Design Brief
Ling Ling Dubai was designed to be more than a dining experience. Our brief was to help create a signature destination for dining, drinking and dancing. The space, part of the Hakkasan Group, boasts two dining areas, an experience room, bars, lounges, terraces and an ‘ultra lounge’ for late night events and dancing. Our solutions needed to be in keeping with the interiors, colourful, vibrant and be able to change as the space goes from fine dining to late-night dancing. The Interior Designers were using a traditional colour palette (wood, marble, glass) but wanted us to produce moments of electric colours and a contemporary feel.
Design Challenges
Our lighting solutions were ambitious. We needed to meet the tight budget & construction programme, without compromising any of the design concepts. There were many technical challenges with connecting the lift car lighting to the control system. The LED screens that we specified in the dining area had to be high-resolution & dark enough to show detail so as to invigorate the diners, but not disturb them. There were also ventilation issues in the columns that had to be overcome. The preserved tree in the dining area had to be lit evenly without providing glare to the diners. We also used the tree to recess lights to light down to the tables in a discreet manner to produce well-lite tables below, but with the diners being unaware of how it’s done. We had to be mindful of the interior reflections potentially spoiling the Dubai skyline view outside, so the lighting solutions had to take this into consideration, and the lighting control system had to dim down to very low levels for this.
Design Results
We went beyond our normal lighting design remit and provided AV design to meet the brief, including LED screens and colour-changing lighting and animated effects. The lift car lighting changes colour to match whichever floor it arrives at. Water ripple effects wash the grand staircase. The atmosphere of the dining areas can change through the use of animation and colour. The Experience room surrounds the guest in a cage of light, cleverly reflected in the mirrored ceiling. The preserved tree adds another layer of nature and light amongst the strong architecture. All the separate spaces make up an evening full of Instagrammable moments.
