modern. A lot of natural light was already going to present itself due to the location of the space, however I didn’t want it to feel stark or sterile for the customer.”

Danielle used her own draftsman to document and design detailed working drawings and worked closely with Baulderstone, Tower 8’s project builders for base works.

There were four major concrete pillars which supported the building structure that needed to be incorporated into the design as well as the issues with the depth of the space due to the kitchen requirements.

When programming and planning the space, Danielle always starts with what the place is “offering” and their business model. In Public’s case, she needed a space that would function comfortably during the day, as well as on Friday nights, for a bar and dinner seating.

“I created various seating areas in order to achieve this,” explained Danielle. “Firstly, booth seating for longer lunches and tables and chairs, I then included a 4 metre communal table for casual seating as well as the 18 metre breakfast bar which has an outlook of the city atmosphere. There were two bars designed, one to cater for the main POS systems and the other to act as a bar on Friday nights, drink preparation as well as doubling up with a second coffee machine for the early morning coffee lines. There is also a “writer’s corner” which is a cosier bench seat arrangement for more intimate lunches, however then doubles up as a chill out area or pre dinner drinks, after hours.”

Once initial concept and space planning was carried out, Danielle then began sourcing objects, finishes, furniture pieces etc.(always ensuring they have plenty of stock with certain finishes as more often than not, you need to change design along the way to accommodate issues that arise.) Then on to base building works and then shop fit stage.

“I like to leave a week to finalise, stock and decorate the space – yet that almost never happens but always pulls together in the end,” she said.

There were two elements which created the design concept for Public. One was the 1940’s vintage railway platform station clock. This was sourced from the UK and originally serviced the LMS London Midland & Scotland railways. The other was the “writer wallpaper” called Thinking in Ink. This wallpaper contained a graphic array of the names of famous writers and complimented the colour scheme Danielle was working with. Once these two elements were secured, everything else began to fall into place.

“The modern “industrial” theme set the tone of the colour scheme I was going to use to create the warmth I needed and the use of different textural elements help break it up and lighten it up in areas where in needed it,” remarked Danielle. “I was able to push it a little, due to the fact that there was 30 metres of full height glass windows lighting the space, as opposed to a space that had little natural light.”

A combination of the main feature clock, the wooden fence palings, which adorn the walls and the handmade black matt tiles which face both bar ties the concept together.

There is a lot of lighting, again to support the different uses of the space. There is decorative feature lighting throughout and wall lights - all on dimmers which are dimmed for Friday nights, yet kept bright throughout the day.

“I think if you have time it’s good to visit the markets and vintage stores around Australia to find quirky pieces to enhance the theme of the space,” commented Danielle. “For Public I purchased vintage luggage racks from a store in Melbourne and white vintage scales from a homewares store in Adelaide. Other “found objects” and old library books were placed in the overhead shelving to create the idea of being in a public space.”