From the streets, little laneways and city arcades comes a new kind of Asian flavour. Distinctly Asian, it’s fast, loud, rebellious, upbeat and confident.

The client’s brief was to bring the urban influences from their trip to Japan and Korea a little more closer to home in Braddon, Canberra A.C.T. Sensing a well overdue need to fill a niche in Canberra’s dining and bar scene, the four partners brought their experience in bars and hospitality together to form Lazy Su. The concept was as much of an exploration exercise into 80-90’s asian pop culture as it was re-imagining asian fusion so it would stand on its own as Canberra’s go-to place.

Designed to be a flexible all-day dining asian eating house, the venue had to allow for counter-side lunches and asian tapas dining to late night whisky, sake bar and cocktails. The brand was a response to the brief – must be fun, loud and cheeky, and designed for the curious minded.

Inspired by retro 80-90’s American-Japanese-Korean pop culture, eating houses and hawker stalls, the menu, collateral, uniforms, wall collages and way-finding signs were carefully curated to be sensitive to the interiors, so the customer journey into Lazy Su was to ‘discover first, ask questions later’.

Each area inside was designated an ‘activation’, from the main entry to the signature bar, counter dining and booth seating. A range of materials from natural wood panels and batons, exposed brickwork, concrete sheeting, lenticular mirrors and hand painted denim cloth were selected due to its common use in Japan, with neon, LED backlighting, 3D-text light boxes and paper lanterns to complete the lighting requirements. Each activation was design to be highly functional, instagrammable and demonstrate a return on investment – i.e: the bar features a unique Tetris light box menu arrangement with popular asian drinks to educate and assist in ordering.