LIGHTING THE HILTON’S NEW RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE AREA
January 28, 2016
Hilton Adelaide has unveiled its new 180-seat restaurant and lounge area.
For the project, ambience was tasked by Landini Associates with the lighting plan and design. The project enabled ambience to showcase a suite of lighting disciplines, and to explore effective lighting applications across everything from creating the right dining mood at 10am, to which LED Tape makes ice shine the best. But more on the shining ice later…
brief & design
The current space is a well-known feature in Adelaide. When approaching the lighting plan, both Landini‘s vision and the existing design had to be taken into consideration.
The lighting not only had to be flexible in terms of setting the right lighting level for each space – function, clean up, prep lighting for the kitchen, night scene – but it was also essential to highlight and draw attention to the main features within each area. These included wine cage lighting, and the feature lighting in the lounge area and grill station.
“Part of the vision was to breathe life into the current space by creating an environment that naturally invites you to feel comfortable – almost as if you’re in your own domain. Guests must be able to enjoy and embrace it.”
Lin Lam ambience’s Head of Design
Highlighting the essential task areas was mandatory, and this helped to achieve a contrast of light and dark throughout. This light ‘play’ was further dramatised through the essential option of dimming the lighting, creating layers of light within each area, depending on the time of day. This not only manipulates the mood, but also produced ambience’s ethos of ‘creating the world you want’.
application
Main features include the custom wall lights, such as the ‘Uplight‘ in the lobby area (mounted to the balustrade to give a subtle wash over the timer balustrade panel, and to draw up your eyes to the large feature pendant), and the ‘UpDown‘ in the Brasserie area (used to link the lounge and brasserie and to complement the brass finish and the dark plates of the interior design).
To accentuate the stonework, ambience used AS1 LED profile. It was also concealed under bar counter and recessed under crockery, shelving in the Grill station area.
These shelves sit directly over the pass through and plating stations, in which it’s critical for chefs to have sufficient lighting while preparing plates before they’re sent out.
Hand-blown glass Orb pendants by Mark Douglass were used to light the round banquet dining table and the banquet seating. Their decorative qualities create a subtle aesthetic as they appear to float within the space, while never becoming overpowering.
In front of the grill station, Mini Roll track spots highlight the grill area, and draw your eye when within. The use of these high output tracklights was to also command attention from outside the brasserie.
custom feature
For the design of stand-out centrepiece feature, ambience partnered with Copper Industrial Design to realise Landini’s vision for this showcase area. The design needed to incorporate the elements of the existing feature pendant within the lobby lounge. It had to be approached more like a sculpture that forms part of the space. All this had to be achieved while not using any suspensions to support the rod arm that could distract from the feature as a whole.
“It was logistically quite testing, as it had to wrap around and be mounted onto the main middle column within the lounge area. Support was also needed for the long lengths of the rod arms without it bowing in the middle.”
Lin Lam ambience’s Head of Design
Finally, how about making the ice shine? Simple – you put GE 2700K Waterproof LED tape into the ice well. And you also have the bonus of accentuating the brass-coloured sink.
The style and craftsmanship of the project is one that works hand-in-hand with the beauty and passion of South Australian produce and philosophy of the culinary producers at the Hilton.