High honour: Cannabis dispensary, luxury bathhouse nominated for design awards
Communal bathing space The Bathhouse opened on Brisbane’s northside last year with an ambitious tagline.
Concealed in the Albion Fine Trades precinct, a once-industrial suburban pocket, it not only promised a relaxing escape from the pace of the city, but “one of the world’s most luxurious wellness experiences”.
Michael Hogg and Greg Lamb, the founders of architectural design practice Hogg & Lamb, were tasked with realising the bathhouse’s luxury fitout.
Communal bathing space The Bathhouse has been nominated for this year’s Australian Interior Design Awards. Credit: The Bathhouse
While there was thought given to the growing market – The Bathhouse arrived on the back of a bathhouse boom across south-east Queensland – maximising the site itself was their priority.
“We tried to build something volumetric from the space,” Lamb explains.
“We let that inform what the materials and lighting would be, and that’s how we built the plan.”
Australian bathhouses borrow from cultures with established communal bathing traditions – Turkish hammams, Japanese onsens and Finnish saunas – and are executed to varying degrees of socialisation, relaxation and recovery.
The Bathhouse leans into European-style, with silver travertine and textured surfaces throughout. These elements are complemented by low lighting, glowing pools and a central fireplace, which create the cave-like atmosphere.
“You know that feeling you get when you’ve left the cinema, and you’re like, ‘oh, it’s nighttime, I forgot’ – that’s the kind of feeling we were trying to create,” Lamb says.
The stonework is the most distinguishing feature, but the tiered, curved-roof steam room is a close second.
“One of the lights cuts the beam horizontally, so when more steam comes in, it kind of curls around, and you see the tendrils, Hogg says.
“Like the fire in the cave, there were a couple of spots we wanted to create something that people could stare at [that would] occupy the mind.”
The Bathhouse was one of 17 Queensland venues recently shortlisted for the 2025 Australian Interior Design Awards. Brisbane nominees include star chef Andrew McConnell’s Supernormal restaurant, the Queensland Holocaust Museum, underground dumpling bar Central, and cannabis dispensary Rays Wellness.
Like The Bathhouse, Rays Wellness in Fortitude Valley opened during a period of growth in its industry.
A report from Pennington Institute last year showed Australians spent a record $400 million on medicinal cannabis in the first half of 2024, with the market expected to grow by about 25 per cent year-on-year.
Preconceptions of what an alternative medicine dispensary might look and feel like are quickly dispelled once inside Rays.
The storefront, located in an ex-furniture factory on Robertson Street, a few doors up from celebrated James Street venue Essa, has the trimmings of a modern retailer with a distinct minimalist feel. Not a hint of the busyness synonymous with traditional pharmacies.
“It’s unique in the sense that it’s a really massive old showroom, with a mezzanine floor and high ceilings,” Callum Lui, the founder of Clui Design, explains.
“We wanted to create a point of difference to make it really comfortable for the whole customer journey from coming in with the script, waiting for the product and then collecting it.”
Clui Design worked closely with Rays Wellness on the fitout. Lui highlights the project’s “premium” touchpoints: an in-built corner lounge, indoor landscaping and an earthy palette.
Contrasting textures – crazy pavers that blend into tiled sections – guide visitors through the store, but also delineate between retail and private compounding spaces.
“The whole comprehensive package works really well,” Lui says.
“What Rays has done is create a destination for focusing on alternative medicine … it’s a more holistic approach, and we wanted to create an environment that is approachable and comfortable to all users.”
Winners of the 2025 Australian Interior Design Awards will be announced on June 6.