Café lighting scheme is out of this world

Project: Black Star Pastry

Award: Lighting projects, Silver, 2022

Location: Shanghai, China

Design practice: Studio Illumine

Client: Black Star Pastry

Interiors at Black Star Pastry, a space-themed cafe in downtown Shanghai, use a monochromatic palette, reflective materials and bespoke lighting to evoke the feeling of being in space. The walls of the cafe are lined with futuristic stainless-steel shelving which displays thousands of meteorites. These bespoke lighting shelves feature a concealed LED strip light which highlights the rocks but is precisely calibrated to ensure that the space is not over-illuminated. Each shelf is edge-lit within a sliding system to allow for rear maintenance access of LEDS.
An exhibition-style dining space on the first floor features subdued lighting with spotlight fixtures adjusted to bring out the best of respective art pieces by emerging artists - Olivia Steele, Naoko Ito, Rowan Corkill and Debbie Lawson. The intensity of the spotlights has been carefully considered to ensure they don’t distract from artist Steele's artworks which incorporate blue neon light.

Design highlights

The dark interiors with low ceilings create a stark contrast with daylight during the day. To reduce this contrast, the ceiling soffit is up-lit to create a brighter environment. Light levels are carefully curated to create a sense of mystery in dark areas in the exhibition space, contrasting with the much brighter ground floor which is designed to mimic the interior of a space ship. This play with shadow and light adds to the visual pleasure as visitors appreciate the food, drinks and artwork in the multi-dimensional space.

Photo credit: Jonathan Leijonhufvud