Hot soup, inviting design

For 15 years Melbourne’s Laksa King has been serving its guests piping hot bowls of its famous Laksa soup. This popular southeast Asian noodle soup dish has been perfected by owner Esmond Wong and has continued to attract Melbournite’s through his restaurant’s doors for years.

Seeing patrons line up night after night outside of the original Flemington location, Wong decided to expand into a second location in Glen Waverley and sought out Urbourne Architecture and Crown Shopfitters to create a stylish and warm new interior. To achieve this inviting new look, Tasmanian timber dowels were used in a unique and stylish way throughout.

Innovative use of Tasmanian Oak dowels

The humble timber dowel has been elevated from a purely practical use to a position of innovation and style among interior designers and architects. Round and half-round Tasmanian timber dowels were chosen as the interior wall cladding material for the walls of the new Laksa King restaurant in Glen Waverley.

Urbourne Architecture’s lead architect Yuyu Huang, chose Tasmanian timber dowels to help maintain the style used at the flagship restaurant. The flagship restaurant also used timber, alongside concrete and greenery, to create a minimal but comfortable environment, which keeps the focus on the food.

“The natural tone and materiality of timber suggest softness in the spatial context of the restaurant and is well complimented by a warm ambient lighting strategy. The use of Tasmanian Timber half dowels as wall cladding also proved to be cost efficient for this project,” says Yuyu Huang

The perfect material: dense and resilient

The 40mm round and 40mm half round dowels in Tasmanian Oak were installed by Melbourne’sCrown Shopfitters. The dowels were nailed to backing panels and covered in Feast Watson white lime finish, a water-based finish selected for its rapid drying time and also provided a desired matte finish.

“The oak dowels were strong and easy to work with. Tasmanian Oak is an ideal hardwood for internal lining and decorative designs as it’s dense and resilient and also perfect for restaurants where wear and tear occur daily,” explains Alison Leung, General Manager of Crown Shopfitters.

With Laksa King’s second location open to diners, the new design will allow Wong to keep serving the hungry people of Melbourne in a beautifully designed new space for decades to come.