Published on: July 18, 2012

We received some photos of Into Lighting’s latest project at Quilon restaurant in London.

The lighting in the project is mainly concealed from the view and plays an important part in the overall feel of the space.

More info below:

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The design brief

To provide a theatrical, energy efficient and low maintenance lighting scheme for this Michelin star restaurant comprising restaurant, bar and private dining for chef Sriram Aylur and the Tata Group.

The restaurant shell restricted the ceiling height so the client wanted us to ensure the restaurant felt light and airy during the day and intimate and theatrical in the evening.

The lighting should display the vibrate colours and the textures of the food.

Feature lighting was to be kept to a few key pieces and should be unique and bespoke.

The client wanted an eye catching lighting feature in the window area of the bar and restaurant which would attract the attention of passers by.

The way in which the scheme was produced.

The extensive use of concealed lighting details running horizontally and vertically creates the light and airy feel for daytime dining and the illusion of a higher ceiling and a larger space.

To meet the low maintenance and energy efficiency brief over 500m of LED linear lighting was used within these details and provides the main source of ambient lighting.

The only halogen lighting is low glare spotlights to each table top, selected for its high colour rendering properties to show off the spectacular colours in the food. This also created the post dusk theatrical lighting of the food as pieces of art.

For the bespoke feature lighting we created laser cut metal shades from a scan of the original Jali screens imported from India and used these shades to make unique wall lights, bar top lights and pendants.

For the eye catching window feature we created bespoke screens of electric led tea lights wired together. The tea lights simulate a real flame effect and replicate the kind of candle screens seen in India.

The success of the solution

The extensive concealed led light details create the light and airy feel to the space that the client was so concerned about not being able to achieve with such a low ceiling. This dims into the evening letting the table specific spotlights display the food in all its theatrical glory.

In addition to a full restaurant in the evening the restaurant is very busy at lunchtimes even in the summer months when Indian food and restaurants may not be a typical choice. The client has credited this to the lighting design creating the right environment.