The Vezene restaurant stands behind the Hilton and is surrounded by an urban landscape, which was the source of inspiration for both the décor and the lighting. According to the owner’s brief, the interior is made of raw materials (sheet metal, leather and wood) that create rough textures and exposed joints. Vezene captures the pulse of the city and presents it in its luxurious form. Within this casual luxury, the customer’s transition from the outside to the inside happens “silently”.
The lighting follows the same approach, carrying the atmosphere of the urban night scene into the interior. The sensation a pedestrian experiences at night, moving from total darkness into the abundant light of orange sodium lamps, became the central idea, realised through architectural lighting and decorative lighting designed exclusively for the restaurant. No lighting element intrudes visually or obstructs the visitor’s view to the outside.
The prerequisite for the architectural lighting was complete control of the light, achieved with fully recessed luminaires· narrow beams, dimming, warm tones and adjustable heads characterise the choice.
The light had to be aimed fully at the tables and kept off the rest of the space, with the best possible colour rendering index and as little heat as possible emitted towards the tables. For these reasons, adjustable recessed plasterboard spotlights with narrow-beam dichroic lamps are used. Integrating them into the ceiling was essential, so that every functional element sits within the shell and the necessary emphasis falls on the decorative luminaires.
The decorative lighting consists of two custom-made pieces· the central pendant and the wall lights. Unlike the architectural luminaires, these blend into the restaurant’s surroundings through their iron construction and exposed lamps, following the philosophy of raw materials.
The light they produce is also “decorative”: the spotlights meet the lighting needs while imitating the way the wall light and the neon ceiling fixture would actually illuminate the space if they were not dimmed to the maximum.
The wall lights represent the old public power company (ΔΕΗ) street lamps that can still be seen today on out-of-the-way streets in Athens and in the provinces.
By stylising these fixtures and keeping their basic lines, we created a three-dimensional metal mesh that wraps around a lamp with a distinctive linear filament. The heavily dimmed filament adds an extra orange tone, giving customers the illusion that they are dining beneath street lamps.
The central luminaire derives from the imaginary orange lines running parallel to the road, which show up in photographs. Even though they are not visible to the eye as you walk along a street, these lines are traced by any light source at night, capturing the intensity and directions of the urban landscape.
Made of neon, it gives depth to the space and emphasis to the main part of the restaurant, the kitchen. Starting from the kitchen, the lines end at the restaurant’s glazed façade near the sign. The neon sign, in the same shade of light as the ceiling fixture and painted black on the outside, makes its presence felt through its indirect, reflected light.
The restaurant’s urban mood is sketched in light, creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere, accompanied by distinctive music, and inviting visitors to seek out a new experience, both culinary and visual.
Luminaire Design and Architectural Lighting Study:
Marisa Galani, Rania Maha
Text: Marisa Galani, Rania Maha
Project: Vezene, 11 Vrasida Street, Hilton area, Athens
Date: 2011
Photographs: Rania Maha, Lefteris Pantavos
Source: www.flashlight.gr
