CIVIC CUSTODIANSHIP
Custodianship of significant buildings is a delicate sport. Caring for the physical needs. Bricks cracking and paint peeling from decades of conversation with the elements is one aspect. But an oft-overlooked necessity for any structure worth its salt is its cultural relevance. Ensuring that while its physicality is born of an era. It continues to resonate with the zeitgeist, the cultures, and subcultures of the present. For what is a building if not playing a role for the people of the day?

Melbourne's 270 Lonsdale St has a storied past. Constructed in 1903 as the headquarters of Sniders & Abrahams Cigars and Cigarettes, it later housed Edmunds Bros, who formed Ensign Lamps, and in recent years, became known as Pacific House. When current ownership commissioned an extensive modernisation with esteemed architects Jackson Clements Burrows and local polymath/designer Dion Hall, the building fittingly reassumed its place as a hub for the artistic and convivial. Dubbed HER. A nod to its architectural features and site history. It acts as a vertical laneway of interconnected cultural offerings centred around food, beverage, arts, and music.

INTERNAL RESONANCE

HER extends the city grid onto a vertical plane, offering an alternative way to navigate the current cultural context, all via a stairwell-turned-installation by Hervé Descottes of L’Observatoire International. At its heart sits MUSIC ROOM, occupying the third floor. Unseen and unheard from the street, yet omnipresent within the building, it fills and unites the entire space. Tactically, it is a cocktail bar meets club meets radio station. Yet within the building’s ecosystem, it serves as the cultural core, feeding the creative exchange throughout. This notion shapes both its design and function. Everything flexes with the programming, the people, and the present moment. This interwoven, pulsating dynamic of programming and public, of bar within building, building within city, recognises the fluid exchange of energy.

SOUND AS LANGUAGE
Serendipitously, experiments in visualising sound echo these patterns. From Ernst Chladni’s plates to Hans Jenny’s cymatics studies, sound waves manifest as alternating geometric forms in sand and liquid.A visual and experiential language. Speaking to dedicated sound purists while enticing the uninitiated—studies in sound made visible. Inspired by Chladni and Jenny, an abstract, ever-evolving collage provides a systemic framework for communication that moves with the conversation. Some combinations are intentional. Others experimental. Forming a way to express genre, time, place and people. A vehicle for meaning and a mechanism for visual freshness.

The beat and the central heart role MUSIC ROOM plays in HER is inherent in the emanating visual motif and dynamic shift of each collage. Extended into motion, animations pulse with a rhythm that synchronises with the fluidity of the music itself. Waves come and retreat. Distort. Expand and contract. Each movement is responsive. Like a space listening and reacting in real time. For those attuned to the nuances of sound, the connection is immediate. For those simply passing through, the visuals provide intrigue. An invitation to step inside and discover more.Because music is a tactile force. While on the surface we connect it to the sense of sound. When we pay closer attention. We realize that music is not just heard, it is felt.

CORPORATE SUBVERSION
Cultural identities form organically over time through the communities that shape places, programs, genres, and movements. MUSIC ROOM is a matter-of-fact moniker. Simple. Straightforward and humble. The shorthand visual logotype follows suit. Evoking the immediate recall of an almost corporate marque. Semiotically simple. It is a symbolic abstraction of the proposition ‘MUSIC’, represented by a ubiquitous speaker icon, manifest globally via GUI computer interface design. Repeated and composed in four corners to enclose a square, ‘ROOM’ is formed. Rather than being created. It is found or arranged. Suggesting nothing more, nor less, than recognisability.

As the zeitgeist moves, MUSIC ROOM and its identity evolve with it. A framework that embraces movement, adaptation, and experimentation. Much like music itself.

Interior Design: Dion Hall. Project Architect: JCB Architects. Lighting Design: L’Observatoire International. Sound Engineer: Mickey Levis. Consol Design: DJ JNETT. Placemaking Strategy: 21–19, John Clemons. HER Brand Identity: 21–19, John Clemons. Architectural Photography: Earl Carter.