Published on: November 26, 2009

Maurice Brill Lighting Design sent us one of their recently completed projects. MBLD designed with Tihany Design the 6 star hotel One & Only Cape Town for Kerzner International Ltd. It was opened in April 2009.

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This urban resort is on the harbour with spectacular views of Table Mountain. The development of this site included the building of two islands: Spa Island and Villa Island (villa suites, alfresco restaurant and swimming pool).

MBLD was involved in all public areas of the hotel lighting design. This included: two restaurants, lobby bar, retail outlets, ballroom, suites, façades, landscape, villas, islands and spa, among others. All areas included an architectural control system to create lighting scenes and to provide flexibility to these spaces.

This project held a number of challenges. It was particularly difficult to procure suitable luminaires which resulted in many elements being designed by MBLD and manufactured locally. The team involved were not experienced with such large scale project type and required MBLD to have a very hands-on role in the completion of this design.

The hotel includes two high profile restaurants – Gordon Ramsey’s ‘Maze’ and the Nobuyuki Matsuhisa’s ‘Nobu’. MBLD worked with these operators to create the desired dining experience.

The Nobu restaurant ceiling is dominated by an ‘origami’ light feature lit by amber and white LEDs creating a warm and seductive ambience. The concept for the Nobu lighting design was to create a dark, warm atmosphere with pockets of accents and lighting features.

The lighting at the Nobu sushi counter is intensely focussed on this display kitchen allowing the diners to watch the intricate food preparation. By contrast the diners are lit gently giving an intimate dining experience in this exciting space. The Nobu bar lounge is lit indirectly using light box pendants and under lit display tables and the walls are gently grazed with light from behind the banquette seating.

The Lobby bar, situated between the Nobu and Maze, over looks a glass wall to the resort islands and Table Mountain. The central feature of this impressive space is the oval bar, which is back lit by warm white cold cathode and sits beneath a glass sculptural feature lit by LED downlights. In the lobby bar MBLD introduced selective lighting using AR111 downlights and warm white cold cathode to wash the ceiling from the coffers.

The Maze restaurant entrance is through the three story wine tower. This working wine storage display is lit using a flexible MR16 lighting system installed with UV filters to prevent damage to the wine whilst highlighting the bottles displayed.

The Maze restaurant itself is lit by oversized pendants with integral downlights and custom AR111 square bezelled downlights recessed into the wooden structure above the seating area. On the window side walls display cases and book shelves were lit by vertical light boxes. The focus of this restaurant is the bar and oven which are highlighted using AR111 downlights, a line of small pendants and integrated linear lighting details within the back bar display.

Externally our approach was to gently light the landscape and facades, it was important not allow the main building or villas to become dominant within the landscape. Soft touches of selective light playing upon up on the sculptures and textural details of the two islands and surrounding main land landscape. The facade lighting for the villas was addressed sympathetically so as to give sufficient lighting without making those using the exterior spaces overly visible to the surrounding residential buildings. We lit the main building façades by using a combination of LED, linear fluorescent, and ceramic metal halide and just highlighting selected elements and allow enough of structure and shape to be seen.

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