Mini Bar - Foolscap Studio
The Loft Wall Light is a versatile lamp, not only in that it can swing and pivot, but also in that its aesthetic can fit effortlessly into a range of interior styles from classic and traditional to contemporary and cutting edge. And it has recently been used in the Mini Bar, located at the base of the Punthill Northbank hotel in Melbourne.
Hotel bars and venues have had somewhat of a renaissance in recent years, reclaiming their glamour and appeal. Mini Bar, designed by Foolscap Studio, is certainly one such bar, with its design inspired by the glamour, luxury and adventure of travel from the 1920s to 1950s, as well as its location. The multipurpose hotel reception, café and bar is adjacent to the railway and docks of the Yarra River and on a site that once housed an iron foundry producing boilers for Australia’s first railway locomotive.
Mini Bar is a compact space at less than 60 square meterss, so the designers at Foolscap looked to objects such as a hotel mini bar, steamer trunk and drinks cabinet for inspiration. The natural and recycled material palette references the rich and luxurious surfaces of 1920s and 30s cruise liners, while the encaustic cement floor tiles that, like Art Deco motifs, are decorative and abstracted, as if frozen in place. The long banquette and high bench made from reclaimed railway timber are a nod to the railway history of the site, and of course railway travel had its golden age in the early twentieth century before the emergence of mass automobile and air travel.
Our Loft Wall Light is also a nod to the railways as it evokes vintage lighting in stations and on platforms (amongst many other things, thus its versatility). Its steel and spun metal frame extends from the wall in a long elegant line and its smooth geometric curve leads to a brushed-gold anodised cylinder with exposed-filament bulb.
Mini Bar offers one the experience of the great hotel bars around the world, somewhere to sip a classic cocktail or snack on a club sandwich. Which is exactly what was intended.
You can stay at the Punthill and stop by Mini Bar to see the Loft Wall Lighting action...
