2017 Gallery
Winner: Best Cafe Design
RITZ&GHOUGASSIAN for MORRIS AND HEATH
24-48 Old Geelong Rd
Hoppers Crossing, Victoria
Morris and Heath is a 125 square meter hospitality project set in Hoppers Crossing on the outskirts of
Melbourne. The space can be viewed as a refuge in contrast to the vast expansiveness of eucalyptus
forests and precast concrete warehouse shopping that the site surrounds.
Jury Citation
Morris and Heath is a holistically considered interior, bringing high-end design to Melbourne’s western suburbs. The interior successfully creates its own moment, its own place, warm and comfortable with its disciplined palette of wood and strategically placed lighting. All is understated, nothing in this interior is extraneous, and it is one of the most remarkable outcomes seen among this year’s entrants.
The timber panels and battens may not be an original idea, but they have been finely detailed and executed in this application, with such details as the “fingertip” scale of the battens giving tactility and a “must touch” aspect to the interior. The operable screen further multiplies the space – a detail that could have been omitted, but which would have diminished the pleasing complexity of the cafe’s spatial form. As the light changes over the course of the day, the screen is there to operate as a kind of veil. Overall, this is a deeply positive interior, timeless and anything but temporary.
