Project Team

design: SJB

photos: Felix Forest

Retaining the bones of this existing Sydney hospitality institution we brought a tongue in cheek nod to the client’s brief to design a New York style bar. We retained most of the original Cargo
Bar fitout which is still readable under a thick coating of soft grey render and stucco giving a strong contrast to the new furniture pieces and insertions designed to reflect a 1980s silhouette. The existing bars have been clad in blocks of backlit glass to bring a disco overlay to the space.

The majority of our design process was occurring while Donald Trump was meeting with Emmanuel Macron in Paris to cut ties with the Paris Accord. So to give the project some context to the current times, we anchored the space with a Statue of Liberty DJ booth, designed as a ruined American icon, while the interior surrounding it has been bandaged and patched with a series of insertions all ironically coloured in French Blue.