Haron Robson at the Opera Kitchen

Nestled on the Lower Concourse of Sydney’s famous Opera House, Opera Kitchen is a 300+ covers venue hosting some of Australia’s most innovative and celebrated food producers, chefs and sushi artists. With an external bar and dining tables overlooking both the harbour and the ‘sails’ of its iconic neighbour, the venue has become a destination for after-work drinks as well as fine dining late into the evening. The mix of intimate under-cover seating and open forecourt bar tables lends this venue a relaxed yet vibrant atmosphere, and the interior designers wanted a lighting strategy which would pull together all the elements and create a cohesive ambience for the refurbished restaurant as a whole.

Working in line with the Utzon design principles for the area, the Haron Robson lightmatters design team devised conceptual lighting design options for both general and feature lighting arrangements; including reflected ceiling plans, conceptual daylighting integration, custom table-lamp designs, undercroft and structural lighting concepts and advice on a lighting control strategy.

The result  is a space which gradually changes mood between daytime and evening – from relaxed, informal spaces for coffee and lunch to a warm, intimate venue for the evenings activities. This ‘warmth’ was created with a mixture of new uplights subtly accentuating the form of the architectural columns, the addition of custom made domed bronze-coloured table lamps to the forecourt tables  and the retrofitting of coloured filters to existing ceiling-light fittings.

With Utzon’s requirement to limit lighting to that of an indirect nature, the Haron Robson team custom-designed the light-ring which fits around the base of the columns, including an aluminium collar to hide the luminaires and protect the fittings from the elements. The asymmetric arrangement of the LED’s in the ring results in a beautiful cross-reflection pattern, which mimics the tiles on the Opera House itself.

The majority of the lighting is muted and in a warm amber colour, bathing the area in a golden glow. This is in response to the design principles which state that lighting should be flattering to the human form, to give life and depth to skin and hair in much the same way as the light from a candle flame.

The only direct lighting is the specialist task lighting above the galley kitchen in the Japanese section of the restaurant. Sashimi preparation is a fast and highly detailed task, and calls for high illumination levels. The low-glare downlights provide the light levels required, and also create a sense of drama and performance around the activities of the chefs. Further adding to the feeling of being in a theatre, the architectural coves under the servery worktop have uplighters which create the illusion of the prompters box on a stage, adding mystery and weight to the area, and anticipation of what the night ahead might hold.

Haron Robson