Kiosks have always intrigued me. An architectural typology that can take many forms for a multitude of uses, often freestanding and humble in form and materiality. Kiosks rely on human intervention to be activated. They open themselves up for visitors and close off to the world at days end. They mark time; the beginning and the end of the day.

The events that unfolded over the 2019 summer were something we never thought we would experience. Unprecedented bushfires ravaged our landscape. The air was thick with smoke and ash fell from the sky. As fire tore through the Croajingalong National Park toward Mallacoota from the West, the sky turned red. A small town at the Easternmost tip of Victoria found itself cut off from the world, isolated.

On this day a small little Kiosk on Dorron Avenue in Mallacoota didn't close itself off to the world at days end. Takeshi of Origami Coffee stayed open as the fire approached the Mallacoota township and the town was cloaked in a thick smoke. Providing well needed sustenance to volunteer fire fighters and those that had found themselves isolated in the township. In the days that followed December 31st Takeshi set up camp in his little weatherboard kiosk and would stay up until night turned to morning to make coffee for the exhausted volunteers.

Takeshi’s coffee is made with utmost care using a beautiful brass Athena Leva coffee machine, the Athena Leva named after the goddess of wisdom, art and culture.

Takeshi’s coffee kiosk need not have an open and closed sign “if the shutters are up, you are welcome any time - may it be 5.00am or midnight”(1). As the shutters of Takeshi’s coffee shop open the modest kiosk turns from a weatherboard shack to a beacon of hope and resilience.

Croajingolong National Park is part of an Aboriginal cultural landscape. We acknowledge the deep and continuing connection that Traditional Owners have to these lands and waters, and we recognise their ongoing role in caring for Country.

Reference:

(1) Quote from Origami Coffee Instagram by Takeshi