Project Team

architect: Techné Architects
acoustic consultant: Burton Acoustic Group
builder: Visual Builders
av: RTR Productions

Suppliers

lighting: Momu, Radium
carpet: Edwardstown Carpets, Interface Floor, Feltex
vinyl: Forbo
fabric: Instyle
tiles: Perini Tiles
wallpaper: Baresque, IMGS

Recently reopening its doors, The Bridge Hotel is an outstanding addition to the stable of hospitality projects by leading Melbourne practice, Techné Architects.

Working closely with the owners at Sand Hill Road, Techné’s initial brief was to gut the building and completely recreate the interior space. With this approach proving extremely costly the brief was revised to completely re-invent the pub whilst using as much of the existing structure as possible.

Techné considered the fabric of the pub, the iconic Melbourne location and what it meant to its locals, and over months formed the concept of bringing a quintessentially ‘Melbourne’ laneway within the pub. With council approval in hand, construction commenced in June 2011, seeing the longitudinal middle sliced out of the building, leaving the existing upper level facades facing each other as if across an open-air laneway.

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Through extensive design discussions between clients and architects, the lane evolved into a richly detailed and decorated exterior space from which feeds multiple ‘tenancies’ including bars spaces, a bistro and wintergarden, loading dock and stairs to first floor spaces that were imagined as apartments or studios.

Justin Northrop, one of the three Techne Directors believes The Bridge is the first of its kind and unlike any other pub in Melbourne;  “Techné has created a world unto itself within the existing four walls of the Bridge Hotel, where a microcosm of unique spaces unfold dedicated to drinking, eating and socialising.”

To allow the eclectic character of the design to develop, it was decided that wherever possible recycled materials, fixtures and fittings would be used. Matt Mullins from Sand Hill Road went as far as buying a van enabling him to collect and transport the abundance of eBay and junk shop purchases. Taxidermy birds acquired at auction affectionately labelled the ‘the chooks’ by the builders adorn the ground floor bistro.

With a need to protect surrounding residential areas from patron noise the acoustic design resulted in the inclusion of a screen to rear of the lane, creating the appearance that the space is consistently two storeys deep. This practical response to a problem resulted in the lane becoming more dramatic and prompted the insertion of a jaunty overhead billboard frame complete with gantry and up lighting.


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A rich patina of aged surfaces integrated into the overall scheme was revealed layer by layer throughout the demolition phase. Final interior and exterior touches are detailed and completely unique to the space, including artwork on laneway walls created by an incognito balaclava-clad stencil artist. Street art was installed through Alleycat Creative - Romy Paltoglou’s Street Art Consultancy. Ha-Ha, Be Free, Suki
and Doyle’s work adorn the laneway walls.

The creative collaboration between Techné and Sand Hill Road has once again resulted in a visionary concept in The Bridge Hotel, a welcome addition to the Melbourne pub scene.

RTR Productions designed, supplied and installed the audio for the Bridge Hotel and after discussions with the owners (their client), they designed a system that could match their vision of a multi-venue set up within one venue.

To achieve a system with very high flexibility and multiple zone audio sources and volume controls, RTR Productions decided on an Allen & Heath IDR8 with extra “IDR in” and “IDR out” units to give the entire system a 16in/16out capability.

For zone control RTR Productions used Allen & Heath PL10 compact mixer interfaces and PL4 remote control wall plates.

The QSC speaker system chosen by RTR Productions comprises of four S32T loudspeakers, twenty S52T loudspeakers, two S82T loudspeakers, a single 15″ sub and eight QTC1080 coaxial ceiling speakers. QSC amplifiers - three CX204V 4ch, two CMX300V 2ch and two RMX2450 2ch - power the speakers.

RTR Productions have also used (under instructions from their client) some JBL Control speakers (black and white) to give the outside laneway a feel of different venues.