In May, the cafe in the Dunedin Botanic Garden in Ōtepoti reopened after a hiatus of several years. Now known as Aster, and with a fresh new fitout by Arête Architects, it’s been an instant hit with locals of all ages. “I grew up in North East Valley,” says Arête’s Sam Brown, “and spent every weekend of my childhood at the botanic gardens – I knew the cafe intimately. It’s been a project of happy coincidences, really.” He shares his story:

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The old cafe had been closed for a few years, and it’d fallen into disrepair. Then Caitlin Holloway and Jonas Hansen, who are the owners of Adjo, won the tender to take over the tenancy. They contacted us out of the blue when I was still living in Wellington – they liked our stuff and wanted to have a chat. They didn’t realise I’d grown up in Dunedin... and now I’ve moved back.

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They initially didn’t have a name. They wanted it to have a connection to the botanic gardens, and they wanted it to be a fun environment. The customers include everyone from toddlers to 90-year-olds, so they wanted us to design a space that was exciting, welcoming and accommodating.

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Essentially, we were given a raw shell. We stripped it back clean and started fresh. We used the idea of the gardens as the key driver. The existing building has this strong, umbrella motif, and we wanted to play with the idea of it being the stem of a flower. At the same time Caitlin and Jonas were playing with names and landed on Aster (after the plant genus). So the two worked beautifully.

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We wanted to make sure that the space wasn’t alienating – sometimes you can lean too hard into a theme or a context that different user groups might find uncomfortable. We wanted it to be fun and inviting, but not too trendy. We also wanted it to be open, free-flowing, and hard-wearing. So, that idea of a wide demographic drove a lot of the material decisions and the colour palette. We also wanted it to be fun, light-filled and bright. We used primary colours so it would relate to children.

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A lot of the design lead work was done by Eva Albiston. It was nice to give her free rein for the first time, and she did a fantastic job.

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It was lovely to lean into the boyhood nostalgia. It’s nice to be able to recreate those memories for new visitors now. The dream is that, in 30 years, people will remember the first time they went. I’d like to leave that lasting legacy, like it did on me.

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Aster

astercafe.co.nz

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