In designing Chef Jake Kellie's restaurant Arkhé in Adelaide, Studio Gram drew inspiration from the textures found in nature to design a journey through the two-storey Victorian building. Jake Kellie found Studio Gram when he was first considering opening a restaurant in Adelaide. His concept of open fire cooking really resonated with the studio, whose aim was to create something the city had never seen before, and they loved trying out new concepts and ideas.

That's how Arkhé Restaurant was born. The restaurant is housed in a two-storey Victorian building in the lively suburb of Norwood. There is a significant height change of 40cm from the entrance to the backyard, the spaces are connected by a kind of slender corridor. This layout gave Studio-Gram the opportunity to create three seating areas to offer different experiences. The emotional lounge is the first area diners find when entering Arkhé. Then a challenge for the designers was how to deal with the intermediate space between the first lounge and the back dining room.

This part of the building is dark, cramped and less than ideal, so Studio Gram took the opportunity to create a chef's table, which means entering the restaurant. The chef's table is an intimate space with curtains and art installations on one side, and a shelf on the other that displays Kellie's personal collection of ceramic jars for home fermentation.

The open kitchen, visible from the dining room, features wood joinery rather than the more typical stainless steel. Martin notes that it exudes a sense of warmth similar to a home kitchen. A bespoke 4m long series of handcrafted hollow porcelain vessels hangs from the large central communal table, capturing the ethereal nature of the ashes and enhancing the sense of warmth. The culinary and visual journey culminates in the courtyard, where diners can enjoy the sun or the fire, depending on the season.

The project relies heavily on colour found in natural materials such as wood, stone and lime plaster. Arkhé’s warm white and smoky black spaces respect the inherent imperfections of natural tones and textures, maintaining the authenticity of the chosen objects, creating a timeless feel as if they were always there. This is a bar and restaurant that, through the ephemeral nature of time and decay, responds to the ritual of cooking with fire and acknowledges the good in everyday life.