2 minute read
Heritage Listing Revived
from Architectural SSL - September 2021
by Buildings & Construction Group
ABOVE: Tabletop lamps from Enigma Lighting and discrete LED details on the bar tops give a soft wash of lighting all around. Under bar lighting from small narrow beam fittings accentuate the bar.
RESTAURANT: HARRODS DINING HALL
The Jewel in the Crown
“This is the third phase of Harrods’ two-year overhaul of the store’s four historic Food Halls, and without doubt, it is the jewel in the crown of the whole enterprise,” says Simon Rawlings, creative director of David Collins Studio, the interior designers for the transformation that turned Harrods Meat & Fish Hall into Harrods Dining Hall in London.
This grand, tiled space with its handsome columns, arches and extraordinary central coffer made critical waves when first unveiled in 1903. While the existing tiled floor, walls and ceiling were retained, turning the space into a modern dining hall for 200 diners was a major undertaking for the studio, assisted by heritage specialists. Lighting consultants Lighting Design International joined the team, led by Graham Rollins.
The main lighting design challenge on the project, according to Rollins, was creating layers of light and warm, inviting intimacy for the diners, in such a large-volume, tiled space. “Due to the heritage listings, we had significant limitations on the types of lighting we could use and introducing new cabling for lighting control. This led to various bespoke fixture designs and the use of Bluetooth to control the lighting,” says Rollins.
The Dining Hall contains six restaurants in one big, buzzing brasserie. “Each bar has its own unique pelmet lighting feature on the front of the soffit, lit from front and rear by concealed, indirect 2500K linear LED,” explains Rollins. “The warm diffused lighting from the bespoke decorative fittings is punctuated by dramatic ultranarrow seven-degree downlights focused on individual dining plates at the bar seating. This high contrast lighting makes the food a main feature, against the backdrop of chefs engaged in culinary theater.” Open kitchens have black ceiling soffits to eliminate light reflection, and brighter, slightly cooler (2700K) high color rendering downlighting to provide contrast against the dining hall.
In addition to the soffit downlighting, manufactured by Lucent Lighting, Rollins’ dramatic lighting design includes tabletop lamps from Enigma Lighting and discrete LED details on the bar tops that give a soft wash of lighting all around the surface. Under bar lighting is provided by small narrow beam fittings that accentuate the bar form. The central ceiling and cartouches are lit by linear LEDs from KKDC Lighting during the day. At night, those lights dim giving prominence to spotlights on the individual cartouches.•
