Hilton Surfers Paradise is the first leisure-focussed hotel and residence offering by Hilton Hotels & Resorts in Australia. The $700 million Hilton Surfers Paradise is a two-tower development which contains a combination of 169 stylish hotel rooms and 250 spacious residences available in one, two and three bedroom configurations.

All rooms and residences offer spectacular views of either Surfers Paradise beach, the Gold Coast Hinterland or the city and are complemented by the signature Salt grill restaurant, FIX lounge bar, a European-style delicatessen The Food Store, executive lounge and meeting areas, two levels of retail, a recreation level and five levels of basement parking.

Landini Associates were responsible for designing The Food Store, Salt restaurant and FIX lounge bar.

“Overall we wished to avoid the thematic cliches so often employed in the design of Gold Coast locations and instead wanted to create something not hitherto found in this part of Australia,” commented Mark Landini, . “We wanted to create a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”, somewhere both family friendly but also sophisticated and desirable for the holiday makers and businesses that come to the Gold Coast for some R&R.”

Prototype Commercial Furniture worked closely with Brookfield Multiplex and Landini and Associates, to provide and manufacture the loose furniture located in the public areas of the hotel.

The Food Store
This boutique delicatessen features local and imported produce to take home or enjoy onsite.

The Food Store sits alongside the long double height space of the Hilton’s reception and underneath the new restaurant. It’s divided into various smaller spaces consisting of the wine shop and delicatessen, the café and patisserie and finally a number of customer seating areas. All of these spaces both integrate with but are also visually separate from the reception by being treated as a dark U-shaped extrusion, open to but in contrast to the light stone of the latter.

Just inside the main entrance is the wine shop and delicatessen, an unique offer for a hotel, that provides residents and locals alike with an alternative to the hotels other bars and restaurant, as well as a being a place from which to buy produce to take to the beach or their rooms. The tall custom built charcuterie and cheese cases form the centre piece of the wall display and are flanked by wine and related produce. In front of this a tall bench is a place to trial, learn or simply eat and drink.

Landini scope: Interior design and documentation,furniture design and documentation, and graphic identity, packaging design and documentation. All the furniture except the bar stools was designed by Landini Associates.

Prototype Commercial Furniture provided custom made deep stitched backless banquette seating with Australian made timber turned legs in the space as a key entrance piece. The coffee shop features Prototype’s Vicki Chair, which is designed and manufactured chair in Portugal by furniture house MoreContract. The whole project used white Carrara marble for the table tops, particularly featured in the Brassiere.

Salt Grill
Leading Australian restaurateur and chef Luke Mangan is the culinary visionary behind signature restaurant Salt grill.

The restaurant itself has a large open plan kitchen allowing guests to interact with the Chefs and see their meals being prepared right in front of their eyes, a spectacular wine room and three separate dining zones that each have their own unique feel and distinguishing features.

At the heart of the restaurant is a large open plan kitchen. This is flanked by a number of seating areas separated by beaded screens and a wine room built around some very large supporting columns. Landini intentionally wanted to create different areas, using differing styles of furniture to break up what would have otherwise been a very large space.

The first area is panelled in a warm light timber and enjoys external views through the large circular windows. Beyond this and opposite the kitchen is a more intimate space using high backed double seater units designed for couples or families with young children. This sits next to and opposite a chefs table with access to the cooking stations.

Running alongside the floor to ceiling glass that overlooks the reception, and linking with the last room, are more custom designed chairs again for singles and couples alike. The last space is defined by a series if interconnecting circular red leather booths, and is a much more corporate area designed with local businessman in mind.

Finally, and adjacent to this area Landini designed a large walk in wine room where guests are invited to taste wines before deciding which to order. All the spaces are hung with black and white photography, purposefully commissioned in the classic style, but these, like the space are “wolfs in sheep’s clothing” as they reflect the more “colourful” side of the locale, featuring the famous Meter Maids and other local celebrities, as well as the beech scenes that one might expect.

Landini scope: Interior design and documentation, furniture design and documentation.

Prototype Commercial Furniture supplied the custom designed, Italian leather banquette curved seating which is made to measure and to fit the space. They also supplied the tables which have polished stainless steel legs, and the table tops in a solid American oak stained in Ebony Black and are completed with a chamfered edge. A particular feature in the restaurant is the high-backed range of seating, designed to provide privacy and intimacy for guests without upsetting the ascetics of the space.

Fix Bar
Taking its name from the common term for a cocktail in prohibition America circa 1920‟s, FIX, Hilton Surfers Paradise‟s stylish new lounge bar, is set to shake things up on the Gold Coast bar scene.

Joined to Salt via a bridge that spans the reception, Fix is built around a central bar that houses a DJ booth and BOH facilities. Many of the colour and materials used in Salt were used again but with a stronger emphasis on the dark wood, stone and the red leather, which this time is used on the walls. The lighting however is much moodier than the restaurant and is supplied in the main buy a combination of picture lights, freestanding and table lamps.

Once again Landini decided to design most of the furniture because they wanted to create a number of curvaceous seating areas to define different parts of the space but also because many of the seats are in a corridor and as such they wanted a modern take on a high backed winged chair to create a sense of privacy. Adjacent to the bar, near the bridge we created a “nook” with a fireplace that seats a small party of guests and which is much sought after.

Landini scope: interior design and documentation, furniture design and documentation, graphic identity, design and documentation.

Prototype Commercial Furniture supplied five French inspired curved lounges in this space. The custom timber ottomans come in three different designs that are all turned timber. The deep button ottomans were custom made in a range of sizes from 450 square cubes to 1800 x 800 large pieces. The bar also features side table’s custom design by Landini Architects and locally manufactured by Prototype.

Prototype Commercial Furniture also supplied furniture for the Executive Lounge, on level 67, which was designed in house by Brookfield Multiplex’s, Jo Brewer. The custom made lounge was made in four pieces and joined on site, and the surround chairs are a unique design by Ms Brewer featuring tailor made loose linen covers.