We found this Thai canteen furnished with construction materials a few streets away from Dezeen Space, our recently closed Shoreditch pop-up.
Design studio Mansikkamäki+JOY designed the London GRAB restaurant, where diners sit on red plastic stools at tables made from scaffolding.
Behind the counter, menu boards are mounted onto timber pallets and display a selection of street food dishes.
Walls at the back of the canteen are lined with corrugated metal, while light bulbs attached to red and blue cables dangle from the ceiling.
Furniture made from building materials seems to be popular with a few designers - see our older stories about a boutique with rails made of bronze-plated scaffolding, an office with wooden pallet tables and a motel made from scaffolding.
Photography is by Valerie Bennett.
The following text was sent to us by the restaurant:
GRAB Thai Street Kitchen by Mansikkamäki+JOY
A few minutes’ walk from Old Street Station sits the recently opened GRAB Thai Street Kitchen - a new concept in Thai cuisine. GRAB believes good Thai food does not have to be a once-in-a-blue-moon fine dining experience, instead, GRAB returns to the simplicity of Thailand’s urban street food culture - tasty, affordable and everyday. Customers walk into an accessible array of freshly prepared dishes with curries dispensed from behind the counter. Good food can be fast.
Mansikkamäki+JOY, in collaboration with Lifeforms Design, create an urban street atmosphere by translating affordable construction materials and street furniture into a clean and minimal interior space. Menus hang off a wall of backlit wooden pallets, whilst corrugated metal sheets line some of the neighbouring vertical surfaces. Large globe light bulbs are suspended from a web of red and blue cables, hang from the generous ceiling, reminiscent of the lively scenes of Bangkok. Communal tables were made in-house using the by-products of the restaurant’s construction and are coupled with the iconic red plastic stools that are so integral to the image of urban street vending in Thailand. An easy-going atmosphere, raw design and simple materials allow the food to speak for itself.