Attica

A regular in the World’s Best 50 restaurants list, with a focus on indigenous and locally sourced ingredients, Attica now has an interior to match its stunning food and international renown.

Ben Shewry is unique among chefs and restau­ra­teurs for the inven­tive way he uses food to tell sto­ries, often inti­mate­ly linked to the land­scapes from which his ingre­di­ents are sourced. We took a sim­i­lar approach to design­ing his restaurant’s new inte­ri­or, telling a sto­ry about the cycle of bush­fire and regen­er­a­tion in the Aus­tralian landscape. 

2017
Rip­pon­lea, Boon­wur­rung Land

Patrons

65pax

Floor Area

100m²

A dark but high­ly nuanced mate­r­i­al palette evokes the charred rem­nants of fire-rav­aged bush­land and sets the scene for the restaurant’s food to take cen­tre stage. 

After the dev­as­ta­tion of bush­fire, the green shoots of regen­er­a­tion quick­ly appear. At Atti­ca, this is rep­re­sent­ed by the vibrant colours deliv­ered on the plate. Soft down­lights over each table focus the din­ers’ atten­tion, with the food and the inte­ri­or togeth­er telling a story.

In the main din­ing room, table­tops craft­ed from Castle­maine gran­ite are speck­led grey and white like a bed of ash on a for­est floor. Light from out­side is fil­tered by dark grey cur­tains shot through with cop­per thread, cre­at­ing a smoky effect with hints of red.The burnt land­scape is giv­en its most explic­it rep­re­sen­ta­tion in a pri­vate din­ing room, where the walls are clad in charred tim­ber. The floor through­out is tex­tur­al black carpet

Signs of renew­al are evi­dent too. Slabs of raw tim­ber cut from reclaimed trees. Bas­kets hand­wo­ven from native grass cradling heal­ing bun­ya bun­ya seeds. Evoca­tive pho­tographs show­ing trees regen­er­at­ing after fire bring bal­ance to the black and grey tones, and con­firm that the sto­ry here isn’t about destruc­tion, it’s about the cycles of nature.

Dark tones, sub­tle tex­tur­al con­trasts and care­ful­ly con­sid­ered light­ing design com­bine to cre­ate an ambi­ence of hushed rev­er­ence, for the Aus­tralian land­scape and for the world-class din­ing experience.

Our work here marks the first major redesign for Atti­ca since it rose to glob­al promi­nence. The restaurant’s inte­ri­or now deliv­ers an expe­ri­ence for din­ers com­men­su­rate with their very high expec­ta­tions, while also respect­ing the integri­ty of Ben Shewry’s sin­gu­lar vision.

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