62 INSIGHTS 2018
When retail lighting specialist Retailite, part of Gerard Lighting, was
designing a lighting solution for outdoor and camping goods retailer
Kathmandu, the key challenge was to bring the outdoor look inside.
“Kathmandu’s active and adventure-based product range is generally
used outside, therefore achieving high-colour rendering index as close to
‘true colour’ as possible was a priority for us when designing this store’s
lighting,” said Retailite Senior Lighting Design Specialist Patty Tartaglia.
For this project for Kathmandu’s Chadstone Shopping Centre store in
Victoria, the retailer’s colourful merchandise was artificially saturated in
order to render as close to ‘daylight’ (100% CRI) as possible.
The Quadretto Light fixture was developed, which was similarly matched
in CRI, ensuring that colours were rendered consistently across the store,
said Tartaglia.
The general illumination was achieved using a dual light layering
approach, using Retailite’s newly released Mura wall wash track spot to
evenly lift the base line lighting levels of the merchandise to 400 lux.
“This approach distributes 30 W of lighting energy in a soft wide
distribution. Such lighting effects are traditionally applied in art galleries,
where artworks like large oil paintings require soft and even distributions
of light,” said Tartaglia.
“In addition, we then overlaid an accent lighting strategy with our Cilindro
track spot to hero products and lifted areas of the merchandise displays
to 800 lux, which our design team considered appropriate. This created
a dynamic contrast ratio between the 400 lux base merchandise lighting
layer to the bright hero elements.
“The intent of a dual layered lighting strategy was to efficiently light
the merchandise with less fixtures, whilst employing a visual hierarchy
— the theatre of lighting design — and reduce any harsh scallops often
caused by a singular lighting strategy.”
The floor plane was also deliberately isolated and set backward from
the general merchandise to approximately 160 lux, thereby reflecting a
considered retail lighting strategy which regards the floor as the least
important element in the space.
To accentuate the interior architecture of the Chadstone store, LED
lighting was integrated into the decorative timber slat features. This
created a central zone within the space and isolated the point of sale
from the entry and perimeter hiking zone (place-making).
The timber LED detail emphasises the height of the suspended
ceiling, creating open space. The aesthetic of the Chadstone Kathmandu
space is now vibrant, clean and bright with seamless integration of
interior architecture with lighting design. Kathmandu Store Development
Manager Abigail Wasmer said the whole design process ran very
smoothly. “We are delighted with the finished results, and feel that
Retailite’s lighting design reflects the vibrant nature of the Kathmandu
brand, and complements the store interior style perfectly,” she said.
“Given the success of this project, we are working with Retailite on
the rollout of additional stores and are eagerly anticipating some more
beautiful results.”
Retailite
http://www.retailite.com.aucase study
Outdoor goods retailer gets lighting upgrade
Image courtesy of Retailite