Bangalore Express

Bangalore Express serves fast, Indian street food and the client wanted a modern and fresh environment to match.

After stripping the space back to its shell, they added a pattern of linear cuts to the interior wall cladding. This was done on site using a circular saw to cut shallow grooves.

The cladding was then painted one solid colour, after which some of the shapes created by the grooves were painted in a strict palette of three contrasting colours. The resulting composition of shapes and colours guides the customer’s eyes around the space in a controlled way.

The inspiration for this cladding treatment came from the waste boards on which builders cut sheet materials to size. After a while, an arbitrary patter of random shallow grooves adorn the surface of a waste board on which many sheets have been cut.

Much of the furniture is constructed from FastClamp, galvanised steel tubes and fixings normally used to build scaffolding. Diners climb step ladders made of these scaffolding tubes to access the upper-level booths that line one side of the restaurant. This gives the restaurant a hard edge and introduces the desired urban aspect to the interior, a fitting ambiance for street food.

Words Billy Nolan
Photos Philip Vile