Poplar Union is a community space run by the award winning Housing Association Poplar HARCA. It is a wonderfully innovative organisation that hosts everything from performances to workshops, and has a large cafe overlooking the park run by the fantastic e5 Roasthouse.
Co-DB designed and built the furniture for the cafe, including co-working tables, book shelves, and display units. We also ran workshops for members of the community to design and print a unique fabric to upholster shelves in the cafe, as well as a coffee table, which was designed and built collaboratively by workshop participants.
We worked together with staff at the Union throughout the process of the design and build. Together we established a design ethos focused on flexibility to enable the space to work for many different groups and events. This included building modular tables carefully shaped to accommodate and all sizes of group. We opted for solid beech timber frames and oak faced birch plywood with a lacquered finish for the surfaces to create hardwearing tables. We built new storage including shelves on wheels that bring colour to the space and also act as room dividers to accommodate different groups and events.
Co-DB designed and built the furniture for the cafe, including co-working tables, book shelves, and display units. We also ran workshops for members of the community to design and print a unique fabric to upholster shelves in the cafe, as well as a coffee table, which was designed and built collaboratively by workshop participants.
We worked together with staff at the Union throughout the process of the design and build. Together we established a design ethos focused on flexibility to enable the space to work for many different groups and events. This included building modular tables carefully shaped to accommodate and all sizes of group. We opted for solid beech timber frames and oak faced birch plywood with a lacquered finish for the surfaces to create hardwearing tables. We built new storage including shelves on wheels that bring colour to the space and also act as room dividers to accommodate different groups and events.
