New Generation, a quality, prefinished engineered Australian hardwood flooring from Big River Group ticked all the boxes for the designer of a new seafood restaurant located on Barangaroo’s Wululgul Walk.
Designed by Anthony Gill Architects, love.fish, a sustainable seafood restaurant is a large venue with indoor and alfresco seating for about 160 people.
“The overall look of the establishment needed to reflect love.fish’s ethos ‘to serve Australian seafood in the most sustainable way possible’, while including strong links to its original Rozelle restaurant in terms of feel and attention to detail,” explained Principal Architect Anthony Gill.
The new venue was four times larger than its predecessor, which was also designed by Gill in 2009. Gill explained that the restaurant boasted a stunning waterside view and had a shopfront measuring 16 metres long and 4 metres high. A primary objective in the design process was to reduce the separation between the interior and exterior area as much as possible, which was a big challenge.
Maximising living space with a seamless indoor-outdoor transition has been a key trend for residential as well as commercial properties. The desired effect was achieved by installing four huge sliding doors along the shopfront, supported on a steel truss that spans from side to side. These doors stack behind the fixed translucent U-glass segment of the shopfront, which also conceals the truss at a high level from the outside.
According to Gill, during the day the glass filters the external light beautifully, while at night the restaurant emits a balmy glow, accentuated by the interior’s simple white walls with warm timber accents.
Creating a cohesive look within a 6-star Green Star rated precinct while managing the vast amount of daily foot traffic the interior would receive was another key consideration for the architect.
“Building in any Lendlease development, and particularly Barangaroo, meant that all products used needed to meet high levels of scrutiny in terms of origin and manufacture,” says Gill.
Gill chose an Australian hardwood flooring, New Generation from timber manufacturer, Big River Group. Quick to install, the prefinished engineered flooring has no need for coating, ensuring the job is completed without the dust and mess of sanding, as required by traditional solid timber floors. Beneath the 4mm thick top layer of Australian hardwood is an engineered eucalyptus plywood core, which ensures optimum stability is guaranteed between the floorboards, with reduced risk of bending and cupping, explained Jim Bindon, Managing Director of Big River Group. The flooring is also manufactured using logs sourced right here in Australia, matching the locally sourced ethos of the restaurant menu.
“It ticked every box for us in terms of sustainability, strength, price and aesthetic,” concluded Gill.
To ensure a warm and cohesive look, spotted gum Armourpanel was used for the interior joinery, and the restaurant finished with solid spotted gum windows and furniture.
