Prize(s) Winners in Retails Lighting Design
Company LIGHTORIGIN STUDIO
Lead Designers Eugenia Cheng
Other Designer's names Ivan Zhang, Renee Chow
Client Natural is Best
Photo Credits Steven Ko Photography
Other Credits Interior Design by Metagram HK
Completion Date August 2022
Project Location Hong Kong
Entry DescriptionLocated in The West Kowloon District, renowned food retailer Natural is Best's new flagship store that pays homage to the Chinese Opera and Xiqu Centre with a colourful theatrical interior design.
The design objective was to create a lighting experience with a theatrical approach while maintaining appropriate retail lighting. The collaboration led to a design proposal that positioned lighting as a marriage between soft and spotlighting effects.
In the entrance vestibule, a sea of lanterns creates a soft ambient glow that warmly invites customers between two symbolic moon gates. In the main retail space, narrow spotlights accent the different shopping zones, and rows of delicate red fabric are strewn to symbolise stage curtains. High bay lights in arbitrary positions above these curtains add functional light to the space, appearing like stage spotlights against the black-painted ceiling.
Located mid-shop, suspended translucent perspex sculptures of Chinese Opera characters float above an illuminated platform, creating iridescent layers that draw the attention of shoppers and bystanders. The back of the store features the stunning artwork of Chinese Opera artist King Fa Lui, framed and illuminated in a bold black oculus. Each element is illuminated individually with a specific fixture chosen to create the optimal effect.
Sustainability Approach100% of the architectural lighting fixtures were locally sourced to lower carbon footprints. Illumination levels were calculated using lighting software to ensure compliance with lighting and an energy guide to ensure the retail space was well-lit but not over-lit.
All fixtures are LED and dimmable; with all downlights using COB modules to lower energy and heat usage. Downlights are designed to be user-friendly, allowing for easy replacement of components, thus promoting environmental sustainability by reducing waste but also making it cost-friendly by eliminating the need for complete replacement of the fixture.
Manual dimmers provided flexibility for different lighting usages and prolongation of lamp life. Lighting circuitries were carefully designed to minimise power supply quantities, reducing cost and energy usage.
Company DescriptionLightOrigin Studio is a Hong Kong-based lighting design and consultancy studio. Our design ethos is founded on the principle of balance: an equilibrium between the realisation of a design ideology and its aesthetics and a design function and its practicality. Our objective is to illuminate, elevate and enhance architectural spaces with a balance of light, shadow, colour, brightness, and contrast.
As our studio experience grows, we hope our design matures and evolves to become more human-centric, sustainable, detail-orientated, and energy-efficient. We believe good lighting is for everyone.
