In Brisbane, Foolscap Studio continues a longstanding relationship with the coffeemakers at a new cafe-store featuring calm tones and coffee waste materials.

Some neighbours pop over a cup of sugar; others turn into your brand’s confidants, becoming long-term collaborators that create your new chapter in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

For the team at Foolscap, the relationship with Allpress Espresso has always been more than a professional handshake — it’s practically a house-share. Having spent years in their Melbourne studio, living above the Allpress Collingwood roastery, Foolscap didn’t just study the brand’s values; they inhaled them with every morning brew. Now, this creative connection has travelled north to Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

Sited on the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera people, the new store packs a surprising punch on a precise 80-square-metre footprint. Stepping inside, you enter a ‘quiet retreat,’ a calm oasis amid the Valley’s high-octane buzz. Here, the design language — inviting and refined — speaks a distinctly local dialect.

“We start with a deep-dive map-making exercise,” explains Foolscap founder and principal, Adele Winteridge. “Unpacking the local demographic, architectural vernacular, material palette and endemic species, alongside the neighbourhood’s stories.”

Leaning on the classic ‘Queenslander,’ Foolscap has utilised the typology’s ability to respond to climatic conditions, presenting its vertical rhythms and exaggerated planes, paying homage to the region’s mid-century architectural vernacular.

The most poetic detail, however, is how literally the building embodies its purpose. In a brilliant ‘full-circle’ moment of circular design (pardon the pun), the walls have an enticing, grainy tactility. They are finished in a bespoke render from Mineral Fox made using recycled coffee chaff — the silver skins shed by Allpress beans during the roasting process. It turns out the very byproduct of your morning latte makes for an incredibly handsome wall.

“Our studio has long admired Mineral Fox’s work with oyster shells and other unique inclusions,” says Adèle. “We wanted to see if coffee waste could be transformed into a surface material, and Karmin [Kenny] was the perfect person to help us find out.”

This caffeinated plaster provides a textured, organic counterpoint to the sharp lines of the blackbutt timber and stainless-steel shelving. It makes the space feel less like a pop-up than a permanent resident, one that is approachable and considered.

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Thoughtful collaboration is a central tenet of this project. The centre of gravity is a striking chartreuse concrete pour-over bench top hand-cast by Brisbane’s own Five Mile Radius. The concrete salvaged from building sites is treated with a surplus natural pigment. It’s flanked by custom pieces from Australian designers Dowel Jones and Remington Matters, which further reflect craft, sustainability and a strong sense of place. Items include the Simon Says and Parallel High stools, and the Remington Matters pill-shaped tables framed by L-shaped booth seating in a canvas.

Above the pouring station, canvas awnings offer a soft, tactile canopy: “The use of canvas introduces a layer of material honesty,” Adèle notes. “Referencing the humble coffee sack, it brings a quiet authenticity and a lived-in sensibility that makes the space feel accessible rather than overly ‘designed.’”

The continued grounding of human ritual is punctuated by custom ceramic sconces from Marz Lighting. With their rich glazes and familiar forms, they look less like industrial fixtures and more like objects you’d want to cup in your hands for warmth, casting a soft, artisanal glow over the angular steel and timber.

This newest outpost proves that Foolscap has managed to bottle the essence of a decade-long friendship, pouring it into a sharply refined space that has the refinement of an espresso, yet as comfortable as a morning spent on a neighbour’s verandah. Allpress may have moved into a new neighbourhood but, thanks to shared dedication to craft and community, they’ve never felt more at home.

Foolscap Studio
foolscap.com.au

Photography
Brock B.