There was an intense briefing period for Ruyi by Hecker Guthrie’s client who is Chinese born, Japanese bred and Australian at heart. The brief was to create a Chinese restaurant without resorting to a conventional Chinese colour palette or traditional Chinese motifs.

The site for this project is located on an inner city Melbourne laneway adjacent to Melbourne’s little China town. Surrounded by an abundance of restaurants furnished in red, green and gold - Ruyi was all about creating a calm space where craft prevails.

A palette of muted greys and olives, plywood, concrete, brass is offset with a dusty red concrete pendant.

Chairs from Italy, Tweed from Scotland and ceramics from Brunswick all combine to create an interesting assemblage of pieces always chosen with the intent to make the customer feel at home.

Working with an open minded client who project managed the build – Hecker Guthrie were free to explore ideas and in particular provide solutions to treat this elevated site to ensure a strong street presence.

The meaning of Ruyi is ‘As you wish’ and throughout this entire process the client has afforded Hecker Guthrie’s studio the opportunity to create the space as they wished.

They embraced the opportunity to explore palette, texture and craft whilst engaging with the client on not just on the interiors but the approach to graphic identity and styling.