The majority of the photography for this project is courtesy of:
Mandarin Oriental / George Apostolidis

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is located within the Mala Strana historic quarter of bohemian Prague. The project consisted of the refurbishment of a disused Baroque style building, which started life as a monastery before ending life as a print works for the local government.

As lighting consultants we worked closely with the Interior Designer and the National Heritage Authority (NPU) to ensure a design which, while sympathetic to the architecture of the building, responded to the needs of the hotel’s guests and operator.

NPU placed stringent requirements on the locations and appearance of luminaires within the historic areas of the hotel, which resulted in the bespoke design of three different luminaires.

Within the restaurant it was only permitted to mount luminaires on the wall, a luminaire was therefore designed that had three individually controllable light sources, providing a low-level wash of light to the floor, an uplight component revealing the structure of the low vaulted ceiling while also providing ambient light to the space and a decorative element for visual interest.

In the Monastery Lounge and Ballroom, the solution was to create a luminaire of stone appearance, concealing three different light sources all individually controllable. Allowing a general ambient illumination to be achieved while revealing the columns and vault with a concealed up and downlight. Luminaires were also concealed in the reconstructed column cornices providing additional uplight to the vaulted ceiling. Within the Ballroom, a number of chandeliers, constructed from local bohemian crystal, were hung from the central point of each vault.

Scene setting of the lighting is utilised to lower energy usage and to set the mood of each individual space appropriate to the time of day or function. One area where the controls were especially important was the bar whose focal point is a backlit glass bottle display. The colour of the lighting has been carefully chosen to suit the mood and time of day, varying from a bright invigorating sky blue in the morning through to a deep saturated red for late night drinking.

Client: Finartis Financial SA
Operator: Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Project Manager: Bovis Lend Lease
Interior Design: Sporer Plus
Concept Interior Design: KCA International
Spa Interior Design: Deckelmann Wellness
Photography: Courtesy of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.