Lawson Flats Perth Members Club by Finespun Architecture and Ohlo Studio.

Lawson Flats has had many lives. Originally constructed as an apartment block in the Art Deco style in 1937, it once shared the skyline with some of the tallest buildings in Perth. Then came the 1980s, when the lower three floors were refurbished to make way for the Karrakatta Club, a women’s club that boasted a membership including Australia’s first elected female Parliamentarian. In 2022, the trifecta of floors was reborn yet again, this time as a swish members-only club for discerning, like-minded spirits.

With a well-appointed art gallery, an all-day bar and dining room, a pool room, a sauna, a movement studio, a gym, a karaoke room and a co-working space, it’s a work-play, body-mind sanctum that steps out of the shadows of its predecessors. The architecture and interior design were respectively led by Finespun Architecture and Ohlo Studio.

Gladstone Wellness Members Club, Lisbon by Studio Gameiro.

This wellness club delivers an inspiring space to seek serenity or achieve fitness goals. Encapsulating the beauty of Lisbon, the interior transports visitors into an oasis...

Despite its modern avatar, the club tips its hat to the past by way of reclaimed vintage upholstered furniture and design gems from the 70s and 80s. Not to mention art, which includes a glittering smorgasbord of pieces by a range of emerging and established artists. Particular examples include the striking mural on the original poolroom doors by Melbourne-based Venezuelan artist Nadia Hernandez, and Gian Manik’s layered opuses, which at once hold a mirror to the club’s history and its present-day form. Equally special is the 16-metre artwork in Luis’, the bar-cum-dining room (named after the famous Luis’ restaurant located on the ground floor of the building back in the ‘70s). Created by Stephen Brameld, an artist who resides in the building, and his painting partner Jay Staples, the work contains the welcome note he received when he first moved into the building.

Luis isn’t just attention-worthy for its art and design. Helmed by chef extraordinaire Paul Bentley, the bar and bistro offers a menu of home-style food that is as relaxed as it is refined. “When we were coming up with a concept for the hospitality offering, I immediately had visions of that aunty who moved to Tuscany in the ‘70s and fed you straight from the garden. Her food is homely and nourishing, but it is also sophisticated—there’s something special about it, and that’s what we wanted to tap into,” says creative director and founder, Alessio Fini.

A Life of Ease Without Excess: Dune House in Perth by Ohlo Studio, Simon Pendal & Steven Postmus.

In keeping with true modernist principles, the guiding ethos for this house was better space rather than more space...

Amongst the most significant historic references are three works by artist Gian Manik, each memorialising a different moment in time. One enlivens scenes from the original Karrakatta dining room, another depicts the WA State Ballet Company, while a third reimagines a Kathleen O’Connor painting featured in the Karrakatta Club newsletter. In a similar vein, almost all the furniture, loose lighting and cabinetry is second-hand or custom-made.

Harking to the past yet firmly rooted in the present, Lawson Flats gives equal due to art and design, people and place. “It’s a place of substance—in a city where there’s so much space between one person and the next, we hope to create a density of creative, engaged and inspired people from all corners—and to enjoy all the incredible, often spontaneous, things that come from that,” Alessio finishes.

Tour of Soho House(s) Around the World.

Founded in London in 1995 as a private members’ club for people in the creative industries, Soho House & Co has since...

[Images courtesy of Ohlo Studio. Photography by Trainos Pakioufakis.]