How a Maze of Art Deco Flats Became Brisbane's Most Intimate Restaurant

Jar Office has transformed a heritage-listed Art Deco building into Marlowe, an intimate, multi-room Brisbane bistro that masterfully balances '90s culinary nostalgia with a striking, light-touch functionalist design

In South Brisbane's historic Fish Lane, Marlowe occupies a heritage 1930s Art Deco apartment building. Rather than gut the structure to create a cavernous dining hall, Jar Office embraced the rigid constraints of the original floorplan, distributing the restaurant across multiple separate rooms. As architect Jared Webb explains, the primary challenge was logistical: ‘How can we get a restaurant to work across fourteen individual rooms in a heavily protected heritage apartment building that has no pre-existing services or infrastructure to facilitate a venue of this size?’

The result is what Webb describes as ‘a series of little experiences’. This compartmentalised layout transforms former private quarters into a public architectural journey, steering clear of expected hospitality tropes. To preserve the delicate horsehair ceilings, Jar Office engineered custom stainless steel lighting fixtures that mount to chrome poles rather than the ceiling itself. These industrial elements, featuring exposed cables and splashes of red, sit as refined objects within the heritage envelope, directing focus squarely onto the tables.

The material palette anchors the project in its historical context while avoiding colonial pastiche. Natural Marmoleum flooring runs throughout, which Webb notes ‘kind of hints at the era when the building was made’. This jute-based material, cut to a tile format, provides a robust yet soft acoustic layer that references mid-century linoleum. This is contrasted by sky blue, buttercream and deep crimson tones inspired by Le Corbusier’s 1931 architectural polychromy. Polished granite waiter stations introduce a sharp contrast, while layered custom curtains by textile artist George Park offer a subtle reference to vintage doilies.

The interior architecture serves as a precise backdrop for the menu’s distinct nostalgia. Webb describes the culinary offering as ‘re-imagined nostalgic classics from the nineties and the early 2000s, from that kind of duck-pies-and-pavlova power lunch era.’ Because the restaurant is fragmented, diners experience entirely different atmospheres depending on their seating — from blue sunrooms featuring half-arch tables, chrome floor lights and views of the street trees, to a striking red upstairs room anchored by grey ceilings. Larger groups can occupy long communal tables that span two smaller adjoining rooms. This varied sequencing keeps the venue fresh on repeat visits. Even the building's original air-raid bomb shelter has been integrated into the sprawling footprint.

‘I think the success of the project really is about the dual casualness and refinement of the food,’ Webb says. ‘And then you're sitting inside a perfectly curated room with Marmoleum floors, horsehair ceilings and custom stainless steel ice buckets, with a fantastic playlist of INXS and Phil Collins.’ By giving the ‘grand old dame’ a fresh coat of lipstick, Jar Office proves that adaptive reuse can breathe profound new life into historic spaces without erasing their history.

Text by Katherine Ring
Images by Jessie Prince