Pink Moon Saloon
In a former bin alley and sandwiched between two office buildings on one of Adelaide's vibrant laneways is the Pink Moon Saloon. The venue tells a narrative of campfire cooking with a childlike nostalgia for the outdoors. Designed and built in traditional 'hut' style, it reflects its context and place.
Throughout the design process the concept evolved and settled on exploring the typology of the wilderness hut. Huts are located in remote or isolated areas and often in geographically unique places. Generally speaking materials have to be sourced locally. As a result the materiality and aesthetics of the wilderness hut are varied but with a few common threads. Often timber is sourced by felling the trees on site and stone or earth is gathered from nearby. This approach creates a vernacular style amongst huts, with different elements or nuances associated with a particular region or locality.
The intention with Pink Moon was to create its own identity or vernacular; by designing and building in the way a hut should be. Firstly, an understanding of its unique climate. Sitting between two low-rise office buildings, narrow and long, running east-west with limited access to direct sunlight. The hut needs to embrace its surroundings, not dominate them, but embellish and appreciate them. Creating a moment of warmth and shelter within whatever context.
At 3.66 x 28 metres, the narrow site lent itself to a Japanese approach to programming. There was an obvious need for light to penetrate the space as well as create a compact, floor plan that dealt efficiently with the limited width. The result was two huts, separated in the middle by a courtyard of similar size, the bar to the street, a dining hut to the rear. This layered approach allows light to filter into both spaces, but also accentuates the movement of walking through the space, crossing multiple thresholds and experiencing three different spaces.
The internal ceilings are raked to express the 60 degree roof pitch and timber truss structure. This attempts to relieve the feeling of tightness associated with a narrow space by accentuating the height and overall volume. The front (drinkers) hut is light filled and airy whilst the dining hut is darker, dimly lit and focussed around the fire. The central courtyard has little of its own lighting, but instead allows light into the two huts during the day and is lit by them at night.
