Sapling

Sapling is a wine-focused restaurant and larder in Dalston, London, completed by Transit Studio. The studio worked closely with the client on an evocative concept built around wine, exploring what a Dalston Terroir might be.

The site is a small shop unit, and the brief was to create an informal communal space with a range of seating types that celebrate the act of eating together. A central table defines the room, working as both a high table and a communal bar, with slim banquettes wrapping the perimeter. Seating and service are deliberately intertwined, and the kitchen is visible through a framed window to the rear. The space ranges from intimate, cosy booths to a large, flexible communal table at its centre.

The material palette is calm, tactile and light, and it draws directly on the history of the area. Dalston Kingsland takes its name from the Kings Lands, royal hunting grounds that were once oak forests; those trees were cleared so the clay beneath could be dug for the bricks that built a growing London. Rough sawn oak timber panels the lower part of the room, while above it custom tiles, pressed from reconstituted brick dust, reflect light deep into the space in soft tones. The surfaces throughout are formed from a striking wooden terrazzo made from London plane, sycamore and walnut offcuts, a reused waste product from the furniture industry.

Completed in 2018.

Design by Transit Studio. Photography by Andy Donohoe.