DESIGN & BUILD: KEEP IT REAL

KEEP IT REAL

NOW A CORNERSTONE OF THE HOTEL OFFERING, FOOD AND BEVERAGE VENUES ARE EVOLVING TO MEET A ‘HUNGER FOR REALNESS’, TOP DESIGNERS SAY.

LUCHETTI KRELLE

Rachel Luchetti, Principal

WE’VE ALREADY SEEN the rise of the ‘corporate campus’ in recent years and now we are seeing genuine investment in ideation around the notion of the hotel as ‘campus’ where food and beverage becomes the lifeblood.

The successful generation, curation and programming of these spaces hinges on our approach to environmental psychology and how design principles interact and respond to human behaviour in the enhancement of experience.

Local Connection, designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects and Interiors, at the University of Newcastle’s Shortland Building

The idea of the ‘precinct’ in mixed use development and retail is certainly not new, however this shift towards a more inclusive woven campus environment rather than merely a patchwork of Place is of great interest in our practice. This extends further to the evolution and perhaps even revolution of the proverbial ‘hotel ballroom’ and conferencing rooms into a series of interesting and exciting event spaces that draws inspiration more ambitiously from public buildings, museums and art galleries – with all the comforts and atmospherics of a hospitality space.

This is something we have been very conscious of in the design process for our recently completed and current hotel projects. For the true success of such projects, there really does need to be a robust collaboration between visionaries both client side as well as across the entire project team.

Bossley Bar and Restaurant in the newly transformed Rydges Melbourne, designed by Luchetti Krelle

Our recent collaboration with EVT on the full refurbishment of Rydges Melbourne (on Exhibition Street) features an events/ conferencing offering that will be a game changer complemented by revamped food and beverage. We are also thrilled with the result of the new lobby bar at the Manly Pacific Hotel with another wonderful client who has entrusted us with further masterplanning conceptualisations and placemaking for the remaining F&B integrations.

TONKIN ZULAIKHA GREER

Tim Greer, Director

We are living in an exciting time that values real and authentic experience. Are we still running from the phoney tinsel decades of the eighties, nineties and naughties, or nostalgically reminiscing over the 70s, or coming out of our Covid caves, or taking a break from our digital lives? Collectively, we search for realness in the physical world.

We’ve become accustomed to our restaurant food having provenance, to learning and talking about where it comes from, connecting us to Country. The wine industry has been educating us for decades about place and season and grape terroir, now we know exactly where our hand-crafted spirits come from and who made them - such as who’s his barber, who’s her tattooist. Wonderful for us sticky beakers, especially in a country with an abundance of natural produce.

55 North bar at the transformed Manly Pacific MGallery, designed by Luchetti Krelle

So, it stands to reason that our bars, restaurants, and cafés are becoming real places where we see the chefs at work with dripping brows in sizzling spaces made of real materials. The tinsel graphics have been worn away, revealing the time-honoured timber, stone, brick and brass, as we thirst and hunger for realness.

Bennelong Restaurant at the Sydney Opera House, designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects and Interiors

Now more sustainably aware, we feel the same joy in meeting up with enduring restaurants and bars as in meeting up with old friends, where introductions are discarded in lieu of getting down to the real stuff straight away.

These surfaces are as beautiful as the last visit and are always good to touch – ‘You haven’t aged a day’. Enduringly stylish and updated with a new artwork or two – ‘Is that a new bracelet?’ – this architectural style is self-assured enough to age naturally – ‘You just don’t need any work’.