Light Years Asian Diner is an exploration in tonality, texture and threshold: honest materiality and playful gradients were central in capturing the famed local personality of restaurant, cuisine, cocktail and wait-staff. Studio Plenty teamed up with Sarah Ellison to achieve this bold concept; an elevated departure from the restaurants humble beginnings.

Studio Plenty was approached by the Light Years team to design an expansion and renovation of their original restaurant in Byron Bay - a fun fit-out that had served them in their humble formative years. The ensuing project brief was to capture the famed playful personality of Light Years, to refine and elevate the brand to a new plane. The brands sister venues all exhibited common thematics, but it would be the Byron location that would be the jewel in the crown.

In what appears to be an overtly playful scene, undertones of sensibility are threaded through a series of dining and interstitial spaces; tonal and textural gradients, material thresholds and quaint openings give each space a distinct spatial identity. The dining experience is defined by the character of each localised composition but ultimately observed as a holistic theme, harmonised as a complete continuum. It was in collaboration with Sarah Ellison that the theme was complimented as a furniture concept, her mastery of tactility, simplicity and rational design were immense in achieving a successful outcome.