Australian chef Adam Wright-Smith has turned an old mill in Melbourne into a restaurant spread across a set of formerly industrial buildings with a central kitchen at its heart.
Half Acre is designed by the local chef, who took on the industrial plot in the south of the Australian city for the restaurant project.
The site comprises a new brick building with a glass-pitched extension and an adaptively reused one, which together form a sprawling property.

"When you walk through the front door, you don't really know what to expect," Wright-Smith told Dezeen. "It is a destination. It's not particularly close to anything."
"There's a sense of adventure here, so I played on that with the design," he continued.

To enter the restaurant, guests first pass by an open kitchen anchored by a wooden built-in table. The exposed design and the central placement of the kitchen introduce the sense of adventure that unfolds across Half Acre, as guests meander to different spaces on-site.
Wright-Smith transformed the run-down original mill building into a private dining-room, and added the glass-pitched volume next to it.

Arched windows and entry doors on the new brick building add more space. Also on-site is an empty building that previously housed machinery relating to the mill, whilst car repair workshops surround the eatery.

The unusual site posed many challenges as well as inspiration points for Wright-Smith.
Existing Oregon pine ceilings and brick walls...