Suspended Animation

The Warehouse Mall – Sabahiya Kuwait

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The Warehouse mall is the latest creation of the Tamdeen Group, a retail specialist property developer based in Kuwait. 

The warehouse is a modern take on what a mall should look like. High ceilings, spacious avenues and large open spaces promote a feeling of freedom one associates with being outdoors. 

The size of the open spaces in The Warehouse influences the lighting design in a particular direction. Any suspended feature lighting must be much larger than normal, or the fixture will seem insignificant. 

Doreen Stephan of Scott Lighting Design was the consultant engaged to solve these problems of scale.

A new direction for a very large chandelier

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The most challenging area of the mall is the main entrance. It was vital to create a sense of arrival. Stephan realised that just lighting the space was insufficient, some fascinating physical structure must occupy the vast void.

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Her concept design envisaged a suspended structure, part sculpture part chandelier. 402 light fixtures would be suspended from the roof truss, occupying a space 55m long and varying in width from 9m at the head and 6m at the tail. 

A tubular linear direct view fixture would attach to a lightweight suspension pole of differing lengths. The fixture would be illuminated at both ends and there would be a pivot point in the middle where it would be welded to the suspension pole. Stephan specified three different angles at the pivot, flat, 15 degrees and 30 degrees. Starting high, the light sculpture would flow across the atrium and cascade in mid-space flying down with the escalators into the lobby. 

The suspension is static, but the impression is of animation.  

The first task was to create an AutoCAD model from the concept drawing and artist’s impression. From this we created a plan and elevation, to produce a layout that was representative of the design intent. 

Call it what you will, the suspended light sculpture or Chandelier solves the problem created by the size of the atrium and provides impact and a sense of arrival. illumination Physics has taken a great concept and transformed it into a practical solution.