Blue Table Chocolates Workshop and Retail Space / Arch&Type

Tasked to imagine a ~780 square foot space for an artisan chocolatier, Arch&Type asked how built space can enhance the crafting & consumption of chocolate. Rather than focusing on the superficial image (how chocolate appears) and painting cocoa beans on the walls, designers Seth Amman & Adam McCullough explored chocolate’s emotional & physiological impacts and how to evoke such feelings through material and space. The impetus for this exploration came from client Ben Johnson, who presented an image of untempered crystallized chocolate: melted, silky, and flowing. Design began by extracting the feelings from the image and Ben’s product— comfort, mystery, warmth, decadence—then transposing these into the realm of building craft.