The Central Sweets is JJ Acuna / Bespoke Studio’s first foray into multi-tenancy Food Hall design, with this particular project focused entirely on all things Dessert. Launched in the end of 2018, The Central Sweets is a yogurt shop, a Korean Ice Cream Shop, Bingsu, and a local Myanmar delicacy stop all-in-one, targeting that unique Millenial and Generation-Z client who always loves sharing their foodie finds on Social Media. At 3600 square foot, more than half of the available floor area are given to a flexible and open Front-of-House, and with over 110 seats, the Food Hall offers a flexible seating mix of singles, doubles, and group dining, so various user types can converge at The Central Sweets to enjoy sweet offerings from multiple outlets at once.
For this shop’s narrative, we imagined a bold and fun space filled with bright pastel colours reminiscent of surrounding Victorian Architecture in Yangon, as well as the tonal qualities of Ice Cream flavours like Cookies and Cream, Mint, and Strawberry. In terms of project mood we relied mostly on daylighting with touches of light points from the signage, feature lights, and the sub-tenant’s own design fit out. At night we imagine a bistro-like atmosphere where the lighting is bright and poppy with touches of neon, creating a project that is romantic yet sharp- great for social media posts and sharing date-night pictures.
In addition, our studio also looked into the geometric figures of Art Deco and the colour palette of Pop Art to combine together a post-Modern formal motif in the “Memphis Design-style”- bringing classical architecture into the contemporary context, playing with geometry and form while giving the design a playful and fun vibe.