2015 Gallery

Adelaide’s Abbots & Kinney is 2015’s poster child for excellence in crafts-manship. The expressed timber frame wall, with its horizontal and diagonal noggings, encourages the eye to move through the space, echoing the strong diagonal “split” between honey-coloured wood and matt black zones. The black floor, extending up the wall to bisect the ceiling, creates a sense of intimacy and enclosure. The central bleacher-style seating adds sculptural interest, but is also a paean to technique – its refined mortise and tenon jointing is an adaptation of a traditional Japanese self-suspension system. What’s more, it’s operationally functional, encouraging swift circulation of in-house traffic through the compact space. Simple wire-framed safety glass onto the kitchen and raw concrete on the floor speak of honesty and integrity but also a refinement of taste. In fact, it’s in the play between the radical simplicity of the overall concept and the extraordinary accomplish-ment of the execution and finish that this little bijoux truly shines.