The inside of this subterranean speakeasy in downtown Hong Kong was designed by native studio NCDA to echo underground water reservoirs, with lighting by LightOrigin Studio to stress its “ethereal atmosphere”.
Artifact Bar is located within the basement of BaseHall 02, a meals courtroom within the metropolis’s Central district. Nelson Chow’s studio NCDA was chargeable for the inside, whereas LightOrigin Studio took cost of the lighting.
The mission, which is shortlisted for architectural lighting design of the 12 months on the 2024 Dezeen Awards, references the arches and vaults of subterranean cisterns, in addition to sci-fi spaceships and brutalist structure.
The inside is designed to benefit from a basement house with a restricted ceiling top and no pure illumination. One of many key options is a glowing disc above the bar meant to evoke a man-made sundown.
“The ideology of the paradoxical presence of daylight in an underground house, juxtaposed with the dimly lit environment, imparts a way of surrealism,” recommended LightOrigin Studio.
“By fusing architectural mastery and innovative lighting design, the bar affords a rare and ethereal expertise.”
Company enter Artifact Bar by means of a hidden door tucked away inside the meals courtroom. Round home windows resembling industrial pipes present glimpses of a digital delicate paintings, which units the scene for the remainder of the inside.
A passageway main in the direction of the bar options dim and subdued lighting that evokes “a clandestine deserted industrial panorama”, based on LightOrigin Studio.
Bespoke rotating lights resembling surveillance cameras add one other futuristic element to the hall, which is lined with three-dimensional acoustic tiles that lend a hand to filter out noise from the meals corridor.
In the primary bar, NCDA used fibreglass to create natural shapes together with curved arches and sculptural rib-like parts, meant to recall the development of subterranean cisterns.
A mirrored wall and ceiling create the phantasm of a a lot bigger house, accentuated by the repetition of the horizontal fibreglass beams and strategically positioned lights that present tender, oblique illumination.
“Impressed by inside design’s theme of rhythmic patterns of underground cisterns, our lighting inspiration is drawn from the cisterns’ tranquil but theatrical lighting environment and ethereal atmosphere,” LightOrigin Studio mentioned.
The arches curve down from the ceiling to envelop the seating cubicles, every that includes a desk delicate with a shade that directs delicate downwards to reinforce the intimate really feel, whereas tender linear lighting beneath the seats creates a dramatic runway impact.
Many of the lighting had been included into architectural parts or joinery as a result of restricted house obtainable above the false ceiling.
A round skylight above the serving space gives a charming centrepiece that’s fastidiously programmed to offer the mandatory brightness with out discomforting prospects.
The oblique lighting additionally highlights the assorted textured surfaces and contributes to a relaxed, snug environment in the primary bar and a personal room.
Different initiatives which were shortlisted within the architectural lighting class of the 2024 Dezeen Awards embody a Korean fried hen restaurant in Recent York Metropolis that includes illuminated arches with rippled glass surfaces that resemble effervescent oil in a deep-fat fryer.
