Reign

Located within the well-known historic and heritage listed Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, with views over Town Hall Square, Reign presented Guru Projects with both stunning elements to work with, and many challenges to work around.

The client brief was for a champagne bar recalling the elegant and luxurious reception rooms in the estates of old but also to be relevant to contemporary culture.

Flooded with natural light and heritage detail, the space has a voice of its own, and the approach to the design grew from a desire to highlight and complement the existing space.

Inspiration was drawn from the Japanese tradition of Kinsugi – to recognize the history of an object and visibly incorporate the repair into the new piece instead of disguising it.

Once the operational layouts were worked through and detailed including all equipment specifications, the design developed into an elegant, curvaceous look and feel with a rich palette of marbles, brass and leather.

Elements of theatre were created as focal points throughout the space, with particular focus placed on the island bar. Positioning the bar as an island added to the creation of intimate spaces for patrons. This was further achieved with the Banquette seating and brass screens adorn the venue, and the entire space offers uninhibited views to the heritage facade and maximizes natural light.

The kitchen located in one corner balances with the feature wine cellar in the other.

Details of surfaces and finishes, and incorporation of lighting, were integral to completing the layering and depth of the design.

Being a heritage space, challenges revolved around preservation of heritage fabric balanced with operational and BCA/AS/DDA requirements for compliance. Unable to penetrate the existing floor structure, the whole floor was required to be raised to accommodate services and required a wheelchair accessible ramp.

Throughout the project, attention to fixing details and junctions to heritage fabric has been crucial not only for approvals but also for ensuring the integrity of the existing space.

Project Details

Completion date – 2019

Project Team

Guru Projects

GURU is a Sydney-based team of interior designers, project managers, and shop fitters who specialise in hospitality projects.

www.guruprojects.com

Photography

Kitti Gould

Kitti Gould is an internationally acclaimed Photographer specialising in the food, wine, lifestyle and travel industries. Kitti’s restaurant clients are particularly important to her, as well as the food producers, foragers and farmers she has the privilege of working with.

Her passion project is Foraged, a series of macro images highlighting the beauty of foraged or sustainably farmed native, heirloom and heritage fruits and vegetables.

Kitti’s work has been featured in publications ranging from Vogue Living to Elle magazine, as well as being a regular contributor to online publications Broadsheet and Concrete Playground. In addition to shooting lifestyle and landscape photography for TV shows such as Gourmet Farmer on Australia’s SBS,

Kitti has styled and shot food for several television programs including Channel 10’s Farm to Fork and soon to be released Three Veg and Meat, focused on introducing more vegetables into everyday dishes.

www.kittigould.com