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Middle eastern food is going through a well deserved revival in Sydney. After years of being associated only with Kebab shops, new sophisticated venues are popping up and shining new light on food that’s always been amazing. When asking ourselves what a Lebanese restaurant should look like, we went into an incredible journey of discovery of Beirut’s culture, urban landscape and food tradition. We’ve learnt about the glamorous 1960s “golden era”, and how it lives in the collective memory as “the good times”. Pulling from this, we created a simple, contemporary space that pulls clues from that time and creates an intimate space where food is the protagonist, and the mood feels like everything is just fine. #underconstruction #interiordesignsydney #interiordesignaustralia #restaurantdesignsydney #restaurantdesignaustralia #hospitalitydesign Kushy is a new brand that will be rolling out across Australia from this year on. The best way we found to describe their product is: think of a burrito, but with asian flavours, but in a cone shape. It is delicious, youthful and fresh. Designing the first shop of a rollout requires defining the main elements that will constitute the brand’s physical identity. The traditional counter is replaced here by a small island bursting with fresh salads and ingredients. This focal point is complemented by every other surface being treated as a canvas for the playful graphic identity. The small shop, located in the buzzing Darling Square precinct is a perfect testing ground for the product and the design approach before rolling out on a larger scale. What should the future look like? The clients for Robo - three young fashionistas - approached us with a radical brief: a restaurant in @darlingsquare with self order points, robots instead of chefs, and the desire to stand out. The tenancy we’re working with only allows for order and pick up with the only seating being outdoors. We decided to create a space which challenges what a restaurant should be. Walls and ceilings are a continuous, seamless white mesh: A/C, light and sound permeate through it. Instead of observing the client’s brief for “lots of neon”, we created an immersive three dimensional lighting art installation. The external seating is defined by geometric concrete extrusions. We have printed a set of postcards, each telling a little story about the projects we are working on right now, and the philosophy behind them. If you’d like to receive a set on the mail, please send us a message with your postal address. Would love to be in touch with you too. In praise of simplicity We have designed our fair share of Japanese restaurants, and we always face the same challenge: how do we make this feel authentic? Given that “authentic” only exists in Japan, our focus is on creating an honest experience. Ramen is a humble food, usually served for lunch in simple venues, where patrons share a long bench and sit on a basic stool with their attention on the quality of the meal. Setting up a fixed seating scheme, placing big overhead noren to bring the visual ceiling line to a minimum and choosing a palette of simple, mundane finishes is our simple recipe for an honest diner. TITLE is an incredibly cool vinyl and book store in Barangaroo. Their products are highly curated and they attract an engaged, discerning audience. Their customers have a lot in common with each other. They share an interest for culture, knowledge and a slightly deeper appreciation of the world around them. They are members of a select “club” without being aware of it. We have been engaged to transform their Barangaroo space into a cultural hub that promotes engagement, discovery and interaction. In addition to the shop, there will be a mini cinema / auditorium for movie screenings and book presentations, a cafe to sit and read without a rush, and a full cocktail bar to play Hemingway. The owner Steve is the kind of client we love the most: his brief was “think of Fellini. I don’t know why, but I want you to think of Federico”... We’ll keep you posted on the progress. Tom, what are you up to? I have recently updated my LinkedIn profile, listing my new position in Creative Front. Lots of people congratulated me, but also asked me what I am up to, so I thought it would be a good idea to explain myself a bit. Interior Life has been my focus since we started trading in early 2014. We grew into a fantastic 9-strong team, where all of our team members are graduate architects and interior designers, which reflects in the quality of our design and documentation. In 2018, I was approached by Michael Li from KSH shopfitting -who I always respected immensely for his work ethics and amazing achievements- to help him set up an in house design team. After a lot of planning and consideration, we launched Creative Front in mid 2019. Creative Front is focused on a very specific market: national rollout for hospitality chains. Thanks to its unique all-under-one-roof set up, KSH has the ability to deliver 10+ shops a month. This fantastic capacity was until now somewhat hampered by the wide ranging quality of the designs brought in by clients. Since we started Creative Front, we have worked side by side with the factory’s technical development team and achieved several milestones, the main one being our “Traveller” concept for a kiosk that can be deployed in 24 hours, requires a single waste point and can be re deployed in a different location in 48 hours (I’ll talk more about it on a further post). Creative Front is already helping brands like Sonoma and Soul Origin to embrace expansion strategies that couldn't be achieved without the technological leap we are producing. Having this new space and highly capable team has had an intended consequence for Interior Life: With all the “repeat” work moving to Creative Front, Interior Life found itself in a position where we can focus on the highest quality design, working only with clients that understand, value and demand that focus. Could I be any more excited right now? I don’t think so. All of this is happening in this convoluted environment and I never felt more in focus. Bring it on 2020! We can all agree that 2020 looks nothing like we planned. The big question is what is “normal” going to look like when we are out of the woods? As designers, we spend a lot of time working side by side with the people that shape the industry, and then, a lot of time thinking about what we can do to help them succeed. In every scenario of change there are visionaries and winners, some because they have been in the right place at the right time, whilst some -often unknowingly- have been preparing for this moment for a long time. We have spent the last few weeks talking to a few of these visionaries, seeing what these fast movers are doing and focusing on. Our Director Tomas Scerbo wrote an opinion piece highlighting the 5 big game changers we can see coming.
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