SIT

The name, in all its ideological brevity and power, provided the challenge. SIT is a soft, but firm command to become sedentary. Why? Because sitting & sharing moments is pivotal to a version of suburban, communal life we’d like to romanticize AND practically apply. So the question was: How do we return café's to their glory days of intellectual vanguardism and communal solidarity whilst maintaining a business practicality in response to contemporary consumerism and cost of living financial demands? All of which are exacerbated in breakfast/lunch dining: particularities about egg cooking, quick and "value" driven.

SIT maximised the relationship between consumerist tendencies and thoughtful creation through a balanced FOH & BOH tension: A large, state of the art kitchen splits the space with a dining floor that provides smaller dining, larger groups and communal solo dining an opportunity to co-exist in malleable harmony. The best distillation of this solution though can be found in the amphitheatre designed by DEFY. Connecting to the need for modularity in a high volume offering and hospitality presupposition (e.g. attentive service), the amphitheatre became a Rorschach test for this tension, requiring successful but tedious ideation, samples and to scale cardboard tests.

SIT's offering focuses on sustainable and regenerative farming. We utilise and support our network of smaller and independent farmers who are treating the earth well and making more nutritious and positive produce. The space carries this approach through its design principles which foreground already existing collaborative practices (SIT had multiple artistic contributors to the interior design), encourage future adjustable uses of the space (SIT contains Social Enterprise conditions) as well as environmental/ecological demonstrations: e.g. recycled plastic, reused furniture, cloth napkins. All of this coalesces to foreground SIT's desire for positive social impact.

DEFY Recycled Plastic Amphitheatre:The bleachers are made entirely from recycled plastic, including the internal support structure. The parts are screwed together without the use of glues or adhesives. This allows for ease of disassembly, and maintains material purity, so the plastic can be recycled again someday in the distant future!The Bleachers are made from Australian waste streams including: product packaging such as shampoo bottles, milk bottles, agricultural and logistics waste such as pallet wrap and grain tarpaulins.SIT Cafe has diverted 1 tonne of plastic from landfill. DOMUS VIM 'Doily Chandelier'The chandelier is a laser cut crochet patterned perspex sheet that has been heat formed around a globe. The chandelier really captures the essence of SIT & Baba's Place. The opportunity to immortalise these cultural touchstones and the story of the people behind these restaurant's was an honour. DEFY DESIGN X SIT X RK CollectiveDOILY/PLASTIC TABLE “The past and homeland cannot be regained in everyday dwelling and the plastic covered furniture enact a memorial loss” - Mirjana LozanovskaIn keeping with SIT’s design principles of Migrant familiarity and suburban acceleration, BPC, RK Collective & Defy Design collaborated on a table which infuses family heirlooms/doily's with Defy Design’s recycled plastic.