Surrounded by elm trees with views through the valley that sweep up toward the city, Yiaga by architecture studio Wardle is the latest venue from chef Hugh Allen.
Established within the Fitzroy Gardens in East Melbourne as a tearoom in 1908 and replaced with a pavilion in 1963, architect and founding partner John Wardle discusses the plan of the new building, its architectural expression and the collaborators that helped return it to a pavilion in the garden.
Can you describe the key principles developed with the client and design team?
John Wardle: We adopted a process in deep discussion with Hugh. It’s almost like food miles in materials miles. So as much as we could, the material systems, the craft that is very much on show there came from as close to the restaurant as we could provide—the ceramics by Ben Richardson, the terracotta tiles that I designed further facilitated by industrial designer and artist Simon Lloyd and then made here in Melbourne by Robert Gordon.
How did this guide your approach to the project?
John Wardle: The design of the kitchen—its materiality, everything—is choreographed through a really acute understanding of how Hugh wanted to operate within the kitchen. The entry sequence, the aspect of being welcomed forward of the process of finding your seat and table, the private dining room, back of house, storage and other prep areas are all separate chambers. But the main experience is one of giving and receiving, all held within the form of the old roof.
Architect and Wardle founder, John Wardle
Pictured: Profiled tiles designed by John Wardle and Simon Lloyd made by Robert Gordon. Ceramic by Ben Richardson.
Your work is often noted for its use of raw materials and collaboration with artisans. How did this influence the procurement and refinement of furniture and detailing more generally? Was there an opportunity for experimentation?
John Wardle: Hugh was bringing things to the project with the contacts he’d made with the knife maker Tobi Bockholt from Tasmania and the glassmaker Alexandra Hirst from the Jam Factory in South Australia. We connected through a combined fascination and deep appreciation of the skills of others. So that exposition of the skills of many is ever present in this place.
There was a very important recommendation by another remarkable chef Luke Burgess who has Schole, a new single-table restaurant in Hobart. Of course we had no knowledge of that, but it’s a nice association.
In the private dining room, there’s a table we designed made by Vivienne Wong, a Melbourne furniture maker that has made so many things for me over the years. It sits underneath an amazing timber light fitting by Adam Markowitz with draped molten glass by Ruth Allen.
So, to your question about experimentation—lots of experimentation, lots of prototyping from the beautiful, extruded tiles to the lighting, to the furniture. Jon Goulder made several different prototypes before the chair went into production. It was a really intense but wonderful period of prototyping virtually everything that was made there.
You mention being an occasional repeat diner. Have you received any comments about how the project has been received?
John Wardle: People who go there now remark upon the views into the garden, but also these views into seeing this very busy kitchen, and that particularly fascinating thing about the passive, gentle, quiet approach to producing food that Hugh draws others into—it’s really wonderful.
It could be a view into a hellish kitchen, a controversial kitchen of aggression, and it’s not, it’s a view into absolute calm. The architecture, I think, responds to that.
The open kitchen at Yiaga. Pictured: ceramic vessels by Ben Richardson, glassware by Alexandra Hirst, knives by Tobi Bockholt and tableware by Togei Studio.
A terracotta wall with distinct places within unites the experience of dining in the restaurant. Pictured: Custom dining table forms by Andrew Carvolth clad in lead with Tasmanian blackwood tops. Chairs by Jon Goulder. Ceramic vessels by Ben Richardson. Lighting system by Edward Linacre with Electrolight.
Blackwood timber cellar by Ross Thompson.
The private dining room. Pictured: private dining room table designed by John Wardle made by Vivienne Wong. Feature pendant light by Adam Markowitz and Ruth Allen. Chairs by Jon Goulder.
The external terracotta tiles and grout are deeply textural, echoing the bark of the surrounding Scottish elm trees. Pictured: Masonry exterior walls by Krause Bricks.
A principal element of the original design is the flat pyramidal slate roof. A wall of glass and a bank of planting used as a retaining wall integrates it back into a pavilion in the garden.