‘Born in 1963, reborn in 2022’. Based in the north of Manchester’s city centre, New Century Kitchen is a part of New Century Hall: a culturally rich venue of music, events, food and drink. The revival of this iconic venue bridges the past and present with simple volumes and a restrained palette centred on mid-century modern style; a collaboration of design between Sheila Bird and Artin Light.
Stripping back and revealing the history, the lighting approach was responsive to the existing architecture highlighting textures, forms and details. A rhythm of columns line the interior in their raw form with wall mounted up and down lights exposing the rough surfaces and remnants of tiles. Exposed ceilings are also uplit, uncovering waffle structures and bouncing off the metallic quality of the suspended services. Lighting has been key to drawing focus to these elements and the story of the building; no part of the visual narrative has been hidden.
Framed by a concrete courtyard, the view through the glass façade is a landscape of concrete architecture and mid-century furniture bathed in coloured light. Balancing warm and cool, soft and punchy, in the early evening the warmth of the white light in the lounge bar melts across into deep hues of azure blue and violet purple toward the stage, somewhat like a lava lamp. This rich landscape has the ability to adapt to the time of day or event within, through the power of DMX colour change, transporting the interior from cosy 70s pop culture nostalgia to an underground club in Berlin.
Wandering through the entrance and looking up, you can see discs within the waffle slab adorned with metallic lamps giving a contemporary nod to miniature disco balls. To the left, booths are centred around oversized bespoke retro pendants and wrapped with warm LED strips that bring out the richness of the wooden panels behind. Straight ahead, the 360o bar takes centre stage; a soft white glow highlights its perimeter washing over the tiles and subtly picking up the edges of the glassware drawing you in. Throughout the interior, track and spot has been utilised to pin spot tables and create intimate spaces within the open-plan scheme. Creating intimate areas has further been explored through decorative lighting; a lampshade hangs over a single velvet armchair in one corner, whilst a table lamp sits between four in another.
