Making of Phamish - Part II

Today lets talk about the lightbox at Phamish, following the previous blog entry on making of Phamish (HERE).

Half way through the design process, the client raised issue about something they had some serious problem with in the original shop - the lightbox.  It was also nicknamed the "lobster pot", or the "broomstick cupboard"..... the love showed in the naming.  Apparently it was shipped down from Gold Coast, costed a bomb and weighed a tone. Arrived smashed, it didn't deliver much light if any to the shop.  In order to relieve their agony, we had to come up with something in line with our design concept.

the original lightbox - this was as much light as it could deliver

...so this is what we proposed after a week of brainstorming.

together with the panels, the shop could have a festive atmosphere, quite so Chinese

One of the main imagery we had during design phase of the shop, was people dining amongst the field of chrysanthemum flowers, surrounded by the amicable and mysterious ambience.  By incorporating the lightbox into the scheme, and with the light projection on to the ceiling, it could add another dimension to the ambience we aimed to create.

Here are the process we went through to make the lightbox possible....

we had to create a 1:1 prototype to test out the lighting condition, to see if it actually works...

the sun filtered through the prototype cutout, looks like the idea could work

we then went into the restaurant after it closed at night, to test on site. It was difficult to see if it actually would work on site, because the lightbox had diffused fluorescent tubes as light source which was not too good at projecting shadows. With the success earlier with sunlight, we decided to replace fluorescent tubes in the lightbox with spotlights, in order to cast clearer shadows on to the ceiling.

electrician installing spotlight. We also decided to remove the dowels on the side (see earlier perspectives) because they were loosening up and could fall on patrons dining directly below

testing light effect with the new spotlights.......hmmmmmm........we could see "something"......

at that point there was no going back, we had to keep progressing with the new lightbox (it would still be better than what was there even if light projection didn't work)

miraculously after it was installed properly, the projection worked beautifully!!!!!

effect at night. Because the restaurant only opens for dinner, the lighting effect was of vital importance

sitting underneath the new lightbox, looking towards the wall panelling...surrounded by chrysanthemum flowers...

reopening night after (3 days of) construction. people dining amongst the chrysanthemum flowers in a festive atmosphere...exactly how we imagined!

With every project there are things we can not expect or test before we go for the real deal, but it is important that the decisions were made with background study and a level of confidence.

Try out Phamish and experience the ambience we have tried to create when you walk past it in Darlinghurst - their duck and prawn pancake is absolutely the best!