Located on the Top Floor of the 18-storey building as part of the first Ace Hotel in the Southern Hemisphere, Kiln contains two dining areas, two bars, lounge and two terrace dining areas with a retractable roof, with each space having its own nuanced patina. The site also hones in on the building’s distinct history as a former warehouse that housed one of Australia’s oldest known kilns, and later as a garment factory.
Almost all of the materials used for the design have been sourced locally. FLO consciously specified local materials such as Australian stone on the bar and floors sourced from regional quarries and a variety of Australian timbers including Tasmanian Huon Pine and recycled Birdseye Stringybark, Blackbutt timbers and for much of the custom furniture, reclaimed Oregon. In a first, an alchemically nuanced, custom ombré finish brass sprayed onto aluminium was commissioned by Australian lighting designer Volker Haug of Volker Haug Studio to wrap a central utility room.
This same local artisanal approach was used in the design of Kiln’s custom-designed textiles, where, in another first, the FLO team salvaged materials from the building site to be crushed and create pigment that was then hand-painted onto Belgian linen. Lynch collaborated with Spacecraft Studio to create a unique, custom-printed textile that covers several walls and surrounds window frames.
The tactility of layered materiality, and the arresting impact of bold colour choices such as a striking blue resin wall that greets guests immediately upon entering the space, reflect the ability of the Studio to seamlessly fuse warm and organic characteristics with vibrant, limit-pushing materials, textures and finishes.
Photography by Pablo Veiga
