Coffee Concept
Coffee House Concepts
CLIENT: Starbucks
LOCATION: Mobile
SIZE: 160-1,920 SQ FT
OPENING: 2009
PROGRAM: Commercial
a modular retail concept
We aim to improve and expand upon the current concepts of Starbucks’ coffee shops with mobile drive-through kiosques. The design is a modular embodiment of re-purposed containers, which provide for superior flexibility, renewable-building, cost-effectiveness and creative construction. Conducive to a dynamic social environment, within the coffee-shop space is an integrated flexible furniture and storage package completed by advancing technologies and eco-friendly infrastructure.
Starbucks is already persistently striving to promote sustainability and green practices, it is only fitting to take the next step. Consumers are smart. They can see when a retailer is taking minimal steps to simply go along with the eco-trends. They can also see the value in highly innovative or wholesome brands. A constantly cited example is Whole Foods. Their business model is dense with strategies to bring in products which are organic, healthy, and always good for the environment. Customers read this through their natural daylight, strong packaging identification, and most importantly, their innovative and non-traditional store experience.
Simply put, Whole Foods strengthened their message of selling different and better product by creating a different and better environment, even if many of today’s grocery stores are selling similar products. Starbucks can achieve similar results by re-separating themselves from competitors who have seemed to directly emulate Starbucks’ current retail model. Containers can facilitate Starbucks’ image of fresh, inspired, and energetic product and business practices. They are also, and importantly, untouched in roll-out retail, furthering innovation in the Starbucks brand identity.
our process
Container design has been a particularly intriguing concept to us for a very long time. Starting with the Topanga Container Residence, designed by Christof Jantzen for his family, the passion and inquiry for the endless possibilities of this form of construction has evolved in numerous studies ranging from single and multi-family residences, to mobile coffee-shops.
When approaching a design with a specific material or product in mind, we are able to focus our efforts in innovative solutions that respect and respond to the opportunities and challenges at hand. Instead of switching to different alternatives, we are invited to speculate solutions that might otherwise have never been brought to light. This, in turn, has lead to creative outcomes that has further reinforced our passion for this mobile construction type.