Lotte Tours chose Light Directions as lighting designer for this landmark project on the island of Jeju, South Korea, due to their considerable experience in Leisure, Hotels, and Gaming.
Collaborating with an international group of designers from the extensive HBA Global family, which included teams from Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and Seoul, Light Directions was tasked with lighting the full range of interiors for this prestigious project. The Dream Tower is an Integrated Resort comprising of a Grand Hyatt Hotel, Serviced Apartments, and 14 restaurants and bars plus a casino.
The Rosebay Spa was designed with HBA London, liaising closely with the team there, it was established early on that the central spa corridor would have large sections of mirror wall. It was decided to exploit this design feature in order to reduce the number of down-lights that would usually be required to illuminate the corridor space. The simple technique of outlining with an LED strip-light to break up the central core wall and then having this reflected in the mirror panels worked to great effect, making the corridor to the treatment rooms light, interesting and exciting.
The Jeju Hotpot restaurant was designed by HBA Hong Kong, who used classical East Asian influences and finishes in very contemporary and ambitious ways to create a modern restaurant that is both vibrant and traditional. On arrival to the main entrance, you are greeted by a magnificent food display and a stunning red ceiling, augmented with hanging print panels and red lanterns. Our role here was to ensure the food display is well lit, whilst lighting the screens giving a subtle veneer of shimmer, a single recessed LED light-bar was employed to do both these jobs simultaneously, while cove lighting accents the differing ceiling levels above. A simple LED strip-light was added to the shelf displays introducing another layer of interest to the space. The main dining area’s predominant feature is the ceiling exhaust vents. We attempted to turn these “chimneys in reverse” into lanterns by graze lighting both the inner exhaust vent and the outer suspended metal panels that masked the vents’ appearance, and indeed a lantern effect was created.
The China House is a combination of rustic and quirky interior designs. With rough open brick walls, uniquely styled pendant lamps hung by marine grade rope, blue and white suspended Chinese vases, and a coffered ceiling. The architectural lighting is multi-layered and sympathetic to the interior in order to graze walls and light tables.
The Yumeyama Japanese Restaurant combines the traditional with the modern. Clean lines and the expansive izakaya bar surfaces bring a minimalist quality to the space. Even when there are concentrations of equipment, furniture and signage a calm, relaxed open atmosphere is maintained. Lighting is concentrated onto the bar top and workstations, ensuring the “working plane” is well illuminated. Pendant lights over the bar add a cozy warmth, while small niche mounted LED strip-lights uplight the traditional Japanese menus. Cove lighting demarcates where the ceiling heights and materials change. Finally, there is floor mounted light trough which gives a diffuse uplight to the rough slate bar front.
The Gallery Lounge boasts a six-metre-high ceiling, and grand volumes throughout. Full height window screens break up the view to outside obscuring traffic and giving a sense of privacy, while still allowing daylight in. As impressive as all the heights and details are within this space, the hero finish for us as lighting designers is the uniquely patterned lacquer ceiling. An ivory white lacquer with gold square inserts is not the most conducive ceiling finish and pattern in which to install down-lights. The down-lights had to be square, they had to be exactly the same size as the gold square inserts, thirdly they had to be able to provide the right illuminance levels to tables and finished floor. These down-lights in defined groups of nine are the workhorse luminaire for the space and provide the ambient illumination. This lighting element is supplemented by spotlights on stalks that peer through louvered ceilings where the full height glazing is between columns and meets the lacquered ceiling. Finally, oversized decorative pendants and floor lamps round out the lighting design.
Cafe 8 serves dynamic Italian cuisine, and hand-crafted drinks. This young and sophisticated interior, with its playful pendant light, governed our simple selection of twin headed light fixtures to provide the main illumination source. The change in ceiling levels again required a linear accent done with an LED strip-light. Lastly the bar has its own dedicated row of down-lights installed at the bar canopy, to boost light levels.
The Pre-Function area is dominated by the geometric, yet quirky squared circle pendant. However, this is purely a decorative lighting element. The workhorse light fixture providing general illumination for this area is the ceiling mounted down-lights. Under-shelf strip-lighting plus concealed graze lighting
provide additional layers of accent.
Level 38’s Pocha which is a modern Korean Street Dining experience is simply lit by LED sourced lanterns giving a retro street feel, whilst spotlights actually illuminate the space concealed in-between the louvered ceiling panels.
The Deli is simply a jewellery box for cakes, chocolates, and other desserts. Lit in a rather rectilinear fashion, the ceiling coves, vertically backlit panels, and linear shelf lighting reinforce this geometry. Ceiling down-lights provide the display illumination while crystal pendants provide the lit decorative glass element above.
The Jimjilbang Spa, Reception, and Retail area were a fairly straightforward exercise in lighting design incorporating recessed adjustable down-lights and LED strip-lights concealed within ceiling coves.
Finally, for this installment on Dream Tower Jeju we have the indoor pool deck. Where lighting elements include underwater pool illumination, feature entrance uplights, column accent, cove, and finally ceiling down-lights.
Photo Credits: HBA Seoul
Project: The Dream Tower Integrated Resort
Location: Jeju Island, South Korea
Design Studio: HBA
Website: hba.com
