Noodles XO
Hospitality
Creating a New Restaurant Brand for Canberra Airport
Building the Brand From the Ground Up
Airport Retail Enterprise required a new Asian-fusion restaurant for Canberra Airport. Unlike adapting an established hospitality brand for an airport tenancy, Noodles XO started without an existing identity, customer experience or spatial format. The brief was therefore broader than designing a restaurant. Greater Group needed to establish the concept and create an environment that could give the new brand a clear identity from day one.
As a sit-down restaurant within a terminal, Noodles XO also needed to compete for passengers’ limited dwell time. The offer had to be immediately understandable and inviting enough to turn passing foot traffic into customers willing to stop for a meal, while creating an experience with enough character to stand as a restaurant in its own right.
Build the Brand and Space Together
Greater Group developed the identity and restaurant concept together, allowing the branding, materiality and spatial planning to form one experience from the outset. Rather than designing the tenancy first and applying an identity afterwards, each element was considered as part of establishing the new Noodles XO proposition.
The layout placed emphasis on the visibility of the kitchen and dining experience, helping communicate the offer to passengers moving through the terminal. Greater Group then translated the concept into detailed documentation for delivery, carrying the planning, materials and key design elements through into a clear package for construction.
From New Concept to Award-Winning Venue
Noodles XO opened as a completely new hospitality concept created specifically for Canberra Airport, with its brand and physical environment developed together rather than adapted from an existing restaurant format. The completed venue established a clear proposition within the terminal and gave Airport Retail Enterprise a new restaurant brand built around the airport customer.
The project received Silver at the 2020 Melbourne Design Awards, alongside Greater Group’s City Hill Coffee project within the same terminal. Together, the two projects demonstrate Greater Group’s ability to develop very different airport hospitality formats, from a convenience-led coffee offer to a full sit-down restaurant, each designed around a different part of the passenger experience.
