Gimme the Moonlight

By Ray Molony

Lighting designers Vera Chu and Chia Huang Liao have harnessed the mysterious properties of moonlight to create a restrained and calming scheme at a spa in Shanghai.

The client’s design brief for the Green Massage upmarket spa in Shanghai was that it be a gentle and calming space with a sense of mystery.

The facility aims at providing soothing professional healthcare for busy urbanites in a private and elegant environment. Its unique selling point is that it integrates modern scientific techniques on the basis of the theory of traditional Chinese medicine. The interior is designed to reflect this dual mission and also articulate the high concept of the moon as a stilling and mysterious constant in our lives.

The Vermilion Zhou Design Group was tasked with using this lunar vision to create a customer journey through the many rooms which would emphasise the healing values of the spaces.

The grey tones and textures are intended to echo the surface of the moon, quietly diluting the restlessness of customers. There are no sharp angles and space is shaped by curves and lines of light. The ceiling is gently light-reflecting, like the moon reflecting sunlight, and here it has become a soft filter, which removes and softens disturbances from outside.

The moon can be seen everywhere inside the space. An installation artwork ‘Moon Light’ created by the artist Yang Yong Liang is the poetic highlight in the space.

It comprises a 200 × 200 cm LED light box with acrylic painted on light film and a 500cm × 1000cm dark-coloured water pool to reflect the image. Yang Yong Liang says that the work ‘touches the audience’s romantic imagination conjuring the ancient folk belief that the moon was an illuminating disk.’

The ball light and wall light also keep the lunar theme and guide the people step by step into their healing journey through the experience.

Lighting designers Vera Chu and Chia Huang Liao played a key role in bringing the properties of moonlight inside the spa to create a restrained and calming atmosphere.

The duo used cool white linear LED tape to gently graze the ceiling’s surface and then punctuated the space with suspended IC S1 pendants by Michael Anastassiades for Flos, which also has a planetary quality. ■

PROJECT CREDITS

Project: Green Massage, Shanghai

Client: Green SPA Management & Consultancy

Lighting Design: Vera Chu, Chia Huang Liao

Creative Design: Vermilion Zhou Design Group

Creative Director: Kuang Ming (Ray) Chou

Interior Design: Garvin Hung

Furniture Fixtures and Equipment Design: Mavis Huang

Photographer: Yunpu Cai Artwork

Artist: Yang Yong Liang

Fixtures: Flos

Photographer: Yunpu Cai