The Moët & Chandon Bar at Harrods is located on the ground floor within the beauty department and covers a footprint of 1345 square feet. It is a luxurious and contemporary space designed by Sybarite Architects, that evokes the emotion and instant gratification of popping a bottle of the finest champagne.
Located on the ground floor, the welcoming view of the champagne bar escapes onto street level on Basil Street inviting people passing to celebrate moments from midday through to evening. For shoppers at Harrods, it’s a time to unwind under the monumental sculptural central chandelier. This feature is composed of thousands of degradé golden metallic discs shimmering overhead, promoting a sense of glamour and drawing one in as they reflect the light and theatre of the waiters or guests at the bar.
The grand Nebuchadnezzar bottle of champagne at the bars centre is dramatically up lit by concealed miniature recessed uplights that feature the bottle while also providing light and life to the ‘fizz’ that erupts in the form of the dramatic ceiling feature. Concealed within a tiny channel, the miniature yet high-power uplights were key to the design to intensify this grand bottle to create a moment of ‘wow’ on entry.
Within the surface of the bar top, and below each champagne bucket is a discreate, welcoming, warm colour temperature halo of light. This lighting effect celebrates each individual bottle, while highlighting the organic-shaped internal bar surface, its contouring and texture reminiscent of the topography of the Epernay wine region. The soft halo of light spills out to illuminate the bar top feature, while providing soft warm light to the guests faces. The 8 red curved kisses holding the lighting and champagne buckets represent the flagship seal on Moët & Chandon’s champagne bottles.
Above the red kisses, concealed by the chandelier sit narrow beam bespoke bronze spotlights that light the inside of the bespoke champagne bowls below, adding drama and focus to the bottles and ice. During design development these long stem adjustable luminaires were specially designed to provide flexibility and focussed lighting, whilst still allowing access for maintenance. The head of luminaire can be removed by special lockable jack plug for maintenance, ensuring that required access to the ceiling level above the chandelier was minimised or totally negated. Using various optics from narrow, medium, and asymmetric beam the lighting effect follows the 360° shape and organic curves of the amazing bar. The concealed spotlights add theatre to the overall lighting effect as bottles are placed in the bucket features and the fittings were specially brass anodised to match the chandelier discs and help to discreetly conceal the fittings within the central chandelier.
Using casambi control and specific luminaire groupings, the lighting shifts throughout the day and allows for some elements of the bar to gentle down whilst others to shine adding intimacy and drama.
