2015 Gallery
Winner: Best Bar Design
Fiona Lynch Office for Smalls
Victoria
Smalls is a boutique wine bar adjacent to St Ali in Market Place South Melbourne. Smalls represents small producers from around the world. Co-owner Jess Ho’s brief was for the bar to have an intimate feel with a large bar that sweeps across the space.
Jury Citation
Smalls by Fiona Lynch Office is a very welcome addition to the local bar scene. Rather than screaming its presence, it whispers in a husky Belgian accent of its European aesthetic roots. This is partly achieved through the colour and materials palette moody, muted putties, flat blues and concrete greys offset by the occasional glimmer of glassware and brass but also by the artisanal aspect of the installation. Handmade ceramic tiles by Porcelain Bear clad the bar. Leather hides stitched by Made Measure are crafted into tarpaulins to cover a wall. Camm Upholstery is responsible for the open joined banquettes. Articulated into a thirty-square-metre semi-industrial volume of white-painted brick walls, herringbone parquet and steel grid frames, Smalls epitomizes a new urban elegance with fine detailing such as Carrara marble tabletops, aged black leather and charcoal velvet upholstery. A sculptural brass column emits a soft, seductive glow. Everywhere you look there is a touch of class.