Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley has long been the edgy epicentre of the city’s culture where bars, galleries, markets, and seedy criminal activity collide to bring a complex variety of people together. The crime is still present but the precinct’s establishments have been refurbished to expand the cross-section of clientele, to further develop the cultural significance of the Valley.

648 Ann Street has survived many incarnations, most notoriously as Tony Bellino’s 1970s restaurant, Pinocchio’s, an establishment publicly brought into disrepute through the Fitzgerald Inquiry - an investigation into police corruption in Brisbane.

Pinocchio’s was much more than a restaurant and its secrets are woven silently into the brickwork now sheltering x&y. In the outdoor terrace area, a bricked-up ‘bolt hole’, used for quick escape during police raids, is a significant remnant of local history.

To counteract the increasing infiltration of glossy bars accessible only to a well-dressed niche market, the owners of the newly completed x&y bar were adamant that their live music venue should capture the basic elements of the social scene: gathering an audience with character and opinion to refocus on the simplicity of friends, drinks, and good music.

The Jamm Studio design team worked with the empty shell that for 15 years had stood boarded up and desolate at 648 Ann Street in order to capitalize on the essential qualities of the building while effectively realizing their client’s brief. A high degree of sensitivity to the character of the existing structure was a vital ingredient to this transformation. In addition to all of the bar’s functional design elements, the layout required, new egress considerations as well as the development of lucid connections, to the outdoor spaces and the lower level, suitable for a bar-cum-nightclub.

Raw materials and construction waste products - ncased in the venue’s original masonry shell and highlighted with atmospheric lighting - capture the imagination and provide a deliberately jarring contrast to new materials and design features. The raw urban ambience of the space is reinforced by the bold use of graphic imagery also created by Jamm Studio as a key component of the venue identity. x&y balances the raw simplicity of an industrial aesthetic with luxurious textiles, to establish a warmth and intimacy rarely featured in Brisbane bar design.

As a result, the x&y Bar has attitude, enigma, and a whole lot of history. Re-establishing a venue drenched

in Valley persona - etched over seven decades - and
surrounded by bars of a new generation, the client sought a return to basics and Jamm has delivered a bar without judgement, without absolute refinement, without dress codes - a bar with a sense of place and a great atmosphere. A bar that does not yield its history. “We were able to sensitively mesh the client’s brief - building a space that did not demand exclusivity and would be a focal point of Brisbane’s music scene - with both the character of the space and the context of its current surroundings…a competitive response to the slick new Valley bars.” (Michael Molloy – Jamm Studio)

x&y comprises two floors, each with its own bar: upstairs—street level, and downstairs—cellar level. Waiting patrons are guided inside by construction fencing which is also a defining feature of the seating and dance areas. Entry is through a narrow yet cavernous space that feeds the senses with the raw texture and character of distressed masonry walls, exposed steel beams, to reach the bar—assembled from deeply etched woodchip shipping pallets: a space embracing its skeletal elements. The ground level raw concrete flooring is punctuated by glazed portals which work in conjunction with a city-sized water pipe penetrating the back wall to visually extend the space vertically and horizontally—establishing links to the cellar, to the outside, to another time.

The street level space unfolds to reveal surprising nooks and features: the DJ booth, melded into the wall, the VIP seating hidden behind chain-link curtains to the side of stage, stencil and graffiti imagery, joinery and furniture that also function as art, heighten the juxtaposition of elements: raw against refined, cool against warm, historic against edgy. The street level bar, stage, and exterior terrace spaces nestle nonchalantly amid industrial elements - while the downstairs bar beckons for your martini order: shaken, not stirred.

Descending the internal steel staircase to the cellar level suggests the distinct change in style that emerges below. This space with its plush cushions, chain-link curtains, opposing mirrored and red backlit walls, and wall-to-floor mosaic feature, contrasts against the raw industry above

Months before x&y’s construction was complete, the online buzz surrounding its presence was spreading. Brisbane was looking for something different from the ubiquitous same-same of the new Valley scene. The prospect of a bar that will embellish Brisbane’s local music scene, and present a hip yet judgement-free location was one that seemed too good to be true.