SANGU STORIES, The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands

Lighting Design by The Flaming Beacon

December 30, 2020 Host: Mark Hehir - General Manager Season 1 Episode 3
SANGU STORIES, The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands
Lighting Design by The Flaming Beacon
Show Notes Transcript

Discover the lighting story, details behind the lighting and the seamless connection to the environment and nature. In this podcast, Andrew Jaques from The Flaming Beacon speaks about the holistic approach, unique concept, and sustainable lighting role that completes The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands.

If you wish to find more details, visit their website: http://www.tfb.com.au/

For any further information or assistance, please contact Aminath.Haadhee@ritzcarlton.com , Marketing Communications Manager.

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For more information about The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands, visit our website

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Mark Hehir:

Today, we are delighted to connect with a company who has over 30 years experience in setting the mood and creating enticing and varying ambiances around the world. And specifically to The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands. We have today, Andrew Jaques from The Flaming Beacon, our lighting designers

Andrew Jaques:

Morning Mark. Thanks for inviting me to be on your podcast

Mark Hehir:

As we're closing the end of the year. It's an exciting time for us. Um, as we start to move into the next phase of the project, Andrew help me? I've got a few questions to talk through today, which really, I want our listeners to understand, you know, the, the backstory of how we've built this project together. And, and that really comes alive, uh, at twilight, and nighttime in the resorts, in the Maldives and, um, Flaming Beacon has been chosen by, uh, Evan and the team at Pontiac Lands. And, uh, I know that you work closely with the whole design team over at KHA as well. Uh, the Flaming Beacon has done numerous projects around the world, as well as in the Maldives itself. So how do you think The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands stands out from other projects that you've done?

Andrew Jaques:

Uh, you're right, Mark. Um, the Flaming Beacon has done a lot of work over the last 30 years or so, and we focus mainly on the design of high-end luxury, boutique, resorts and hotels. As you say, we'd like, we'd like to get involved in all parts of the lighting on any of our projects, including the interior design, the architecture, the landscape, and we've also designed numerous custom-lighting objects for projects. We believe this is important so that there is a holistic approach to the ambiance and that each project develops its unique character. I'd like to give you a little bit of insights into how we would approach each new project. We know there are a lot of moving parts and it usually starts with the client's vision. We also need to appreciate the operator's branding requirements and the expectation of their guests who are ultimately the people we're designing for. In fact, it's the expectation of these guests and how well their expectations are met or exceeded that will ultimately determine how successful we've been. We also work closely with the architects and other designers, as you mentioned, who will all have their own interpretation of client's brief, and it's our job to support their vision through rigorous integration of the lighting. We are specifically interested in finding ways to express the built form at night with artificial light in a way that transforms it from its daylight appearance. In this way, we end up with a hotel or resort that has a very distinctive day appearance, very separate to that of the evening appearance. Importantly, we also spend the time at the beginning of the project to research the site, its location, learn what we can about its history, its context, its relationship to local arts and crafts, and see how any of this information can inform how we site-specific design solutions. This rigorous design process was what we brought to The Ritz-Carlton Maldives. And one of the things I think that will make this project really stand out is this seamless connection between the natural environment, the landscape response, the architecture and the light.

Mark Hehir:

Wonderful. I, I I'm, I'm really enjoying these conversations with, with the team that really feels like you've all come together from architectural lighting and landscape, uh, point of view. And everyone's got respect for each other's position and really, um, complementing each other from an architectural point of view of the resort, uh, is quite a distinct, uh, with its iconic round designs. What approach have you taken in the design and lighting to those?

Andrew Jaques:

Yeah, we saw the non-traditional building shapes as a big opportunity for lighting design, the circular villas, which sit over the water have such an immediate and powerful relationship to their surroundings. They are, if you like their own private islands, something of a microcosm of the Maldivian archipelago. Spending time on an Island is really about experiencing a Panorama, a 360 degree view of being surrounded by vast ocean and an omnipresent horizon line. And it's this panorama that we saw as an opportunity to bring into the Villa. We wanted to play with the horizon line by creating a datum that reappears around the inner circumference of the villa to remind the guests of their connection to the setting sun over the Indian ocean. We worked with the team over at Kerry Hill Architects to find a series of logical interior elements at this datum level, which from memory was around about 75 or 80 centimeters high, such as shelving and ledgers into which we could integrate this continuous light, no matter which room the guest is in the glowing datum line, connects them back to the horizon as far as another distinctly circular building. And it's sitting out on the water and we really wanted to push this idea of connection between the setting sun and the, and the, and the lighting on the building even further than we did in the villas. And the way we did this is to take, to be inspired by, and to take the beautiful golden ambiance, golden light that comes from the sun as it sets late in the evening. And almost as if the building facade has absorbed that last of the setting sun, and then re-emits it slowly during the nighttime throughout the project, we also designed several non-traditionally shaped light fixtures, both for the accommodation and in many of the public spaces. And we felt this was necessary to complement the architectural forms. Wonderful.

Mark Hehir:

So, uh, I really, uh, and, and I'll come back on, I'll re uh, emphasize about the, uh, the spa, because I think the spa shape is iconic. And, um, really for us, when we start putting in some iconic photos that aerial shot of the spa at, at night, or just at the twilight, when it lights up is going to be magical, and there's going to be so many aspects of that. And our photographers are already excited about the, the full moon and the star gazing nights where there's a, the, the night is full of stars. And then we get this reflection.

Andrew Jaques:

and there's this magical moment that happens. Um, when we coordinate the, uh, the dimming system, the, the site dimming system with the natural light, where you almost get this imperceivable shift from the last of the sun to the start of the artificial light. And if it's done really well, it really is imperceivable and it just feels completely natural. And this is a really beautiful moment that we were definitely trying to achieve on this project

Mark Hehir:

From the design phase to the architecture, including the lighting, there is a deep consideration for sustainability. What do you contribute to this effort?

Andrew Jaques:

Sustainability and lighting is quite a hot topic and is especially challenging with the design of small luxury projects where ambience is everything. And the key reason why we're on the project, uh, attitude to this has always been to look out for the best contemporary solutions to sustainability that don't compromise on the ambiance we are trying to achieve. Sustainability can be spoken in terms of longevity or disposableness. And to this end, it was the aim of the entire design team to create something of a timeless project that would be around for decades to come. To our end, we selected very high quality lighting equipment that was suitable for the harsh Maldivian environment. So as to try and reduce the reliance on replacement parts, when people talk of sustainability in lighting, they often talk about installed power or simplistically speaking, how to use the most efficient sources. And as few of them as possible, we know this doesn't make for spaces that make people feel good. What we are interested in is minimizing energy consumption. And for The Ritz-Carlton Maldives have designed a comprehensive demo and control management system, including the use of time clocks and photoelectric cells that will ensure that the right amount of energy is consumed for the shortest period of time necessary. We're also very lucky in the Maldives because it is so naturally dark, which means overall lighting levels levels can be generally quite low compared to urban settings. More good news is that LEDs have come a long way over the last five years. And the project here is 100% LEDs. And the, the quality of them now is on par with incandescent lights that they've long tried to emulate. And it's probably fair to say, now that LEDs in some respects have surpassed incandescent lights, because we're able now to specify lights that have even warmer ranges than their predecessors did. And this is especially good for resort projects. We anticipate with Kerry Hill Architects, passive design approach to the building that guests will rarely have the need or, or desire to use artificial light during the day. And that at night with our design of intuitive lighting scene selections, the guests will more often than not want to choose the moodier and therefore more environmentally friendly settings.

Mark Hehir:

Was there any special approach in the lighting project in terms of respecting the natural environment, for example, the impact nighttime illumination has in the local flora and fauna. It's so unique in the Maldives.

Andrew Jaques:

I remember one of the very first conversations I had with Evan and he sat me down and he said, do not over light the landscape. And I took this to mean both in terms of how the island was to be experienced at night by the guests, and also to minimize the impact on the natural environment. Now, The Flaming Bacon is very well known for its high contrast moody design. So this direction was in keeping with what we do naturally. But the great thing about the Maldives environment is the opportunity opportunity to really experience and appreciate the beauty of the night sky to appreciate the darkness. And the idea of the luxury that comes from appreciating darkness is something that you just can't get in urban spaces. The challenge for us was to find this balance between the feeling of safety for guests and having a minimal impact on the environment. And to this end, we developed in collaboration with an Italian lighting manufacturer, EWO a range of custom bollards just for this project. The larger ones were for the buggy parts, which ran along the spine between the three islands and the smaller ones warmer in color and with a contemporary lantern-light feel, which would welcome the guests up to the villa truncated off this spine, keeping the intensity down as well as using very warm color temperatures. We not only assist with creating an engaging nighttime experience for guests, but also with the natural circadian rhythms that plants and other wildlife require.

Mark Hehir:

And, and finally, our listeners are excited to see this project come to light. What highlights can they expect from the post-completion from your side?

Andrew Jaques:

Identifying highlights on a project aimed at being timeless is actually quite difficult. There are many lighting ideas and techniques developed specifically for The Ritz-Carlton Maldives to both myself and Fu Chun, our team leader are very proud of, however, we are mostly focused on providing a holistic experience for guests during their stay at the resort. We hope The Ritz-Carlton guests will feel that from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave, that they feel they've been somewhere special. We hope that the effortless integration between architecture landscape and lighting make for an unforgettable experience, one that I will want to tell all their friends about and one that they will be anxious to return to. And we hope that the lighting ambience will have played a small but significant part in their, in their experience.

Mark Hehir:

I must tell you that we're really looking forward to your arrival and the KHA team was arrival on the property over the next few months, because I'm just walking through together and seeing it as it as it's come alive. And we can start to see the plants growth has really come along the long way. Then we can see also things together that I believe were important conversations around the buggy paths and entries, the villas and making sure customers feel safe. And they know their villa number is, you know, visible from the path and these types of things, which can only be done sometimes when we hit the ground.

Andrew Jaques:

Yeah. We certainly try and think about all those things as we're designing, because what we're always keen to do is have, have lighting help with wayfinding and such things so that guests don't need to have these things explained if it's possible to walk into, uh, into the room, into the guest room or the villa and not have the lighting system explain to the guests, this is a good thing. And it's actually quite rare. That's actually quite a design and technical challenge, but it's, it's, it's one that we, we always aspire towards.

Mark Hehir:

I think that's an important element as well. Our customers are very well traveled, and I think if it organically and ergonomically feels right, uh, they, they don't need that heavy, uh, explanation. And we can start talking about other things that they are more excited about to enjoy their holiday experience. It's been a great conversation today. I really appreciate your time. I know that you're over in my old hometown of Melbourne.

Andrew Jaques:

Um, thanks very much, Mark. And I enjoyed the talk and I very much look forward to seeing you out there.

Mark Hehir:

Thank you.

Speaker 3:

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Join me next time. When we discover more about the Ritz Carlton.