Design brief; to revive the hotel & restaurant of the Iconic Free Trade Hall, creating a new ‘go to’ venue in the heart of Manchester. Areas offering relaxed luxury in a sophisticated yet unassuming setting, with the aim of embracing the art of shared dining.
Within the main restaurant to create individual seating areas that could then also work seamlessly together; Kikyu Bar, main dining area, semi-private dining & colonnade. The lighting needed a degree of flexibility to suit the varying use and time of day.
Design Challenges; creating a changing dynamic within the space; providing a bright and energising breakfast environment, over the day changing to a warmer intimate evening setting. 5 meter high ceilings are not ideal for an intimate dining scene, lighting to tables posed challenging without littering the ceiling with downlighters.
Careful consideration of lighting integrated on the listed façade within the colonnade, seamlessly linking with the interior areas.
Design results; over the dining area three custom rings were carefully dimensioned to allow pendants to fall centred over each table, providing an ideal location for infill and accent spotlights. This creates a central feature, the low hanging pendants help bring the focus down within the space, together draw attention in from outside. Careful balance of the decorative and architectural. Pre-set lighting scenes are used to suit changing use of space.
Collaboration with Tala and Foundry to creating custom pendant to fill the void within the Atrium, helping to connect the old building with the newer block.
To see more amazing entries from this year’s WIN Awards please click here.