Saint Petersburg’s House of Books – the oldest cultural symbol with 100 years of history behind is situated in a center of the city on Nevsky Prospect. Famous bookshop was opened in 1920’s inside of historical building of Zinger trading company. The house is built in the Art Nouveau style which was highly popular at that time and it has tower with an eagle and a globe became the calling card of the building.
We worked with one of the most beautiful and architecturally filled halls of the Zinger House – The Hall of Arts. At our disposal we had arches, columns and, of course, the famous stained-glass ceiling and frontal window.
Lighting concept formed from our desire to create an atmosphere of an old-fashioned intimate bookshop. At the same time, it was important to showcase the classical architecture and develop functional lighting suitable for reading but without going into the “library reading zone” style.
Maintaining this borderline between intimacy and functionality of the shop and sustaining necessary lighting levels of different elements was the main objective for this project, which the team at Culture of Light successfully accomplished.
Two colour temperatures were used: 3000K greatly interacts with natural materials of the bookshelf, while 4000K highlights the whiteness of architectural elements.
Also, the hall often used to carry out different activities. That is why two lighting scenarios were used. In standard mode, intended for the usual work of the bookshop functional and architectural lights are working at the same time. During public talks functional lighting dims down so the viewer’s attention focuses only on the architecture and a stage with complementary scenic lighting. Casambi system was used for controlling the lighting scenarios.
