Drinking concrete

The Concrete bar at London’s Hayward Gallery has been designed to echo the brutalist architecture of the Southbank Centre. To create the space the designers stripped the interior back to expose the original concrete walls and then went all out to build a space that would be in keeping with the original. John Foden of architect Fourmation and Chris Smith-Wright, operations director at Mass Concrete Surfaces explain how they created a bespoke concrete bar to blend in.

What was your original vision?

John Foden Before the new cafe and bar there was a Starbucks. We wanted to create something that was the complete antithesis of this, that looked as if it was part of the original building rather than a concession. Because it had to have function and appear as if it had been there the whole time, we needed to combine age and a certain heritage feel to match the building, which is quite a milestone in sixties architecture.

What is your product?

Chris Smith-Wright Mass is a hi-tech concrete that is typically used for applications such as kitchen work surfaces. It uses a patented, laminated technology that produces a light and strong surface material that is heat resistant up to 200°C and stain resistant. The standard finish is very fine and polished and almost silky to touch.

How was the design developed?

JF All the materials were chosen to compliment the existing palette, which was quite hard and industrial. The concept we came up with was to create a bar out of concrete, which would appear as if it was an extension of the building.

We had worked on a project in Prague where we had done something similar and poured concrete into a mould. We assumed we’d be able to do something similar again but this time we weren’t on the ground floor so there were loading limitations. Also we were concerned that you could end up having something quite clunky and very difficult to work with. Plus if it was going to be manufactured on site, it would impact on the build programme.

CS-W When they first saw our sample, they said these are really lovely but they are almost too good, too refined and consistent for the environment it’s going into. The aesthetic there was much more site-cast concrete.

What they wanted was something that was rougher and more like the original. We had to try and second grade our normally very fine finish by aerating it to introduce air bubbles and holes to give a rougher more industrial and site-cast effect.

How is the top installed?

CS-W The bar is made up of several sections. This is partly for a combination of aesthetics and also our manufacturing restrictions. Plus, being cast off site, it had to be manhandled and delivered safely.

The contractors built a softwood and plywood frame and we clad around that. The fixings between the concrete panels and the frame were then hidden behind a false back panel under the bar.

What do you think of the finished product?

JF Excellent. We do a lot of bars and cafes and when you’re doing these sort of projects you tend to work a lot with glass. The downside of this is that the dimensions have to be spot on, otherwise it has to go back or you accept that it doesn’t quite fit. We thought that it would be the same with the Mass but there is a certain degree of workability with it and it can be tweaked on site to fit if need be.

If I was going to do anything different I maybe would have gone for an even rougher, more raw finish and with hindsight it might have been nice to emboss the surface with some sort of emblem or branding.

CS-W Since we’ve done this job a lot of people have been asking about these rougher surfaces. We’ve now got a stack of samples where we have deliberately done things that don’t reduce bubbles and swirl marks to make it look more like typical concrete. We’re also doing further developments on textures. So in many ways it’s opened our eyes to alternatives that we can do and what we perhaps should be offering.