Top restaurateur Chris Lucas and his wife Sarah wanted a Parisienne-style feel in their new four-level Melbourne dining house Maison Batard.

The pair gave Mills Gorman Architects and interior designers Mitchell & Eades a functional brief – make three different restaurants and a nightclub in the basement of a building in Bourke Street using design cues from the Lucas’ trips to Paris.

A steel-clad top level encloses the more informal terrace.Credit: Mitchell & Eades

“These cues came from a variety of places, from high-end hotels to boutiques, including boutiques such as Balmain and Chanel,” says architect and interior designer, Hayley Mitchell, co-director of Mitchell & Eades, who spent her earlier career based in London and regularly travelled to Paris.

“It wasn’t about just reproducing a Parisienne experience, but importantly, creating a certain ambience that would connect to patrons here,” adds Mitchell, who worked closely with interior designer Stef Marsh, an associate of the practice.

On some of Maison Batard’s walls are reproductions of French........

© The Sydney Morning Herald