KHAB - EMPRESS
Court side cuteness - a bubble tea shop with a tiny footprint, yet ambitious floor plan. Alive with street market energy, quirky and cute Kawaii influences, and playful links between basketballs and the tapioca balls found in each bubble tea, this lighthearted space doesn’t take anything too serious.
PHOTOGRAPHY Design Shop
KHAB Tapioca Empress, or as we affectionately refer to as Hoops, marks our second project with these repeat clients. For this location, we balanced a petite footprint with an ambitious floor plan. Keeping the back of house utilitarian behind the scenes, we transformed the front of house into a vibrant and quirky space that doesn’t take anything too serious. Pulling influences from the energetic vibes of street markets and fusing with a Kawaii-meets-basketball theme, every corner of this shop is intentionally curated to evoke a sense of joy and enthusiasm.
Making the most out of the floor plan of this small shop meant carefully controlling the movement of the space. The flow from where you place an order to the pick up window, has the customer awaiting their bubble tea while being able to catch a glimpse behind the scenes through custom pink plexiglass. This semi-transparent barrier between back and front of house brings the basketball court vertical, by mimicking the lines of the game floor, while inviting the customer into the buzz and energy of the prep area.
Basketball influences are also reflected in the floor to ceiling storage, the minimal clean line benches, and epoxy flooring all inspired by sports change rooms. Rather than cutting into the already tiny space with a storage room, lockers were designed to house and display additional supplies and merchandise. Alongside this storage feature, a ball cage holds basketballs for sale as merch, as well as, a ladder attachment as a means to access to the full height of the storage lockers. No detail is overlooked with each locker donning a number, venting, and locks reminiscent of a true locker room. Plush pink wall details were designed to echo gym mats, while the reinforcement of grid patterns in the tile and window decals pay homage to basketball nets.
Mirrors were brought into the design as a way to amplify this small space. Not only does it help to make the shop appear more spacious, but also by projecting people’s reflections through the mirrors into the space it gives it a fuller appearance, much like you’d experience court-side in a bustling basketball crowd.
From the menus hung on coach’s clipboards and listed on screens that nod to the court-side scoreboard, to the pink neon sign brimming with energy alike vibrant night markets, this Kawaii-meets-basketball cutie of a shop misses no detail. This unexpected fusion of aesthetics seamlessly blends together adorable imagery of Kawaii with the energetic rhythm of a basketball court, creating a wonderfully delightful experience for everyone who walks through the doors.