The Velo Barn

Ensuring the future of a much-loved bike workshop and cycling café by opening it up to the community.

I want to ride my bicycle
It’s fair to say a lot of our work comes through cycling (our director Andy can be found on the Kent lanes most weekends). So, when the Velo Barn team approached us to develop a resilient and sustainable vision for their business (The Velo Barn 2.0), we jumped at the chance, providing our services pro bono to help them expand (they were running out of space), enhance their retail offer and open up the café to the local community.

The masterplan
The Velo Barn is a self-funded refurbishment project and our input was vital for crowdfunding and marketing. All of the work is self-built and uses old materials or re-purposes other elements which otherwise would have been thrown away. We worked closely with the client team to develop a phased masterplan and options, outlining impactful strategies to safely and efficiently build themselves. 

Go with the flow
The issues were clear – poor visibility, accessibility and legibility. We based the design around ideas of a shared courtyard or farmstead, which improves flow and offers a central gathering space with a sense of enclosure. Using our retail expertise, we diversified the coffee, food and retail offer to widen the customer base and improve the flow in the café to serve more people more efficiently. Better access and visibility of the café have led to greater footfall from commuters during the week and walkers and families at the weekend. 

Come together
We designed the plan for the café and workspace spaces to be flexible for future adaptability and the uses and layouts it can accommodate. The café is more than a café – it’s also a club and event meeting room, space for local exhibitions and film nights, and provides room for teaching bike maintenance courses. The Velo Barn is now a place for the local community to come together to catch up, have fun and learn.

“When working on The Velo Barn refurbishment, we couldn’t have asked for a better partner than Andy Matthews Studio. Andy and his team worked closely with us on the new layout of our café and garden area. Their advice was invaluable, and we were able to promote the business well before the completion of the project due to the fantastic artist impressions they supplied. The outcome has been a vastly improved customer experience and enhanced delivery capability from the team due to the new kitchen layout. Year-on-year to date, we have doubled our turnover thanks to the changes that we’ve made.”

Mark Brewer, Client, The Velo Barn 

 

PROJECT
Location: Westerham, Kent
Budget: Confidential
Type: Retail + Community
Timeline: 2023-2024
Status: Completed

STUDIO TEAM
Caitríona Nolan,
Andy Matthews,
Josie Kassapian

TEAM
Client: The Velo Barn

CREDITS
Illustration: Josie Kassapian
Photography: Daniel Hewitt