Brisbane-based architecture studio J.AR Office took home three awards at the 2025 Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) on 28 November, including Emerging Designer of the Year, the Hospitality category and the night’s top prize – Overall Project of the Year – for Central. Below, we revisit our project feature, written by Alice Blackwood, on the Cantonese restaurant in Brisbane from inside magazine issue 121.

We often frame discussions of interior design around the experiential qualities of space – planning and flow, materiality, finish and fitout selections. J.AR Office approaches interior design with a more expanded view: as a medium for storytelling. Across their hospitality and other commercial project work, they are building a conversation that centres on social narrative and cultural impact, expanding the role of interiors beyond aesthetics and function.

Central, Brisbane’s hottest new CBD venue, is J.AR’s latest execution of intent: a venue that proposes a new up-late timeslot for socialising in the CBD. “Central aims to elevate Brisbane’s nightlife dining scene, pushing the kitchen close time back to a few hours later,” says Jared Webb, founder and director at J.AR Office. “Brisbane’s CBD is unlike other cities in Australia – or the world for that matter – in that there’s no activation outside the nine- to-five.”

Central, which Webb and his team designed, documented and delivered within a rapid seven-month period, sits at the centre of Brisbane’s CBD resurgence in which “venues are starting to bring the city back to life”.

The client – a long-time friend – entrusted J.AR with their vision to create a Cantonese-style restaurant that would cater to a corporate lunch crowd and evolve into a lively destination for late-night dining and entertainment. This ambition was laid bare during the initial site visit, where Webb assessed the raw bones of the proposed basement tenancy – a subterranean space beneath a standard office tower.

“So, we’re in this basement tenancy, there’s no natural light, the ceiling is super low, it’s damp where there are these old stone walls…” says Webb, who wasn’t put off by the constraints. “Sometimes the constraints are actually the best part,” he says.

“One of the stand-out aspects of this space was its amazing Brisbane-Tuff and porphyry and sandstone walls, which lined the basement walls like a raw structural rib cage.” Webb considered it and decided to counteract the rough textures with sleekness and softness. There’s the illuminated gridded ceiling, which plays off the site’s low ceilings while channelling a distinctly corporate-core vibe – an era-bending nod to 1980s Hong Kong, as well as the office tower directly above the basement tenancy. The ceiling’s soft illumination engulfs the diner, sitting so low that one might easily reach up and touch the light.

Webb continued to soften up the interior with “beautiful, soft curtains”, fabricated by textile designer George Park, to bring a sense of movement and a potent 1980s-style luxury to the space.

What we haven’t talked about yet is the monolithic granite ‘stage’ which Webb and team inserted into the middle of the space. This houses the kitchen, bar and DJ booth. This was the designers’ main strategy: to place the kitchen in the very middle of the venue, “so that it was always about the cooking”. The head chef was integral to this, serving up Cantonese cooking with flourishes of steam and flaming woks. Webb simply stole the essence – “or heart” – of the restaurant and put it centre stage.

Taking subtle cultural cues from Cantonese operas, the design team referenced the heights and viewing angles that opera stages and theatres afford their audiences. “Everyone sits around the perimeter of this ‘kitchen stage’, looking in from various levels and perspectives.” It’s a subtle overlay of Cantonese culture and heritage that influences the design but mindfully eschews any thematic Asian restaurant references.

The designers have also gone to great pains to offer variety through spatial planning. For example, the high bar seating is perfect for singles or couples who want to dine while looking into the kitchen. Long strip dining, positioned down the side of the kitchen, offers a standing-only zone for people to order a drink and tap their feet to the beats. Private booth seating provides a cosy hidey-hole with a long view to the kitchen, while seating under the illuminated gridded ceiling is the ultimate stage – a place to dine and be seen.

To sit within this topographical granite-scape feels as if you might be in a semi-carved-out quarry, says Webb. It also puts food, bar and DJ in the middle of the action, allowing Central to effortlessly transition from a polished lunch service into an up-late disco. As the bar gets busier, the DJ gets louder, a disco ball drops and the whole environment is elevated to a new level. “The three sources of entertainment really play off one another, as if it is a show for the audience. And it’s not a singly illuminated space; it can adapt to its audience,” Webb says.

As Central moves out of its honeymoon period (as all new bars and restaurants do), Webb has built in the flexibility for Central to establish itself as an institution in its own right – adapting to crowds, offering people a range of dining options and experiences, depending on their mood, their dining companions and the time of day.

“Brisbane is a city that is coming of age, a play worthy of fantastic venues that push the limits for the city,” Webb says. “As with all our projects, this is more than just a fitout in a building. It’s a project that influences the way people live within our city and contributes positively to that. It becomes a destination.”

Photography by David Chatfield.

Related: View all the winners of IDEA 2025.