Project Team

design: Studio Equator

Suppliers

tiles: Johnson, G-Lux
carpet: Tsar (designed by Studio Equator)
signage, graphics, neon installation: Signedon
lighting: Studio Equator

The interior design is divided into separate offers in an open plan space. To describe the main dining room, imagine you’ve just walked down the alley of Degrave’s Street, Melbourne, with graffiti art pillars individually painted by well-known street artists, industrial lighting, concrete walls and a fast paced dining experience. Once again, Studio Equator has managed to put their hint of ‘industrial chic’ into their design incorporating a love of art, music, design and culture. Bluetrain has a perfect combination of classy structured architecture with an edgy and approachable atmosphere that encompasses the essence of the brand’s long-standing spirit.

Custom designed floor tiling gives subtlety but reflects the triangular geometry that extends from the new logo and brand identity throughout the restaurant including the custom designed steel panelling featured in the sports bar. “Melbourne Soul Food” in yellow, red & blue is painted along the raw wood panelled walls bringing to life Bluetrain’s passion for Jazz and Soul music. This theme then continues further throughout the venue.

The function room doesn’t hold back in its class and contemporary glamour. A 15 metre stretched wall is completely covered in reclaimed stencilled vinyl floor tiles positioned geometrically to create a custom feature wall for the elegant functions room. This wall is then completed with 14 custom designed and produced bike wheel lights. The spacing of the bike wheel lights has been positioned to create calculated symmetry of each shadow. The adjacent wall extends from the restaurant and the timber panels double as a canvas for colourful large-scale graphics lit up with black and yellow Jielde lamps.

Follow the pipes up the caged stairwell to arrive at the banquet lounge and restrooms. This landing oozes dark glamour. Think 1950’s jazz, velvet boutique chairs, gold and black embellishments, marble basin and antique ‘He and She’ dressing tables with a stunning black mirroring effect that surrounds a 360 degree communal basin. Finished with sophisticated lighting and soulful sounds seeping out from the DJ booth, the banquet lounge allows for privacy, separation and a deep seduction, like you’ve just walked into an underground jazz bar with whiskey in hand.

Bluetrain’s theme of ‘transport’ includes Meccano light fittings designed to replicate a 3-dimensional version of the Melbourne Metro train line system. Roofing panels have been tailor-made to counterfeit shipping containers, which blanket the façade of the venue front and there is an overall ‘transportation into time’ guests feel as they walk into the venue.

Studio Equator again showcase their signature Lucky Beer chandelier’s which reflects off the black mirrors in the dining room and the neon typography installation that reminds us that “Creativity takes Courage, Courage is Creativity.”

The biggest obstacle Studio Equator faced was the high ceiling. It was a challenge to make sure the materials used in the space absorbed the sound to avoid echoing and noise, particularly for a busy restaurant and social atmosphere.

The open plan space is separated into separate quarters: The Sports Bar, Dining Room, Lounge Area, Functions Room, and the Banquet Lounge. Each section was designed separately with each area’s purpose taken into consideration.  However, although each section is unique, maintaining flow visually through the restaurant was key. The colour scheme runs throughout the venue and Studio Equator’s signature ‘Industrial Chic’ style of design is apparent in their customized light fittings, tiling and combination of raw materials to create not just an interior design, but an overall dining experience encapsulating the venue theme and energy.

Material wise container panels reinforce the theme of transportation. This also gives the venue an industrial feeling. Studio Equator decided to paint them with a clean paint finish to keep the Industrial Chic effect instead of maintaining it’s raw, rusty aesthetic.

The timber was a contrast to the steal paneling and kept the warmth in the design and atmosphere. The raw timber also enforces the industrial side of the venue.

The floor tiles were custom designed and tiled to reinforce the brand’s logo and geometric pattern. This stems throughout the venue. Studio Equator also sourced the tiles in warm colour tones again to balance out the industrial, raw element.

Studio Equator painted the steel and metal structures powder coated black.  Again, this links in with the industrial feel but painted in black to bring in the class and warmth instead of it’s raw aesthetic.

The carpet uses all the secondary colours in the colour scheme. The image is  a custom designed pixilated graphic. It gives a visual separation from the sports bar and lounge room to the dining room.

Colour and texture stemmed from the new brand identity of the logo and brand identity. The Blue is one of the major colours in the brand (including the name restaurant name itself) so this colour is apparent throughout the venue and brand identity. The primary colours are black, blue and white and the secondary colours are there to support the graphics and collateral. For example, the graphics printed on the timber is red, black, yellow and the primary blue colour.

Studio Equator wanted to change and give a new brand to Bluetrain, so they chose bright colours to be eye catching. Bluetrain is also a 20-year long running Melbourne venue so we wanted to show the venue’s confidence and it’s longstanding reputation by using these bright colours.

Geometrical/triangular shape is the core element that is present in the brand’s logo, graphics, floor tiling and materials. This is what ties the concept of the brand together.

The venue is so large and contains such unique sections that the lighting is difficult to describe. The Meccano lights reinforce the Transport theme, as does the Bike Wheel Lights, however, the venue contains pipe lights painted in the primary blue colour showing the ‘Industrial Chic’ balance.

Special features incorporated into the project? include recycled vinyl tiles that create a 15 m feature wall. They’ve been stenciled into the geometric Bluetrain logo/brand. The floor tiling in the Dining Room also incorporates this concept. The Banquet Lounge is a special feature in itself. It also contains the DJ booth, velvet lounge chairs and seductive atmosphere. The concept of the room is to have a space away, an area that is isolated from the dining and bar.

The function room features a black painted steel beam that runs right through the functions room. This beam was originally a mistake and not at all a part of the architecture of this space. However, from this mistake, Studio Equator were forced to turn it into a feature, which is now one of the main features in the whole restaurant. They installed a neon light installation along it describing that “Creativity takes Courage, Courage is Creativity”- a reflection of the last minute disguise.

The five ‘graffiti columns’ were created in support of local Melbourne Street Artists and features unique artwork from five different Melbourne Street artists.Studio Equator chose to support the arts scene with this concept instead of keeping them as plain pillars.

In the Lounge Room area, Studio Equator came across a minor obstacle, which forced the designers to go back to the drawing board.  Extending from the bar and coming from the upstairs bathrooms, a pipe went along the ceiling meaning that they needed to either bring the whole ceiling down a few mm or create a bulkhead to house the pipe. Instead, they decided to create a unique rendering solution. The ceiling actually has four points coming from the outside to the centre (and the lowest point of the ceiling where the pipe is) to create a jagged almost geometric like render. The solution blended in with the concept and successfully hid the unsightly pipe.