Patina Venue

Head here for images of the sister Patina Bakery

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We’re immensely proud to have completed an ambitious and immersive new venue for developers Parabola and restaurateurs Patina.

The venue, located on the ground floor of 1 New Park Square, Edinburgh Park, overlooks a new south-facing public square and includes a restaurant, bar, cafe, bakery and high-spec event space, and extends over approximately 10,000 square feet.

Raskl were approached by Tony Hordon, Managing Director of Parabola, following a successful collaboration at their Central Square building in Newcastle. Parabola followed this with the office and arts development in London, Kings Place.

Although they joined the team in a design capacity, Parabola decided to continue to use Raskl for their in-house fabrication abilities and manage the full fit-out.

Parabola architectural director, Richard Thompson said “Raskl’s ability to work from concept design through to fabrication gave us confidence that our vision was going to be realised without compromise or misunderstanding. We were also able to work closely with Raskl to refine the design brief while keeping control of costs. Raskl were agile, creative and responsive throughout.”

The fundamental parameter for the team was integrating the existing, state-of-the-art design for the house performance system into the proposal. The objective was to seamlessly blend the functions between the event space, casual dining and welcoming bar, as well as to provide the necessary acoustic and technical performance of the space.

Raskl approached the stage area primarily, reimagining this as an additional area for dining, designing a system of ‘hellerup’ steps and seating into the stage apron. The result is a series of flanking access steps, upholstered seats, integrated speaker cabinets and a stage platform, which mesh the stage with the dining area and enhance the fusion between the spaces.

The result is “Patina,” part bakery, cafe and dining. The cuisine is an expansion of the middle eastern-inspired small plates for which Kiln is known but designed to adapt to the elevated contract catering requirements of New Park Square.

One element of Patina’s proposal that most excited the team was the introduction of a high-spec viennoiserie and bakery, screened from the cafe by a glazed divider, which provides theatre and animation to the space. Long time supplier of Kiln, Shynara Bakisheva of FAB bakery was introduced to set up and run the bakery operation.

Joint partners in Patina are Peter Millican and John Neugent of Green and Fortune. They have a history of nurturing culinary talent and saw something unique in what Rich and Geffen could offer.

Raskl co-director Dan Rose worked closely with Rich Cullen to develop the visual concept, which features a number of unique and specialised fittings. Raskl’s expertise in design and fabrication allowed them to navigate the practical challenges of even the wildest of the operator’s suggestions.

“Sitting down with Dan and getting immediate feedback on the feasibility of our ideas as we modelled the space together was invaluable in helping me gauge what would and wouldn’t work, both visually and operationally. The benefits of avoiding the need to go outside of the team for fabricator costings were obvious, especially when working quickly and keeping momentum” says Rich.

For the restaurant, the team used the simplicity of Art Deco design, partly in homage to the modernistic work of artist Eduardo Paolozzi (whose Vulcan sculpture stands sentinel at the entrance to the building),  to capture details of the surrounding features. The bar front, for example, is a 1:1 recreation of the chevron pattern that adorns the southern concrete colonnade to 1 New Park Square. The vista through that aspect is framed by the Pentland Hills, from which the moody hues of the landscape were borrowed to inform the palette of the banquette feature wall. This piece is furnished with abstract panels, upholstered in organic shades of green and brown. The intricate panels are bordered by integrated rope lighting.

The most striking feature in the space is certainly the mirrored bottle display that fills the space behind the bar, a marvellous composition of concentric arches, mirrored on the front face and with illuminated side walls. A brushed brass disc seems to pass through the arches, a visual simile of the time spent enjoying the space and its offerings throughout the day and night.

The rest of the bar comprises a rolled zinc top with integrated monogrammed drip trays, and concrete elements, produced in a micro cement treatment, which ties the piece back to the fabric of the building.

Along the curtain wall is a series of bespoke circular dining tables with matching side tables. The woollen blackout curtains are configured to be drawn partially into the space, enabling a subtle sense of intimacy for each group. These spaces are punctuated by unique hand-blown glass lampshades, produced specifically for the project by Rosie Power.

Elsewhere, minimalist banquettes, with integrated maitre d’ station, feature grey-brown oak and matte upholstery in marine and forest hues, with fluted glass details. The seating used throughout is the Setter chair by David Irwin for Deadgood.

In contrast, the bakery and cafe were designed to be bright, fresh and lively. Here, the chevron patterns on the counter are replaced with natural oak, and Roma Imperial marble is used extensively for the counter and table tops.

The cafe features extensive display areas for fresh baked goods, some illuminated in the generous glazing, as well as in the back bar shelving and refrigerated counter.

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PROJECT CREDITS

Designer - Raskl

Client - Patina / Parabola

Project Manager - Gardiner & Theobold

Lighting Design - Raskl / Stage Electric / Hulley & Kirkwood

Acoustic Design - Sandy Brown / Dan Halford

Structural Engineers - Woolgar Hunter

M&E Designers - Hulley & Kirkwood

Kitchen Design - JAP

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Photography by Andy Mather, Murray Orr and Jack Storey