Central Park Tower, Perth

The Brief

Woods Bagot were engaged to design a new café — Hemingway — as part of the Central Park Tower lobby upgrade in Perth’s CBD. The design language of the lobby called for curved, monolithic forms, and the brief for the café counter extended that intent: a boulder-like sculpted form that appeared to rest organically within the space, with integrated coffee-making equipment and a surface robust enough for commercial café use.

The counter needed to curve in two planes simultaneously — a geometry that eliminates most materials from consideration at the point of specification.

Material Specification

Corian® Solid Surface — Witch Hazel and Summit White (discontinued)

Witch Hazel forms the base of the counter; Summit White the top. The two-colour approach reinforced the sculptural quality of the form — a material transition that reads as deliberate and architectural rather than a fabrication compromise. Summit White has since been discontinued; the current Corian® colour range includes comparable alternatives.

Thermoforming Corian® into compound curves presented a specific technical challenge: the grain direction of the material risked making panel junctions visible when curved in two planes. The fabrication team at Productive Plastics worked closely with the design to minimise and conceal joint lines — the result is transitions that are clean and barely perceptible in the finished installation.

The seamless surface also addressed a practical brief requirement: future-proofing. Equipment cutouts can be filled and remade cleanly if the tenant changes machinery or vacates — a consideration that matters on commercial leases.

Design Outcome

The finished counter reads as a single continuous form. The curves hold, the joint lines are imperceptible, and none of the original design intent was lost in the translation from concept to fabrication. The integrated equipment sits flush within the surface with no visible transition between the appliance and the surround.

The result is testament to close collaboration between Woods Bagot, builder Built, joiner Optima Interiors, and fabricator Productive Plastics — a project where the material’s thermoformability was the enabling condition for the entire design concept.

Why It Works for Similar Projects

Hospitality and F&B fit-outs
Curved counter forms, seamless food-safe surfaces, and integrated equipment are standard requirements in high-end café and bar fit-outs. Corian® delivers all three without the fabrication compromises that stone or laminate introduce at curved geometry.

Commercial lobby and atrium upgrades
Landmark reception and concierge counters often call for sculptural forms that need to hold up under daily commercial use. Thermoformed Corian® can achieve compound curves at architectural scale, with a surface that remains repairable over the life of the tenancy.

Retail and brand environments
Where a counter or surface needs to function as a brand statement — a specific form, a custom colour, a finish that holds consistency across the space — Corian® gives the design team precise control over the outcome.

Tenanted commercial spaces
The repairability and adaptability of Corian® is a practical advantage in tenanted fit-outs: surfaces can be modified, equipment cutouts remade, and damage renewed in place without full replacement.

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Send us your plans. CASF’s Corian® Design Certainty Service can prepare shop drawings, renders, and fabrication-ready documentation at no charge.

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