Acre Eatery

The Brickworks site is part of the Living Building Challenge (LBC), the world's most rigorous sustainable performance certification for buildings. The Living Building Challenge is a green building certification program and sustainable design framework that visualizes the ideal for the built environment and requires genuine certifications over a 12 month period. All components for the Acre site were assessed against the LBC Certification and were required to meet the rigorous LBC standards, an arduous and detailed process.

The design for the space was driven by the available approved materiality and limited budget for the site. The vision was to create a sophisticated, authentic food space that did not look overtly rustic yet met the necessary sustainable credentials for the site.

The team was required to fully research and capture each ingredient of each material for every item that was included on the build. On this basis, many proposed materials were rejected and sustainable substitutes were sourced, all within tight lead-times and to an extremely tight budget. The success of this project is not only the sustainable certification, but the fact that the space is not limited by a narrow selection of approved materials. The restaurant reflects the design intent; a sophisticated, authentic dining space that connects people from the urban farm to what is on their table.

Working to a very tight timeline and limited build budget, the design team worked closely with the fit-out contractors and build certifiers (LBC) to quickly deliver a compliant build that met the opening deadline for the centre. The team needed to be flexible and to think quickly when met with the limitations of lead times and budget with carefully selected sustainable materials including salvaged oregon timber, recycled bricks and bamboo.