Published on: October 19, 2009

Another creation from Maurizio Rossi Lighting Design (MRLD). This restaurant in Rome is due to open in 2010. The interior design is the work of L. Bellini Associates Rome, Italy.

More detailed description of the project by MRLD follows:

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BACKGROUND

In 2003, an elegant and sophisticated restaurant, opened in the centre of Renaissance Rome, near the 12th century Castel St.Angelo, and was soon honored with one star by the prestigious Michelin guide. Because of the very limited size of this restaurant, along with it’s growing success, almost every day a number of potential clients had to be turned away.

For  this unexpected, though welcome, reason, the owners decide to create a larger restaurant and to include a garden area for outdoor dining,  while maintaining  the same staff and chef as well as the original name. The ideal location was found in  a park which included the ancient Roman  ruins of  both the Maecenas Villa (dating from the 1st century B.C): and the Trajan Baths (1st century  A.D.) and which was, at the time, occupied by an old and dilapidated pub and tennis club.  The new restaurant in this location would have these splendid ruins as a backdrop.

PROJECT APPROACH

To take advantage of the Roman climate, where one can eat and socialize “al fresco” for many months of the year, and of the garden area, overlooking this remnant of ancient Rome, the aim was to meld the architecture of the restaurant and the surrounding outdoor garden area into one same and yet different  ambiance.

The décor and the lighting of the original restaurant because of its location, situated  in  Renaissance Rome,  were severe and understated creating a mood that was described as both restrained and sophisticated. Taking off from this style approach and wanting to maintain a certain continuity,  it was decided not to make the atmosphere overly decorative. The imposing greenery of the outdoor area combined with the architectural statement of centuries past  were, in themselves, enough reason for attention and admiration.  So as to avoid creating competition with these natural attractions the approach chosen was one of subdued elegance using soft colours and rather neutral shapes.

RESTAURANT INTERIOR

The two focal points of the interior are the long  glass wall looking out onto the garden and archaeological ruins and the small greenhouse in the centre of the interior. This greenhouse, together with the view of the outdoor garden, gives the impression of being totally surrounded by greenery. The architectural lighting, which has been described  as “Zen”, was originally thought of in a traditional way using individual lighting fixtures with AR111 100W. 12V. flood or spot bulb as needed. After having calculated the number of fixtures necessary to create  an adequate warm toned and soft  illumination which  would delicately emphasize all of the tables and the decorative objects, we realized that the ceiling appeared strangely and alarmingly riddled with holes.

At this point we decided to drastically diminish the number of holes in the ceiling, grouping the bulbs, originally calculated as necessary, into square or rectangular lighting fixtures of four  or two individually adjustable AR111 100W. 12V. flood or spot bulbs. Each lighting fixture was installed at least 3 meters from each other. In this way we were able to have the same luminous effect but with many less holes in the ceiling (about 40% less than originally calculated) The plants in the greenhouse were highlighted by cool lighting  K=4000°  fixtures sunk into the ground and completely invisible. Particular care was given to the lighting of the decorative wine display, which we had designed using a very light chrome structure to support the bottles and a chromed channel in which a totally invisible  led strip was placed.

RESTAURANT GARDEN

The lighting of the garden would be limited to subtly lighting the small decorative fountains and only the plants which were chosen for their relationship to the architecture. The aim was to make them “exist” but never draw attention to themselves. Large spheres of climbing plants grown over a metal structure would be lighted from inside the structure and so the leaves would be seen in silhouette.

The lighting on the tables would be delicately diffused using a single “uplight” fixture with a warm K=2700° incandescent bulb and take advantage of being reflected off of the fabric of large sun umbrellas. As for the landscape itself all illumination was concealed so that no fixtures, no bulbs and, most of all, no decorative lighting fixtures were to be seen. In order to highlight the green tones, the plants would be lit using  cold K=4000° lighting. In short an attempt was made not to light the garden but to have it perceived as naturally as possible. and not  to over-impose it on the archaeological ruins in the background. The lighting could be thus seen as lighting by subtraction rather than by addition.

DIMMERS

The dimming system for the interior is of the  three pre-programmed scenes type, with the option of varying the intensity of the lighting according to seasonal variations in the amount of daylight.

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Note of the editor:

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