Completed project
Al Najada, Doha: fretwork carrying the light, inside and out
Gilded perforated columns in the courtyard, lanterns beneath the arches, drum fittings in the rooms. The light is ours: one single motif — the fretwork — worked through from the forecourt to the table.
Project data
One single motif, from the forecourt to the table
The fretwork — sheet metal pierced to a geometric pattern — returns everywhere: in the tall columns of the courtyard, in the lanterns hung beneath the arches, in the drum fitting above a table for eight.
The size changes, the principle does not: the light escapes through the holes and draws on the surfaces around. A hotel that repeats one motif at different scales is recognisable even in a close-up.
The columns do two jobs, depending on the hour
In the courtyard the perforated columns stand about a person and a half tall among the planters. At night they are the light: no floodlight on the facade, only points at ground level and arches lit one by one.
By day they become furniture. They mark the routes between the terrace tables and cast shadows on the paving: an object that does not exist at midday is a wasted object, in a hotel used at every hour.
Where people eat, the light looks upward
In the restaurant the lanterns do not hang over the tables: they are mounted on the piers, between the blue arches. What reaches the table is indirect light, and the white cloths do not turn into mirrors.
The same idea in the private room: a drum fitting close to the ceiling, doubled, perforated, sending up as much as it sends down. A dining room is not lit by aiming at people’s heads.
Four different hours of the same hotel
Breakfast, midday on the terrace, the guest room and the facade at night.
Lanterns where breakfast is served
Under low arches a large pendant would be in the way. The perforated lanterns hang high and narrow, and the light they throw on the worked ceiling counts as much as the light on the tables.
By day the columns are not lamps
In sunlight the perforated columns become furniture: they mark the routes between the tables and cast shadows on the paving. Their work as light begins after sunset.
In the room, the light comes down
No fretwork and no gold: a bedside lamp with a plain shade, beside a red headboard. The decorative repertoire stays outside, where it serves to orient people.
At night the building reads through its arches
The facade is not washed by floodlights: the arches are lit one by one, and the gilded columns mark the forecourt. The building is recognised by its geometry, not by its brightness.
One repeated motif is worth more than ten handsome pieces
Send us the drawings of your spaces: we come back with one motif worked through each of them, and the numbers behind the light.