Design and décor are taking center stage in the hospitality arena and becoming critical facets of every hotel property. Today's guests are demanding more appealing environments that have all the luxuries of home and then some, including amenities, technology and design. Lighting schemes also play a crucial role.
Dawn Hollingsworth Visual Terrain |
As a result, hotel owners and operators are pushing their designers to the limit, challenging them to create a comfortable and tranquil residential environment across all areas of the property. The right or wrong lighting choices can either enhance this atmosphere or tarnish it.
"There is no question that lighting is critical in terms of creating the atmosphere and environment of a property," says Dawn Hollingsworth, managing design principal at Visual Terrain, an international design company. "It starts with the exterior view and goes all the way through to the lobby and into the corridors and guestrooms. Lighting is a big part of the interior design and exterior architecture, and incorporated into the image that the hotel property is trying to convey to its guests."
Melissa Conchilla MAC Design Group |
One of the biggest challenges facing a designer is to find the right balance between new and evolving technology and to stay within the budget with regard to meeting new energy codes, according to Hollingsworth.
"While those energy codes are good for the environment, they involve technologies that are more expensive," she says, adding this situation is exacerbated when it comes to lobby lighting.
Form follows function
Designers agree that the lobby of a hotel poses special challenges with regards to lighting for many reasons. First and foremost is the fact that most hotel lobby areas are used for varying functions at different times during the day.
Julia Neville Newcomb & Boyd Lighting Design Group |
"All lobbies are multipurpose," Hollingsworth says. "There are usually so many activities going on. Guests are coming in throughout the day, and visitors are possibly entering for meetings or an event. There are a lot of different types of users, so the lobby has to convey all those visual signals where a guest can find information. The lighting in a lobby needs to create the visual environment to give people cues and clues to find their way."
"I would say the lighting of a property is critical in establishing a first impression, particularly in the lobby," agrees Julia Neville, architectural lighting designer for Newcomb & Boyd Lighting Design Group. "There is a psychological aspect to drawing people into the space."
One of the most important aspects of a lobby lighting design scheme is properly lighting the area so the finishes are reflected in line with the hotel's décor, Neville says.
"You can have the most luxurious finishes in a space such as a hotel lobby, but if the lighting is not well thought out for that space, then the finishes will appear dull or flat," she says. "Why spend all the money to make space like that stand out if you are not going to light it properly?"
Best western kelly inn & suites Billings, Mont. |
As a result, dimmable fixtures that are timed properly are certainly needed in a hotel lobby that utilizes the daylight coming in but automatically adjusts toward evening, according to designers and architects.
