Meet and Greet

MEET AND GREET

A misjudged revamp just three years ago had left the ‘MEET’ food court in Stockholm’s Kista Galleria as a rather unwelcoming, bland, hangarlike space. But the fact the fixtures were so new, and of high quality, meant the subsequent refurbishment was able to be achieved without throwing away a single light

By Beata Denton

Kista Galleria is a shopping mall located in the Kista Science City in Stockholm in Sweden, home to a wide array of IT and high-tech companies. It has 185 stores plus a multiplex, bowling alley, karting track, restaurant and, most importantly for the purposes of this article, a central food court.

The ‘MEET’ food court dining area is located in the centre of the mall, with food stalls located on either side of the central seating and passage area.

The idea of it, much like many shopping mall food courts in the UK, is to be a destination for shoppers to come to break, regroup, chat and then, ideally, head back to the shops.

The Kista Galleria is also popular with families and, in fact, the MEET food court even has a reputation as a place to spend time and eat out of an evening.

The new, much more welcoming, lighting scheme at the MEET food court in the Kista Galleria, Stockholm

‘MOTORWAY’ FEEL

However, a previous refurbishment had left the food court as a cold, grey space that was not at all welcoming. Homogeneous, harsh uplighting left diners feeling exposed; a single linear LED ran right across the ceiling space, making it feel more like a motorway – a space you passed through – rather than somewhere you might want to stop, socialise or rest.

The ceiling is made up of chevron-shaped white metal panels, again quite harsh to eye. Then an array of different-length downlight profiles meant all the light on to the diners came from above.

This created a flat, very even, uniform ambience, one without any contrast or place-making; a space lacking in intimacy and definitely not the sort of living room-feel the centre’s owners had been aiming for. In fact, all in all, it was pretty grim.

Therefore, at the beginning of 2019 they came to us at Reform to see how we might be able to help refresh and transform the space. Initially, they approached our interiors studio, as they thought it was an interiors project, with the furnishings and interior design needing to be rethought. At that time, the interiors team was super busy, and so they came back saying they didn’t have the capacity to take on it on, especially as it was going to be a competitive tendering process for the work.

At that point, however, I took a look at it and realised that, rather than being an interiors project, it was really much more simply a lighting project. I could see that, if they wanted to change the atmosphere, while, yes, the furniture could do with being changed, the most important part was simply rethinking the lighting.

So I said I would give it a go. We put together a team – me and my co-lighting designer Maria and one of the architects from the interiors team. We went to meet the client and had a briefing on what they wanted.

It was clear they wanted warmth, a homely atmosphere, in essence for it to feel like a living room, somewhere people would want to stay and sit for longer. They wanted it to feel cosy and protected, somewhere you would actively choose to go to with friends or hang out as well as a shopping destination.

At that meeting it also became clear that a) the project was not going to have a super big budget and b) how new all the fittings and furniture actually were. What’s more, once we had got a full list of the fittings, we realised they were actually very good; there was good light quality from them. It was just the way they were being used that was wrong for the space. We did a concept and were successful in winning the project.

REUSING FIXTURES AND FITTINGS

That realisation on the fittings immediately got us excited because it meant we potentially had an opportunity to overhaul the space –but without losing or throwing out a single light.

We originally assumed we’d want to change the general colour temperature from 3000K to 2700K. But, questioning our own assumption – and focusing again on the idea of reuse – we decided that the existing 3000K could in fact work, with the light being reflected off the new warm materials and greenery.

So, that was how we approached the project. We designed a new layout for the space, seating arrangements, and the better grouping of sofas into groups. We proposed to use materials that could create a warmer feel, so adding oak, hardy textiles, and some greenery. The seating had been based around benches, so we looked at how we could take things back so that people were more in groups, more intimate in the space.

When it came to the lighting, the limitations of the budget meant that, since the fittings were good, we had to think creatively about how, simply, the lighting could be better used, controlled or positioned.

For example, while we didn’t like the ceiling panels, there was no way we would be able to replace them. The solution was to make them less visible. Initially we decided to demount the LED strip uplights and use them in our designs for room dividers and fitted in furniture. They would have worked perfectly for that purpose, so we were really happy about that smart reuse.

Unfortunately, however, it proved too costly to demount them. There were complications with the sprinkler system that meant it was going to be too difficult to get above the ceiling to take them down.

So, was there an alternative ‘reuse’ solution? We had a programmer who was testing everything and so we asked what if we leave them and we just dimmed them down to 5% to 10%? And that worked really well, definitely better than completely getting rid of them. It now really adds something to the space; there’s now just a tiny hint of uplight but it enables you to forget – or overlook – the white, cold metal of the ceiling.

With the downlight profiles, there were some 30 different-length profiles. We made a list of every one of them, how long each was and where the downlight was positioned in it, in order to be able to reuse it. We had the builders mark every one of them with a number in order to put them back in a new way that would suit the new layout.

They were then all taken down and refitted, so they ran straight across the space and underneath the ceiling panels instead as fitted into the chevron pattern. We positioned the profiles in order to make the downlights mark tables, passages and the tray-collecting stands – only where needed, not as a general light.

We didn’t want all the light to be coming from above; we wanted to create more of a sense of intimacy in the space. So, we added 25 narrow-beam cylindrical pendants, with high recessed lightsources and no glare, meaning the light is much more directional, landing where it’s wanted on the tables. We also added low in-furniture lighting, including new (unfortunately, given how much we simply wanted to reuse) LED strips and decorative LED sticks. With the long ‘motorway’ ceiling linear light, because it was so bright and glary, we made the decision the best thing was to leave it where it was but just turn it off. It’s now used just for cleaning and maintenance, almost as a task light.

The cold and hangar-like space before, compared to the space once the new scheme was complete, below

EDUCATING THE CLIENT

The lesson or learning point for us was the satisfaction we felt in achieving this revamp with existing fixtures. The client was only too happy with this solution, since it saved them money, and it usually comes down to that in the end. They actually felt really bad having to

throw out their recent scheme, but when they launched the revamp project they saw no option.

We didn’t set out to do a reuse project. But we just felt it was so incredibly wrong to throw out such good lighting. And when we started to look into it and we realised we could reuse so many elements, we got really excited about the project.

Within this, it is important to recognise that there can be an important educational process for the client. For this project, the client had simply assumed it would need to be a case of new furniture and layout and possibly nice-looking designer pendants. They hadn’t even set out thinking it was going to be a lighting scheme anyway.

To their credit, they were incredibly quick to take in what we said and go with it, that it was how the light was being used and placed in the space, rather than necessarily the fixtures themselves, that was going to make the whole difference in the atmosphere.

And the result? It has all worked brilliantly, I am pleased to say. I’m super proud of the fact we managed to reuse light fittings and totally change the indoor environment at the same time. In fact, even the furniture that we replaced hasn’t been thrown out but repurposed and used elsewhere within the centre.

The client is very happy and all the food stall owners around the space, they just love it. It is now much more of an inviting, welcoming space and people sit there all time of day; it is very busy in the evening now too.

Beata Denton is lead lighting designer at Reform architectural practice in Stockholm, Sweden

PROJECT CREDITS

Client: Citycon AB

Lighting design: Reform (with the team comprising Beata Denton, Maria Vrekou, and interior design Mathilda Clahr)