HPW serves up fast food interiors

HPW has designed interiors for Bauwaus Gourmet Hotdogs, which opens in Edinburgh this week and aims to transform the traditionally down-at-heel snack into an upmarket treat.

The site is the first of 30 UK outlets planned by owners Simon Dransfield and Stephen Tait.

Dransfield says, ‘We’re aiming to reposition the hotdog within a consumer-focused environment, where a quality product can be enjoyed in relaxed and contemporary surroundings.’

The 79m2 outlet, a former Coffee Republic outlet, cost £100 000 to design and fit-out. The Bauwaus brand name – a play on the German design institution Bauhaus – and identity including slogan, ‘It’s an eat dog eat dog world’, has been created by 1576 and Citigate Smarts.

Interior design and installation by HPW was completed in just eight weeks, which HPW interior designer Andrew Sives described as ‘tight, but challenging’.

In a move to distance the eatery from less salubrious fast food outlets, Bauwaus features a ‘modernist’ concept including neutral grey walls, bespoke seating, wooden flooring, and open-plan griddle with granite stone servery, says Sives.

He adds, ‘The natural timber, limestone materials and central grill are designed to give the impression of an outdoor barbecue, a far cry from the traditional image of a hotdog seller.’

The interior will serve as a template for future branches though Dransfield intends to tweak the design by reducing cooking space to create extra room for customers.

HPW won the brief, believed to be worth £15 000, following a three-way pitch in January involving Skakel & Skakel and Glasgow University design department.