 Restaurant & Hospitality
Restaurant and hospitality environments are all about mood. Changing the mood with dimming lighting is, in many ways, essential to these environments. For many years, this largely eliminated energy efficient lighting from consideration, but no longer. Technology and miniaturization of more efficient sources, along with better color quality of efficient lamps and easily programmable lighting control systems are now available to those who know where to look. These technologies bring to the restaurant/hospitality market a number of excellent options largely unknown to most interior designers and architects. Light/Space/Design understands how to create a mood with light. Here are a few hints: |
- Consider both the daytime and nighttime settings, and how lighting controls can be used to adjust light scenes. Not only do night settings help convey a more intimate mood, they also save on energy costs.
- Soften the effect of energy efficient light sources by using them “invisibly” in built in coves, light shelves and indirect pendants.
- Use compact fluorescent lighting in downlights, with dimming where essential. Utilize higher quality fixtures when possible to avoid lamp (light bulb) visibility, and improve light quality.
- Combine light sources effectively, using incandescent sources for clarity and sparkle, and more efficient sources for subtle filling and washing with light.
- Use colored light sources or filters to create elements of excitement and surprise, create an unusual mood, or simulate the evening sky.
- Use special light sources such as LED’s or fiber optics to create special lighting effects in the floors or star patterns on the ceiling. The possibilities with these potentially efficient sources are endless.
- Custom designed fixtures can be designed to create very special environments, with less difficulty than you may think. Customizing fixtures can also be an excellent way of reducing energy and maintenance costs, while providing a style of fixture that completes a custom hospitality setting.
- Beautiful, soft exterior façade and landscape lighting helps make a customer visit into a special and unique experience.