- Area:
780 ft²
Year:
2024
-
Architecture & Design:
Arch & Type (Seth Amman and Adam McCullough)
Text description provided by architects. Commissioned to envision a ~780 square foot space for an artisan chocolatier, Arch&Type asked how the structured space could enhance the craft and consumption of chocolate. Instead of painting a superficial image (what chocolate looks like) and cocoa beans on the walls, designers Seth Amman & Adam McCullough explored the emotional and physiological implications of chocolate and how to evoke such feelings through material and space. The inspiration for this study came from customer Ben Johnson, who presented an image of untempered crystallized chocolate: molten, smooth and flowing. Design began by extracting emotion from form and Penn’s production—comfort, mystery, warmth, decadence—then transferred these to architecture.
A warm, textured atmosphere is evoked by a soft matte white oak palette balanced by subtle lime-wash paint, large aggregate concrete, mirrored metal and gold. Brass accents on the casework and wall bases are incorporated into the parametric river ceiling. Together, these elements combine with a kind of surplus quality, amplifying each other into an experiential whole—punctuated, of course, by the sensual act of biting into a truffle that slowly melts to reveal an equally „surplus” flavor profile.
Many people remember the task of writing a sonnet in high school or college. The complex structure of rhythm and rhyme makes it a struggle for the novice. However, for a poet, form is a tool for experimentation and wonder. In building practice, limitations and roadblocks can open up new creative avenues. Instead of fretting over the cost of fabricated casework and custom ceiling tiles, the designers took the opportunity to celebrate local resources, such as their own „in-house” craftsmen (Amman’s father, Mark, and McCullough himself), the University of Buffalo’s Smart Fabrication. factory (sustainable manufacturing and advanced robotic technologies), and a local metalsmith.
Also, cost reductions led to rethinking aspects of the design, rather than cutting the project, with a careful approach to value engineering. Significantly, the roof, originally a seamless reflective plane, became a sculptural piece that best resonated with the initial provocation of the project (the aforementioned photo of melted chocolate turning golden from the light diffraction of chocolate crystallization). In addition, the wall separating the retail zone from the kitchen became a stud wall, meant to be glass, a large window and a frameless door painted to match the limewash, while the casework, originally intended for the west wall in the chocolate workshop, was transformed into four custom tables. As Johnson was a return customer to Arch & Type, his earlier success with Amman allowed for some openness in construction, which included both conventional and atypical methods and personnel. The general contractor handled the extensive coordination
Installation of walls, electrical, lighting and custom items. McCullough and Mark Amman crafted rough oak planks into custom millwork in two separate WNY workshops. Buffalo Niagara Weldworks created the display glass dishes and brass kick-plates that accent the chocolate shop. Amman worked with colleagues and students at his University at Buffalo School of Architecture to model the parametrically designed ceiling. Here too, robotic and hand-crafted techniques were combined to achieve performance and detail using a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) robot router.
Amman’s student interns worked in the university’s Smart Fabrication Factory to assemble, fireproof and finish ceiling tiles, which became a source for a municipal code review on fire safety. Comforting, handcrafted white-oak furniture elements, precision-engineered glassware, and a dramatic flowing ceiling are integrated into a space that directly and emotionally underscores the artisan chocolatier in the urban storefront. By adjusting design and building practices toward the limits of locality, space became greater than the sum of its parts. Looking at the available evidence, it is clear that Buffalo is the new store of Blue Table Chocolates, even though it lacks common elements of Buffalo architecture. However, the project came together for a large group to use a variety of methods—digital and physical, conventional and atypical—to transform a shared mental image into a space that celebrates chocolate and architectural craft.
