May 2011 - Illuminating Engineering Society

BAR BASQUE/FOODPARC
Photo: Eric Laignel
A reference to Basque culture, the patterned glass wall represents the region’s Bilbao tree. Cool-white LEDs uplight the panel, while red LEDs graze down
from the top. Blue T5s illuminate the glass storage display in the background. The three colors combine to give the appearance of depth.
put the lights where they worked with the
ceiling and what was happening below,
creating a family of fixtures.”
CBBLD maintained the random quality
of Mead’s sketch by varying the size and
shape of the custom luminaires (RSA Lighting),
which are integrated into the formed
fiberglass ceiling. “Some elements are big,
some are small, some are rectangular with
curved edges and some have glowing components
in them,” says Hennes. Fitted with
37-W infrared MR16s, the fixtures seem
arbitrary, but they are actually strategically
positioned. “Wherever people are sitting,
we put some white light on the tables,”
notes Bettridge.
Supplementing the downlights was another
must. “The renderings are really focused
on downlighting, so we had to think
of ways to bring in more glow,” says Hennes.
To stay true to Mead’s concepts, CBBLD
came up with ways to integrate lighting
into the architecture without adding visible
fixtures. One method was to create glowing
walls. Instead of a traditional opaque material,
translucent red resin was used to form the
curved portion of the walls seen in Mead’s
sketches. Long-life T8 fluorescent strips
with red gel sleeves make the wall appear
to glow from within. The panels hinge open
at the bottom so lamps are easily accessible
for maintenance. In between the resin panels
and the wall below, a textured horizontal
reveal is lighted from behind by a continuous
blue LED strip (iLight). The techy-looking
band adds to the “control panel, switchboard”
aesthetic, says Hennes.
Glow was also added to the windows.
Concealed above window walls, warm-white
LED cove grazes the white shades below,
creating ambient glow in the red dining and
lounge area as well as the glass-enclosed
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