Jury comment
In assessing the Hospitality Design category entries this year, the jury tried to find a project that could represent a quintessentially Australian experience. It also needed to have longevity by virtue of it not needing to be supplanted with a new project or new narrative. In awarding Her Bar, the jury noted the project’s totally beautiful, creatively rich and highly detailed resolution. While it is high end, there is also a spirit of approachability to the design and flexibility in the way it defines Australian dining. It works extremely well at any time of day or night throughout the week, from early morning through to late evening.
Design statement
Her is a restaurant and cocktail bar inspired by French boulevard bistros that serves modern European fare and aperitivos on the ground floor of the newly reimagined venue – a wonderland of four distinct venues celebrating food, drink, art, design and music in a Melbourne heritage federation warehouse.
The space is stabilized by a delicately balanced material and lighting palette, which effortlessly evokes the “modern French” concept while the use of design and art nods to the urban culture of its Melbourne laneway location.
Commissioned for Her, a 10-metre abstract painting by Eleanor Louise Butt in which form and colour intertwine and bounce off one another sits above the bar. On the opposite wall, there is a collection of artworks (featuring young and emerging female artists) that reinforce the intimate feel of the traditional salon.
Her Bar is located in Melbourne, Victoria, and is built on the land of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin.
Project credits
Design practice — Dion Hall
Project team — Dion Hall (interior designer), Jackson Clements Burrows (architect), Leeda Projects (builder), Mickey Levis (sound designer and audio engineer), DJ Jnett (soundtrack and selector), Chris Love of Eatscape (bar designer and fabricator)
The Award for Hospitality Design is supported by Space. The Australian Interior Design Awards are presented by the Design Institute of Australia and Artichoke magazine. For more images of this project, see the Australian Interior Design Awards gallery.
