Decorative Luminaires Design: ulalight @ulalightmx

Client: Hakkasan Group México

Place: Ciudad de México

Date: octubre 2021

Interior design project: Sordo Madaleno Architects

Lighting Designer: Luz en arquitectura

Artisan and Artist collaborators: Edgar Jiménez, KA iluminación, ulalight technical team

Photography: Miguel Calanchini 

Iconic places continue to be established in Mexico City, and for these to gain recognition from the public, it is essential to create and offer unforgettable experiences or environments. This was the premise that led the client to choose one of the most important architecture firms in the country for this project. One of its interior design directors, architect Fernanda Patiño, offer the challenge of creating decorative luminaires to ulalight, these pieces were part of the setting that was intended to be achieved.

With the experience that sixteen years of work gives, Mónica Bárcena Mastretta, director of this mexican lighting company, took the task of combining elements that will be able to translate the creative idea of the architects into iconic artifacts that crown the design and decoration of the restaurant; always contemplating the technical details that the lighting designers demanded. Something that is very important for the brand is that its products always exalt the quality and creativity of Mexican hands, for this they look for processes and materials with which they manage to evoke moments of light with a form and function appropriate to each project. 

The Ling Ling restaurant is located on the 56th floor at Torre Chapultepec 1, where 2 monumental luminaires were placed. The first, a ceiling that welcomes in the lobby and the second, a 5-meter chandelier that is suspended over the best table on the terrace, from where you can have a panoramic view of the city. The ceiling required 14,400 meters of unraveled henequen fiber, a series of warm dimming led light lamps coated in different diameters with a painted iron structure to which an anti-flame thermal protection was placed, these lamps formed the main structure of this great lighting. Once on the site, the hands of expert artisans wove and shaped the great cloud of light that seems to float and greets the clients of the place. The lamp is a set of 25 organic paper bulbs made by Oaxacan plastic artists, they were placed in a suspended way along 6 vertical axes or pendulums. The chosen LED technology lamps highlight the texture of the natural fibers, while they finish off the double height of the great terrace that opens to the great tide of lights from most important avenue in Mexico horizon.

The development of the luminaires took time to research natural materials that fulfilled the plastic reference that the architects were looking for. In the factory they experimented with different fibers, until they managed to create the right structure and fabric for the project. Thirty-five people took part in the manufacture and installation of the ceiling lamp and the suspended luminaire. Once the prototypes were accepted, the team of technical workers and craftsmen required four intense weeks of production to be able to manufacture and install these parts.

In addition, for this restaurant, pieces from the line of blown glass luminaires with low power incandescent light and woven wicker in special dimensions were also used to finish drawing the textures and setting of the tables, as well as the central bar area. Special pieces like these have been developed for other hotels and restaurants in Mexico, Colombia, the Caribbean, and the United States, to name a few.                                  

                               The result of the lighting and project of Ling Ling restaurant is a sample of what can be obtained with an interdisciplinary collaboration scheme where all the experts involved put the necessary ingredient and wisdom to successfully complete these types of challenges.