The Mutisensory Bakery – Kumar Cake House
When Design Steals the Cake
“The Multisensory Bakery”
Welcome to the newest bakery in Jalandhar!
Located on busy Rainbow Street in Model Town, Jalandhar, the Kumar Bakery is a foodie’s paradise and designer’s delight rolled into one cake shop. Handed over as a bare shell to the designers at Space Race Studio, the space was completely transformed over the next few months into the café and bakery of cake veteran Mr. Kumar, and eponymously named thereafter.
The bakery is spatially and functionally divided into two parts – the front end being a retail area for the baked goods, and the rear end converted into a café where one can order freshly baked goodies and hang out with friends. The architects introduce a self-check-out concept here as one can take a trolley around the aisles picking up their weekly baked needs. Apart from making the shopping experience more enjoyable, the enhanced circulation strategy makes the entire process seamless and quick, so say goodbye to waiting in queues, scrambling for shopkeeper’s much divided attention, getting the wrong order, waiting for 15 minutes only to realise that your favourite cookies are all out!
At the rear end of the bakery one can find Café Giardino – a garden themed café. Away from the noise and bustle of the busy market street outside, it is a cute little café tucked into a peaceful corner of its own. Grassy turf invites you to wind down while the ‘tree of life’ as it was envisaged by the architects adds to the outdoorsy ambience. The lights on the ceiling are an innovative addition, as they work as extensions to the Tree of Life, branching out of the ceiling, pilfering small beams of light through. A visitor hardly feels like he is indoors, but rather lounging in a garden on a bright sunny afternoon, under the canopy of a broad-leaved tree.
Cake Boy is the hero of this story. With a Cool Boy persona, everything about him is dapper and stylish – from his ingenious sunglasses which are LCD screens flashing the menu and orders, to his rugged face which is entirely sculpted out of nails! The design detailing definitely steals the cake (pun intended) at Kumar Bakery, some of the crowd favourites being the selfie point next to cake boy, catchy decals on the walls and the open kitchen with rolling pins hanging off the ceiling! Exposed red brick walls lend a rustic warmth to the bakery, while the classic beech wood and mild steel combination adds that contemporary edge. Apart from the freshly baked goodies to feast your tummies on, fun elements like a montage of old windows and doors act as design elements to feast your eyes on as well. It is then well intended by the architects, that no matter how hungry you come in to the bakery, be prepared to have all your senses satiated by the time you leave!
