Cutler and Co Dining Room

Cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Andrew McConnell and Pas­cale Gomes-McN­abb, the Cut­ler & Co occu­pies a row of Vic­to­ri­an ter­races on Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. The over­ar­ch­ing design strat­e­gy presents a refined dia­logue between Melbourne’s raw, indus­tri­al archi­tec­tur­al char­ac­ter and the time­less ele­gance of Euro­pean bistro detailing.

The restau­rant occu­pies a row of derelict Vic­to­ri­an ter­races, which required sig­nif­i­cant archi­tec­tur­al repair and restora­tion. The inte­ri­or was opened to cre­ate a large inter­nal space, retain­ing the raw shell of the build­ings, includ­ing exposed brick, con­crete, and steel. This indus­tri­al char­ac­ter, quin­tes­sen­tial­ly Mel­bourne, was delib­er­ate­ly pre­served and cel­e­brat­ed, form­ing a defin­ing fea­ture of the fit-out and pro­vid­ing a tex­tur­al back­drop for the new inter­ven­tions with­in the space.

Key pro­gram ele­ments were intro­duced as indi­vid­ual black archi­tec­tur­al forms, includ­ing a pitched canopy span­ning the cen­tral fea­ture bar, a small­er pitched struc­ture enclos­ing the bath­rooms, and a series of black ban­quettes that define cir­cu­la­tion and seat­ing zones.

The palette com­bines dark steel, nat­ur­al tim­ber, and soft leather to cre­ate a rich, refined hos­pi­tal­i­ty inte­ri­or. The pro­file of the cen­tral bar fol­lows an over­sized pro­file of a Vic­to­ri­an cor­nice, fab­ri­cat­ed in black steel. Dimmed light­ing enhances atmos­phere, and clas­sic details like the chevron tim­ber floors pro­vide a clas­sic Euro­pean bistro feel.