For the award-winning commercial lighting design for One Paddington Square, DesignPlusLight designed a bespoke chandelier for the top floor of the building in collaboration with lighting manufacturer Stoane Lighting. The client’s requirements and style influenced the brief, alongside the interior design, the overall palette, the physical restrictions of the space and the working requirements. DesignPlusLight used all this information to fine-tune the design and bring together the chandelier.
Throughout the design process DesignPlusLight carefully balanced the functional requirements of the product and the application area, with the aesthetics, combining each criteria to create something that not only performs well, but also exudes elegance. The design harmonises technicality and creativity to create a unique lighting solution.
The client did not want to limit the panoramic view across London, which is a key feature of the space, and therefore the fitting couldn’t drop too low. The lighting also needed to connect different areas of the space, without overwhelming the design and functionality. The aim was for the bespoke fitting to feel delicate, but not to look too decorative, feeling robust and solid amongst minimal construction and the 360-degree glass frontage. Through an iterative design process, DesignPlusLight managed to meet the brief, as designers who understand the importance of not only aesthetics, but performance and longevity too.
The bespoke metallic chandelier, created with Stoane Lighting, spans the bar and hospitality area. The chandelier consisted of varying lengths of steel tubes, anodised in a metallic gold finish, with a distribution of lit and solid detailed end pieces. DesignPlusLight were exceptionally precise and deliberate with the lengths and proportion of lit to solid end pieces, paring back the lighting effect and using the unlit elements of shadow as a feature. This added a sense of gravitas to the overall design and made the movement of the lit points even more impressive.
The chandelier was intended to evoke the impression of floating clouds or a murmuration. Some rods had lit end points that were programmed to create a collective movement and enhance the undulations. The feature was further modelled with lights positioned internally to express the finish of the rods and provide dappled lighting below.
The team further integrated LED downlights within the base plates to shine down between the cylinders which, together with the coffer lighting, reflected and modelled the metal tubes.
This solidified the chandelier as a showcase feature which doesn’t take away from the architecture or the view, but still acts as a striking statement piece within the space.
As a bespoke lighting design consultancy, DesignPlusLight were ideally placed to unify both the aesthetics and performance of the chandelier, using their innovative blend of design and manufacturing expertise to fulfil the specific needs of the project.
