Studiobird’s bar responds to the nightclub as a key site of Melbourne's infamous Fashion Design Council's legacy.
Studiobird’s bar responds to the nightclub as a key site of Melbourne's infamous Fashion Design Council's legacy.
Crome Bar has been designed to accommodate interactive program-based activities around, within or upon it through the duration of the exhibition, with conversations and fashion presentations as well as functioning as an actual bar from which to serve drinks.
The selection of materials – aluminum sheeting, LED strip lighting and fans – builds upon Bird's design research, which seeks to subvert notions of traditional luxury by using everyday materials to test and expand upon a contemporary ‘DIY baroque’ and, in turn, references the rapid and responsive aesthetic of early FDC activities.
The shiny surfaces and coloured lights, designed in collaboration with Caitlyn Parry, reflects a notional 1980s bar with a sunken central zone for the bar tender.
The bar-in-the-round design flips the seedy strip joint with its high-low stage / seating, while also hinting at the intentional inclusivity of the United Nations forum – a deliberate clash of references to capture the FDC’s dark and exhilarating nighttime gatherings with what were also – towards the end of the FDC’s life – stadium-scale, fashion block-buster events.
CategoryInterior Design
Location RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne
StatusCompleted
Year2017
CollaboratorsCaitlyn Parry
PhotographyChristine Francis