GAIL’s Bakery is known for its handcrafted approach to baking and its welcoming cafés, designed to bring people together over quality food and coffee. Their latest opening, housed in The Fire Station, Southwark, opened on Friday 24th January 2025, marking a significant milestone as their most sustainable bakery yet. This ambitious 'moonshot' project pushes the boundaries of environmentally responsible design, incorporating innovative materials and processes to reduce waste and energy consumption. The new location stays true to GAIL’s signature aesthetic—warm, modern, and inviting—while making sustainability a core focus. Our role was to introduce planting elements that would enhance the space’s natural charm, bringing direct biophilia into this sustainability-focussed project.
GAIL’s wanted a planting scheme that blended seamlessly with their interiors—natural, unfussy, and welcoming—while reinforcing their focus on community-driven spaces. The plants needed to enhance the atmosphere, introducing texture and movement without overwhelming the design. With high customer traffic in mind, durability and ease of maintenance were also key considerations. The final design had to strike a balance between aesthetics and functionality, ensuring the plants thrived in a café environment.
The planting needed to feel organic to the space rather than an afterthought, integrating naturally with the existing design elements.
With the high footfall typical of a GAIL’s café, plant choices had to be low-maintenance and resilient.
Integrated joinery planting required careful execution to ensure secure, long-lasting installations that wouldn’t interfere with the café’s daily operations.
To achieve the right balance of greenery and practicality, we used a mix of floorstanding, joinery-integrated, and hanging planting.
We planted Aeschynanthus ‘Pink Polka’ Hanger and Rhipsalis Baccifera from suspended pots, introducing cascading greenery that softened the space and added interest at a high level.
Kentia Palms and ZZ Plants were positioned to subtly define seating areas, offering a sense of enclosure without compromising the café’s open, airy feel.
Built-in planters featured Pittosporum Nanum, Scindapsus Areum, and Schefflera Arboricola, creating lush, structured greenery that add a nice screen between seating and staff areas.
The final result is a planting scheme that feels effortless and intentional. The addition of biophilic elements strengthens GAIL’s commitment to sustainability and well-being, creating a space where customers can relax and enjoy their time in a naturally enriched environment. The greenery softens the interiors, introduces a refreshing contrast to the warm, modern design, and reinforces GAIL’s ethos—bringing people together over great food in spaces designed for comfort and connection.