MELBOURNE, Australia — Silk Road, a bar and restaurant built within a heritage-listed building, is operated and designed by Nick Zampelis and co-designed by architects Woods Bagot to inspire the ambience of a bygone era, but the lighting is strictly 21st century, with 77 LED fixtures from Anolis. Located on Collins Street, one of Melbourne’s busiest thoroughfares, the venue fuses design elements from the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia. The main bar is big enough for 950 patrons and is entered via glass doors. It’s overseen by a statue of Marco Polo, and the bar area is clad in limestone and marble from the venue’s days as a banking chamber.
It was in here that installer Light Sound Design was asked to produce a lighting scheme that minimized reflections between surfaces and highlighted individual touches of opulence.
LSD’s Adam Nevzat, who had used Anolis on other projects, recommended the fixtures for this installation as well. Forty Anolis ArcLine 36 LED strips are installed within the chandeliers in the foyer by the two-story windows, on top of the main bar and above all the upper level bars.
An Anolis ArcControl 1024 controller controls all the LEDs with data run via CAT 5 cable. They are powered by an Anolis Arc Power 144. Anolis fixtures are also installed under the main bar and the marble bar at the back of the room. The fixtures’ optics and the homogenized character of the LEDs eliminates any “shadowing” reflections around the room that might detract from its elegance.
The Anolis system lets the appearance of Silk Road’s interior adapt and change the color of the lighting throughout the evening, transforming the space to suit the mood of the crowd, adding to the venue’s buzz.
For more information, please visit www.anolis.eu.
