Section 8 Melbourne, AustraliaThis urban molecule brings the city fringe into the CBD; it is the meeting of a shipping yard with the central urban situation of China town. The conjoining of the two, in the open air, with the Melbourne CBD towering above, creates a theatre where the punter is performer; a congregation of towers forming an urban spectatorship. Melbourne's first truly temporary bar eschews the niceties of fashion; responding instead to context, weather, and the unforgiving reality that the 'designer bar' in Melbourne is all too quickly usurped by the next in a domino line of designer bars.
By the time Melbourne is sick of the temporary bar, the temporary bar will be sick of Melbourne; it will have moved on.
Section 8 is a tough response to an effete typology. Bar culture in Melbourne is notably anti-urban, cocooned from the city. The scheme responds to the temporal brief and restricted budget by showcasing the theme of the temporary. The project is imbued with the city, the designers hand buried in the undersigned urban realm.
100 pallets are transformed into decking, seating, and tables; 50 suspended umbrellas achieve a surreal sense of partial enclosure; 1 container installs a bar; 1 container provides amenities.
Responding to context, weather, the temporal brief and restricted budget the venue is constructed of 100 pallets; transformed into decking, seating, and tables, 50 suspended umbrellas creating a surreal sense of partial enclosure, 1 shipping container installs a bar; 1 container provides amenities. A cryptic crossword spray-painted across the ‘modular landscape’ grid talks to the workers in the office towers above.
Section 8 went on to be published numerous times, both locally and internationally, featured in television documentaries and advertisements, found its way to the Australian pavilion at the Venice Biennale and was awarded runner up in the Idea Interior Design Awards 2006.
Project completed by DireTribe (Campbell Drake)
