Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa is situated on a pristine island of the Maldives, 400 kilometres south of Malé, the capital of the Maldives. 

The luxury resort is home to two restaurants, a poolside bar, the unique ‘upside down’ Dhoni Lounge, 50 luxuriously appointed water, pool- and land villa’s, two large fresh water swimming pools, a Maldivian-inspired Vidhun Spa and a five-star PADI

dive centre. All facilities are maintaining environmental sensitivity, nestled within the natural vegetation and most of them only a few steps away from the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean.

By specifying low-level, low-glare lighting fixtures for the landscape lighting design, our aim was to retain a dark-sky friendly environment, where guests can enjoy the sunset and starry sky from the beach or from within the privacy of their own villa at night. 

By introducing energy efficient standard products, built into simple ‘custom / locally made’ housings, the external landscape lighting scheme compliments the overall environmental sensitive philosophy of the Park Hyatt Hadahaa.
For the refurbishment of the Restaurants and Spa Facilities, we have worked closely with the Interior Designers (HBA) to fully integrate the lighting fixtures within the overall design, to highlight the specific location characteristics and to provide warm and welcoming atmospheres for the guests at night.

Client: Driftwood Maldives Pvt. Ltd
Operator: Hyatt International
Architect: Wilmotte
Interior Designer: HBA

Client: Ciel Group
Interior Designer: Richmond International
Architect: WATG
Project Manager: SIP
Electrical Engineer: Capita Symonds
Landscape Designer: CEPM

Capital Gate is an iconic 35-storey gravity defying tower, featuring the 5-star hotel Hyatt Capital Gate. The visually stunning tower has been built using some of the world’s most advanced construction techniques and leans an astonishing 18-degrees westward. In June 2010, the Guinness Book of World Records certified Capital Gate as the “World’s furthest leaning man-made tower.”

dpa were commissioned to design the lighting for both the interior public areas of the Hotel & Tower, and the exterior facade and landscaping.

The Facade is a self supporting, highly engineered, diagrid structure. The challenge of showcasing this unique form at night, whilst adhering to the restraints of not penetrating the ‘skin’ of the building or having lighting equipment visible from inside and out, was met by a novel, integrated and flexible approach to the lighting design. Approximately 700 colour change LED ‘pixels’ have been specially integrated directly behind the outer glass surface to create a dynamic shroud of lighting that continually emulates and exaggerates the form and appearance of the tower. The tower is visually linked to the exhibition centre by highlighting the ‘splash’ edge and emphasising its sweep over the grandstand.

Client – Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre
Architect – RMJM
Interior Designer -RPW

Photography Courtesy of:
Mandarin Oriental / George Apostolidis

Situated at the heart of Paris’s fashionable Rue St Honore, the Mandarin Hotel is a few minutes’ walk from the elegant Tuileries gardens with the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay. Originally a government ministry building built in the classical vernacular and carefully restored by Wilmotte architects. The interior design was shared between SM Design and Jouin Manku agency. SM Design, a Paris based agency designed the Lobby, Spa and Guest suites. With Jouin Manku an internationally acclaimed agency, also Paris based taking on Camilia the All Day Dining restaurant, Bar 8 the Hotel Bar and the Sur le Mesure Gourmet restaurant.

dpa Lighting design were responsible for lighting design of all front of house areas, the courtyard, guestsuites and the façade. Working closely with all 3 different designers Wilmotte, Jouin Manku and SM Design, dpa had to address all the different design styles whilst maintaining a coherent lighting strategy throughout the hotel, to allow a natural flow between the more traditional Paris apartment aesthetic of SM Design and the innovative and contemporary spaces of Jouin Manku. The AJM spaces required an exacting attention to detail with great care taken to conceal and integrate the lighting to the sculptural interiors. Where used even the downlights were concealed in a custom plaster cone to hide the luminaire view and a custom snoot arrangement used to ensure there was no visible brightness on the ceiling further concealing the location of the light source.

Client and Operator: Mandarin Oriental Hotels
Project Manager: ACPH
Architect: Wilmotte
Interior Designer: SM Design and Jouin Manku Agency
Landscape Designer: Agence Neveux-Rouyer
M&E Consultant: Coteba

Recently celebrating its opening in Dubai’s Grosvenor House Tower Two, Siddharta Lounge by buddha-bar is the regions new glamorous destination for lounging and partying. The interiors, designed by LW Design Group, are a sleek and contemporary mix of plush white, gold accents and exquisite marble situated in a unique pool-side setting.

Particular attention to detail was given to create a very modern and sleek atmosphere to exceed expectation and stand out from other high end hang-outs. The lighting design was kept deliberately minimal, placing emphasis only where it is needed to enhance and contrast the rich materials and drama of the artwork, show kitchen and exterior views. The venue is for all occasions day and night, and the lighting adapts through programmed control to suit the mood.

Client: Grosvenor House Dubai
Interior Designer:  LW Design Group

Prins Claus Bridge was completed in 2003 but originally without any architectural lighting. The structure quickly became an iconic for Utrecht during the day. In 2009 the city recognised the value of sympathetically illuminating this elegant feet of engineering, so the Bridge could be fully enjoyed at night.

dpa lighting consultants worked closely with UN Studios, the original Architects and the Client to design a lighting solution that emphasised the sculptural qualities of the structure, whilst being careful with energy consumption. The idea to focus attention on the main pylon with its complex shapes, and the points at which the bridge connects to the ground either side of the canal quickly materialised. The lighting has been designed to show off the shape of the Pylon, with one face not directly lit, other surfaces illuminated and shadows from the cables allowed to emerge.

The Bridge appears differently as you move around the adjacent areas, and particular effort was put into not illuminating the lengths of the cables, and just allowing a brush of light fanning across cables as they get closer to the structural pylon.

The face of the Pylon orientated towards the city, is illuminated with carefully controlled narrow beam metal halide projectors, some with lenses located in the aperture between the two road decks so that they cannot be seen during the day, and do not glare drivers at night. The two side surfaces facing the canal are illuminated from carefully controlled metal halide projectors on a specially designed column, and the other surface is not illuminated at low level with just some narrow beam metal halide projectors, picking up the top of the pylon and creating shadows from the cables.

Below the road deck the main pylon connects to the surface in a shape like a paperclip. Metal halide projectors have been located below the road to reinforce this shape visually, and connect the pylon with the ground. Again, as with the pylon above the deck, some surfaces are lit, and some are not to provide interesting modelling and emphasis to the elegant but complex forms.

The underside of the road deck connects with the ground with a sweeping curve, and these curves are illuminated to provide a visual connection of the road deck to the banks of the canal. Efficient metal halide projectors carefully controlled have, as with other elements, been utilised here too.

Immense care was taken in all aspects of the design process to reduce energy consumption and seamlessly integrate the new lighting with the Bridge.

Client: Gemeente Utrecht
Architect: UN Studio
Photography: Courtesy of Wim van IJzendoorn

dpa were appointed to create a site wide Exterior Lighting Masterplan and Exterior Lighting Design Guidelines, for the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

The design guidelines considered the environmental impact of the lighting to all areas of the development, hence, we advised that some areas need not be lit.

The intent of the Lighting Masterplan is to encourage quality of approach. The aspiration is for The Palm to be an exciting, varied and where appropriate, vibrant development.

Client: Nakheel

Mitsubishi Estate Company with their Architects, Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei have rebuilt No.1 Marunouchi, originally designed by English Architect, Josiah Conder.

In addition a new garden, retail annex building and commercial tower were constructed sympathetically on the same site. dpa designed the internal lighting of the Office Tower Lobby and all areas of the external lighting, except the Tower crown, which was designed by Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei.

The lighting reflected the sensitive architecture, highlighting the rebuilt No. 1 Marunouchi by revealing the rhythm of the windows and doors, stone corners and gently exposing key parts of the roof line. The Garden provides a wonderful sanctuary both during the day and at night, with the combination of water, hard landscaping, soft landscaping and sculpture combining together harmoniously. The Retail and Commercial Buildings respect the important historical references of the area, have their own presence but do not overwhelm the rebuilt historic structure.

The Office Lobby has carefully conceived lighting that integrates with the interior architecture, emphasising the substance of such an important building, whilst creating visual interest and encouraging movement to and from the lift lobbies. The lift lobbies themselves employ a variety of lighting components, and with the control system the atmosphere changes from day to early evening and then into the night to provide exactly the right ambiance at each moment and save energy.

Photography courtesy of Kokyu Miwa Architectural Photography and Ogawa Taisuke Photograph Office.

Client: Mitsuibishi Estate Company
Architect: Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei

dpa Lighting Consultants were invited to join the project team by architects Richard Rogers Partnership. We worked closely in association with services consultants BDSP in order to achieve an energy efficient, sustainable and flexible lighting installation. The energy usage targets were demanding, yet achievable by the use of high efficiency lamps and luminaires, used in conjunction with the automated building control system. The control system is used to enable the appropriate lighting scenes to be easily selected at the touch of a button, so that the lighting exactly suits the requirements of many of the spaces which have varied uses ranging from informal meetings, through to televised parliamentary debates. The building control system ensures full use is made of available daylight, switching off lamps when not required to help ensure minimal energy consumption and maintenance requirements. A particularly challenging part of the project was the main debating chamber, which is an impressive circular structure within the heart of the building. The lighting had to satisfy the demanding needs of television broadcasting standards, whilst being comfortable to work in and ensure the avoidance of glare to the public viewing areas.The external lighting comprises; the architectural lighting of the building, public roadways and footpaths, parking areas and surrounding landscaping.

The Grand Hyatt is a luxury hotel located near Dubai Creek with 700 bedrooms and serviced apartments. The property consists of four curved interlinked towers set within 37 acres of landscaped gardens.

The façade lighting consists of two distinct elements. An array of dichroic marker lights is located at parapet level on each of the four towers. The apparent colour of the dichroic lenses changes with the viewing angle, so that they shift from blue through pink to white, like a shimmering pearl necklace.

The white-clad sections of the building façade are illuminated with colour changing metal halide projectors concealed within the landscape and at roof level. The building is usually illuminated in white light. The colour change facility is utilised for festival and holidays.

dpa lighting consultants were also responsible for the lighting of the extensive landscaped gardens.

Client: Wasl Asset Management Group
Operator: Hyatt International
Architect: Arkiteknik
Interior Designer: HBA

Lighting was considered to play a significant role in the overall success of the project, both in terms of complimenting the interior design and highlighting the sleek exterior architecture. The client required the lighting to reflect the ambition of a visually stimulating office development that had a welcoming, interesting and vibrant reception area, whilst addressing issues of lamp life, energy consumption and maintenance. In addition the lighting was required to appropriately emphasis the contemporary and minimalistic lines of the street architecture, setting the building apart from other office developments in the area.

The lighting to the feature glass artwork was particularly challenging and necessitated lighting trials to address issues of colour, intensity, offset, access and the impact and penetration of natural light on to the glass. The glass artist required cool white lines of light at varying lengths to give the illusion of depth and perspective and wanted the lighting to be operational throughout the day.

Client: Grosvenor Estate
Architect: Squire & Partners