High ceilings demand attention, but the trick is keeping the floor intimate. This space manages exactly that through a brilliant manipulation of scale and texture."
Walk into this lobby, and the first thing that hits you is the verticality.
Double-height spaces are notoriously tricky. They can easily feel cavernous or distinctly unwelcoming, leaving guests feeling like they are sitting at the bottom of a well. This project, however, tackles the volume head-on. It establishes a dialogue between the sky-high ceiling and the very literal ground beneath your feet, creating a lounge that feels simultaneously expansive and fiercely intimate.
Here is a breakdown of how the design elements work together to achieve this balance.
Shaping the Airspace
You can't ignore the lighting. It is the defining gesture of the room.
Rather than relying on a single, massive chandelier to fill the void, the designers opted for a staggered cluster of oversized LED halos. Finished in a brushed metallic bronze, these rings hover at varying elevations. They act as architectural interventions rather than simple fixtures. By suspending them relatively low over the seating area, they effectively create a secondary, psychological ceiling. They bring the scale of the room down to a human level, making the conversation pit beneath them feel protected and cozy despite the vast airspace above.
Texture and Kinetics at the Hearth
Anchoring the far wall is a modern, linear fireplace. The firebox is set into a deep gray surround, but it’s the wall treatment above it that deserves closer inspection.
A floor-to-ceiling stretch of tight, vertical wood fluting draws the eye straight up, exaggerating the height of the room. Scattered across this deeply textured backdrop is a flock of metallic birds in mid-flight. Animal motifs can sometimes skew a bit too literal or dated, but here, the application works. The warm bronze finish ties back to the overhead lighting, and their asymmetrical placement introduces a sense of kinetic energy against the rigid geometry of the wood slats.
The surrounding walls are kept purposely quiet. Clad in crisp, oversized off-white panels with subtle grid reveals, they provide a clean canvas that prevents the room from feeling visually chaotic.
Organic Movement Underfoot
Then there is the floor. It is a spectacular, high-gloss expanse of heavily veined, reddish-brown stone.
While the walls and lighting rely on strict geometry—circles, vertical lines, grids—the floor provides the necessary organic counterpoint. The heavy, sweeping veins look almost liquid. Because the surface is highly polished, it acts like a dark mirror, reflecting the flames from the hearth and the glowing rings overhead. This reflection doubles the visual impact of the lighting without requiring any extra wattage.
This isn't a space you just pass through on your way to the elevator. It is a destination in itself. By expertly layering lighting, contrasting strict geometry with organic stone, and anchoring the vast volume with intimate seating, the designers have created a lobby that asks you to sit down, stay a while, and look up.