Resolutely natural and elegantly evolving, Hubert Estate is Victoria’s latest highly anticipated destination that redefines the Yarra Region’s hospitality offering, putting architecture and design centre stage. Culminating a vast total floor area of nearly 2,000sqm, the new Hubert Estate boasts a family-style restaurant (Quarters), Indigenous art gallery (Hubert Gallery of Art), event space (Harriett), revamped St Hubert’s cellar door – all designed by Cera Stribley – as well as a boutique wine store (Notes), designed by Landini Associates. 

Regardless of typology, our approach on every project is to deeply integrate our design response with the environmental, social and historical context of the site. In the case of Hubert Estate, we leaned into the rich heritage of St Hubert’s winery – which was one of the first in the Yarra region, established in 1862 – and the fable of Saint Hubertus, Patron Saint of The Hunt, the namesake behind the brand and its renowned ‘The Stag’ wines. We drew inspiration from the concept of ‘the hunt’, which is expressed through materiality that is authentic and resolutely natural. 

Sustainable principles are elegantly embedded throughout the design, manifesting in a variety of building qualities, with the site’s regional location serving as a key motivator behind many of the sustainable design decisions made along the way. The decision to retain and restore the existing shed volumes, which have been repurposed to house Hubert Estate’s new restaurant (Quarters) and function centre (Harriett), set the tone for a development that honours its inherited environment. 

This sentiment was upheld as the project progressed, through the use of locally-sourced materials from environmentally-responsible suppliers such as Eco Timber, Urban Salvage, Earp Bros, and Arranmore Furniture, among others. Much of the timber sourced was recycled, further contributing to the cause of creating a more sustainable built environment. 

The 445sqm floor area of the restaurant, ‘Quarters’, is a divided servery and sectioned, open-plan kitchen/restaurant, mirrored by different counters along the length of the building. A large pizza oven adorns one end, sculptured in copper coloured mosaic penny rounds, while a similar toned bar conceals the service area. Contrasting green subway tiles feature behind with white and green at the front, complemented by a timber-clad bar and servery section. 

Achieving acoustic harmony in the restaurant – which is essentially an open-plan kitchen/restaurant housed in an old shed with a pitched ceiling, exposed fittings and polished concrete floor – was cause for strategic interior design innovation. Customised Autex acoustic panels were applied to one side of the ceiling, colour-matched to align seamlessly with the Intrim VJ Board lining the other side, to achieve an NRC rating of 0.8.