Project Team
concept: Rob Dumaresq and Hugh Gurney
interior architect: Adele Winteridge of Foolscap Design
For twenty-four days a dedicated group of industrial, interior and set designers worked hard to realise the concept and creation of a pop-up bar on a rooftop in Darlinghurst, Sydney.
The bar represented the final stage of a competition called The Premise, which asked creatives from around the country to submit concepts for their dream bar. The winning concept was announced on September 13 as The Doghouse from Melbourne’s Rob Dumaresq and Hugh Gurney. Twenty-four days later the bar opened its doors.
The Doghouse is a 1920s speakeasy style bar. The entire experience encourages patrons to engage with the themes of secrecy and concealment. Many of the features hark back to the prohibition era where covert methods were utilised by illegal bootlegger bars to conceal their activities:
- Tables that fold out from timber panelling on the walls, constructed from environmentally sustainable plywood
- Circular seating surrounding a birdcage, creating flow within the small venue
- Concealed flip-down tables that form high benches; cut in drink holders
- Tables that double as chairs, borrowing from ideas in transportable architecture, allowing flexibility and interaction
- Bottles suspended above the bar by a rope and pulley system
- Full integration of the concealed theme of the speakeasy, running through all elements of the bar experience, including the drinking vessels, which are vintage teacups, and the food; classic New York bar fare