AND Studio | Architecture and Design Studio

01 / THE BRIEF

Build a café that doesn't feel small, in a space that is.

Cultured came to AND Studio with a specific challenge: a 1,200 sq ft shell on Humayun Street in Safdarjung Enclave, a dense Delhi neighbourhood, and a brief to make it feel like a destination café rather than a squeezed takeaway. The concept — celebrating cultural exchange through food — demanded an interior where strangers could share a table comfortably, the kitchen could perform as a visible stage, and the space could breathe despite its dimensions.

02 / THE CHALLENGE

Small footprint, big programme.

Most Delhi F&B interiors at this scale resolve the problem of size by shrinking the kitchen and maximising seating. Cultured's brief inverted that logic: the kitchen had to be visible, central, and generous enough to support a menu built around live cooking. That meant giving up floor area — and finding a way to make the remaining seating feel, in the customer's experience, like more of the space, not less.

The second challenge was sunlight. Humayun Street is a busy, narrow road; the café's single usable façade faces south. AND Studio's task was to admit light without admitting heat and noise, and to create a calm interior on a street that is not.

03 / THE RESPONSE

Open kitchen, open plan, shared tables.

The plan places the open kitchen at the heart of the café — a 350 sq ft working zone with a bar counter that lets diners watch food being prepared while they wait. Around it, the seating is deliberately eclectic: long shared tables down one side, a run of bar stools opposite the kitchen, and a small pocket of two-tops along the window.

Above, a mix of pendant lights and textured spotlights delivers warm, variable light through the day and evening. Acoustic panels concealed within timber ceiling battens absorb the ambient noise of conversation, so even at full occupancy the café doesn't feel loud.

The front façade is glazed floor-to-ceiling but set back from the street by a narrow planted threshold — so there is a buffer of greenery between the diners and the traffic. Operable shutters can be opened in cooler months to connect the interior and the street.

"A café is a kitchen first and a dining room second. Once we accepted that, the rest of the plan wrote itself."

— LOVE CHOUDHARY, FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL

04 / Key numbers

The details that define it.

1200

Total sq ft

36

Covers

350

Open kitchen sq ft

12

Shared-table seats

Additional details: a bespoke 8-seat bar counter overlooking the kitchen, a 12-seat communal table in reclaimed teak, floor-to-ceiling operable front shutters, and a narrow planted threshold between the façade and the street that doubles as acoustic buffer.

05 / Zones

A small footprint, four moods.

Open kitchen

Central · 350 sq ft · live-cooking stations.

Bar counter

8 seats · overlooks the kitchen.

Communal table

12 seats · reclaimed teak · central.

Window nook

Two-tops · south-facing · street view.

Coffee bar

Espresso counter · grab-and-go.

Planted threshold

Buffer between street and interior.

06 / Materials & palette

Warm materials, soft light.

Cultured's palette leans warm — reclaimed teak, hand-troweled lime plaster on the walls, brushed brass hardware and pendant lights, and terrazzo flooring with a warm off-white base. The intention was to create an interior that felt familiar and unhurried, even on a busy day.

Reclaimed teak (tables, ceiling battens) Salvage · Delhi Hand-troweled lime plaster (walls) Local · Delhi

Custom terrazzo flooring Cast on site Brushed brass hardware & pendants Moradabad · 160 km

Acoustic felt panels (concealed) Imported · recycled PET Operable timber shutters Local joinery

07 / PRESS & RECOGNITION