Qabalan: A Bakery Redefining Design and Functionality

Emad Salameh's Award-Winning Design Offers a Unique Bakery Experience

Emad Salameh, the director of the design project, and Liana Alhabash, an architect, were inspired by the need for a stylish and quality experience for bakery customers. They aimed to create a contrast to traditional bakery shops in Jordan while ensuring high quality and durability of materials. The bakery's design also prioritizes the convenient positioning of machinery and counters to meet customers' needs efficiently.

What sets Qabalan apart is its focus on merging style, experience, precision, and quality. Functionality is the main pillar, but the design also maintains a worthy image for the bakery. The design team used a variety of materials and construction techniques to create a flexible yet well-maintained design. For instance, items like cracker baskets are highly detailed, allowing employees to easily dismantle, refill, and replace them.

The bakery, which operates 24 hours a day, is designed to separate as much as possible the circulation of operation staff from customers. This was also considered when distributing the zoning layout, with operations main circulation coming from the back. High-demand bakery items were strategically scattered throughout the store, creating pockets of distributed crowded locations instead of a busy crowded part and a slightly empty store on the other end.

The project, which started in June 2019 and finished in August 2020, was located in an avenue with medium traffic in Amman, Jordan. The design team conducted extensive research on all types of products sold by the bakery, including their specifications and storage requirements. They reviewed case studies of different types of display units and contacted suppliers to explore display unit technologies. All these efforts culminated in a mood board of design inspirations presented to the client.

One of the major challenges the design team faced was coming up with a construction plan for each item that could be easily dismantled and put together by any staff member for cleaning, refilling, or maintenance. This required multiple trials of design strategies, and many prototypes were created in one-to-one scale. The best design methodology was adopted, resulting in a bakery that not only sells products but also offers a distinctive shopping experience.

Qabalan bakery is a testament to the power of design and functionality. It's not just a place to buy bread and sweets; it's an experience that merges style, experience, efficiency, and quality. The bakery's design, which won the Silver A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award in 2021, is a testament to the power of design and functionality.