Project brief: Introduce natural skylight in windowless restaurant and event venue, with easy control options
Inspired by the traditional Grill Rooms, originally found in London and New York, serving old-world American grill fare is The Colony Grill Room situated in the Beaumont Hotel occupying a 1926 Grade II listed building in Mayfair.
Due to the lack of natural light in the restaurant, the lighting designers, Ideaworks, requested LED lighting that could reflect the feel of natural light whilst enhancing the experience and wellbeing of all guests, as well as having the ability to be easily adjusted by the hotel staff.
As a solution it has been suggested to install a dimmable LED panel which can be controlled by an iPad application, to replicate the varying colour temperatures and intensity of daylight as the day progresses – from breakfast to late night drinks. The light setting can both be set automatically to follow the sun’s natural cycle or manually adjusted.
During normal operation, the system is set to transition both its intensity and colour temperature across the day, moving from cool, energising light over breakfast and lunch, into warmer, more relaxing light as the day moves through the afternoon and into evening service. In addition, restaurant staff are also able to select predefined scenes for special events and adjust these scenes at will. It is between these scenes that the skylight transitions over the day, so there really is true flexibility of control. Finally, when required, the staff are also able to adjust the colour temperature and intensity of the installation ‘on the fly’ with intuitive wheels and sliders.
For the installation, a total of 114 LED panels have been mounted over diffused glass to create a wide skylight to illuminate the venue.
The innovative aspect of this case is the manner the users of the space are empowered to use the installation, whether this be in an automated fashion, following the natural cycle of the sun, or manually for unique events and requirements.