London & South East North West

Evolution for Revolution

Revolution  Vodka Bars

Revolution Vodka Bars has branches worldwide and is renowned for offering a premium food and drinks service to an array of customers.

Most recently Revolution UK is carrying out an Evolution Project in a bid to expand their customer base. The scheme is also to ensure that all branches are multifunctional, appealing to daytime customers as well as offering a high energy late night offer.

Premier Hospitality caught up with Julian Taylor, Director of Julian Taylor Design Associates, who has worked with Revolution for the past 15 years. Most recently they have undertaken refurbishment projects at the Reading Revolution branch and Revolution Parsonage Gardens in Manchester.

Both these projects made such an impact in the design community that they were shortlisted in this year’s Casual Dining Design Awards in the Best Designed Casual Dining Pub category. Despite not winning the category the firm was overjoyed to have been nominated.

Revolution  Vodka Bars

Julian said:

“With Revolution there has never been a brand manual or a set template; they have always responded to local environments. They use a specific brief that appeals to the area whether that is student based or young professionals. Every brief we have has been very individual and that is the most exciting thing about working with them.”

Works on the Parsonage Gardens branch in Manchester involved the refurbishment of an existing Revolution branch. Situated just off Deansgate, the site opened eight years ago and so Revolution and Julian Taylor Design Associates revisited the venue in a bid to overhaul its design.

The brief the design team were given steered clear of a New York, Brooklyn inspired design which can be seen in Spinningfields, Manchester. Julian said that the team wanted to reflect the changes in the economy through the venue’s redesign; consequently the space now acts as an optimistic setting for people to let their hair down and have fun. This venue was completed in August 2013 and the team were very pleased with the end results.

Revolution  Vodka Bars

The Reading Revolution refurbishment involved another transformation of an existing site that had opened ten years ago. The venue was initially designed as a minimalist, style bar; decorated with an array of reds and blacks.

 Due to the numerous new openings in Reading the Revolution brand were keen to expand their customer base. The firm wanted to implement a female friendly design as well as creating a venue that was multifunctional; comprising a space for an all day offer as well as a late night offer.

As part of the redesign Julian Taylor Design Associates used softer materials including reclaimed timber. This project reached completion in October 2013.

The main contractors for both refurbishment projects were Coccion Construction, a leading UK construction company which specialises in small-to-medium size new-build and refurbishment contracts within the leisure and health industry.

Revolution  Vodka Bars

With reference to working with Revolution, Julian Taylor said:

Revolution is a very strong brand and the work that has gone into the operational side of these projects is equally as important as the design work that we do. On all the projects we are part of there is a lot of input by the client and they always have a very clear view about how they want to move forward.”

 

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Roma Publications