Operating throughout the summer, roofPOP! is a new pop-up bar on the roof of Melbourne’s iconic Curtin House.

Kylie Fitt and Elida De Felice are the architects behind the fit-out, incorporating elements of Alice in Wonderland curiosity in the design, which was made to resemble the inside of a champagne bottle.

Fantasy and fairytale combine in the fun, evocative new space.

“Given some of the tricky existing conditions we were working with, the serpentine shape of the space we had on offer started to suggest a surreal response, and that’s where the fantasy and fairytale conversation started,” explains Kylie Fitt, Director, Fitt de Felice.

“The operators had already determined it would be a champagne bar, so we started to imagine the space as the inside of a champagne bottle, kind of like Jeannie’s bottle, but full of bubbles.

“Given the space has a limited lifespan, we wanted to ensure the design was materially and financially sustainable, quick and easy to build and pull down, and materially recyclable.

“We hope the space achieves a sense of immersion into this little fantasy world, removed from the real world and engaged in this surreal environment where you can lose yourself in the bottle!”

The project brought the designers a particular set of challenges – but with these limitations came a great amount of design freedom.

“We literally designed a champagne bar on a beer budget, so the challenge was to come up with seriously cost effective solutions to achieve our design goals,” says Fitt.

“That’s where the idea of the plastic cups came in. We felt that we would effectively create the sense of bubbles bubbling their way up the walls in a soft frenzy of effervescence by gluing thousands of plastic shot glasses across the curved walls like bubbles rising up through the bottle.”

“Late nights with glue guns and loud music” made the concept possible, says Fitt, “and the promise of French champagne.”

Heavily active in the Melbourne design community through their work and teaching, Fitt and de Felice jumped at the opportunity to create a new social space in the city for people to engage in.

“It’s always good to have a new space you can meet your friends, peers and clients in and have a bit of fun, rather than everything being so super serious all the time,” says Fitt.

It was also a great way for the two to flex their design muscles in a new way.

“Being part of the building industry, we are usually dealing with serious amounts of money and larger projects that take years to complete and hold enormous amounts of risk for many people involved.

“It was really so fantastic to take the business plan of our clients seriously, but dial up the fun factor, speed up the execution, and stretch our brains laterally in order to meet all of our and our clients’ requirements so the good times could flow as fervently as they now are!”

Fitt de Felice Architects
fittdefelice.com