With the proposal to be more than a store, Zee.Dog Temple seeks to be an unusual space for pets and their owners. With the slogan “connecting dogs and people”, B.CO Arquitetura’s project has four floors, with different spaces and products on display, all aimed at its wide audience. Each floor has a different proposal for lighting and ambiance, providing different sensations to users.
The basement is a space intended mainly for dogs, where they can play freely, as if they were in a semi-open park. The ground floor is a space for pet accessories, which is configured as a dark box, without natural lighting, only artificially lit, designed to emphasize the products displayed there. On the upper floor are the products aimed at the pets owners. With light finishings, it is configured in another ambiance proposal that, like the ground floor, is also artificially lit. On the top floor is the rooftop, completely open.
The lighting design project started with the desire to design light contained in the architectural elements of the building, focusing on the floor lines, shelves and product display. It was also important to design the light at different heights, so that both dogs and humans were contemplated. Thus, lower lights were placed on the baseboard and on handrails.
One of the main challenges was how to standardize the lighting in environments with contrasting finishing (such as the ground and upper floors), so that different sensations could be felt, without causing discomfort when moving from one environment to another. Tests were made with different color temperatures, trying to balance the light intensity. In the end, it was decided to use a cooler temperature on the ground floor and a warmer color temperature on the upper floor.
Another challenge was the facade of Zee.Dog Temple. Made of polycarbonate, the idea was that it would be a prominent element in the landscape, stark white during the day and evenly backlit at night. A series of tests were carried out so that the acrylic alveoli did not interfere with the uniformity of light.
As a great lighting box for the city, the illuminated facade of Zee.Dog Temple invites those who are passing by the street to follow the light lines on the ground, connecting the sidewalk to the store access, and get to know the unusual and immersive space of Zee.Dog Temple.
