Vue De Monde

In June 2011, Melbourne’s ‘it’ restaurant, Vue de Monde, relocated to its new location – Level 55 of the iconic Rialto Towers, in place of the former Observation Deck.

A.G. Coombs was appointed Mechanical Engineer & Contractor by project managers Equiset, on behalf of Grollo Australia, and was responsible for the full design and construction of the restaurant’s new air conditioning and ventilation systems.

The new systems were designed from scratch and purpose-built to accommodate both the restaurant’s aesthetic appeal and the existing plant room’s space limitations, sitting just one floor above the diners on Level 56.

A key challenge was the open kitchen with its ventilated ceiling; a fairly new concept in Australia at this time. The ceiling distributes exhaust air and supply air, without obstructing the patrons’ view of the chefs at work. For ease of maintenance, each ceiling tile is demountable for an easy clean in the dishwasher. The open kitchen design also avoids any risk of large quantities of makeup air streaming over the counters and into the cooking areas.

Specific temperature and humidity levels were also critical to design. The spectacular wine cellar features floor-to-ceiling glass that requires a temperature setting of less than 18 degrees Celsius and humidity settings of above 60%, and the dedicated food preparation kitchen in the basement retains low temperature control of below 15 degrees Celsius.

Installation works also proved challenging, with rooftop chillers having to be sized to suit the lifting capacity of the Building Maintenance Unit.