We are excited to announce that we have received a national IES Illumination Award of Merit for our Royalmount Dining Hall project Le Fou Fou! The IES Illumination Awards program recognizes individuals for professionalism, ingenuity, and originality in lighting design based on the individual merit of each entry. Judges are selected from a broad professional spectrum, representing knowledge of lighting and design excellence. These awards are kind of like the Grammys of lighting design and receiving one is a big honour, so congratulations to our team.
Below is some information about the lighting design, for the curious. You can see more photos of the finished project in our portfolio at Le Fou Fou.
Our team at GMLD collaborated on this quick turnaround project with Quebec developer Carbonleo, with the leadership of the talented design team of Lemay Michaud and in collaboration with Lambert et Fils.
Le Fou Fou is a European style food hall; a collection of top-tier culinary offerings sharing a large seating area, each with a distinctive character. Featuring 900 seats in 30,000 sf, a rich design palette with the ambiance of a high-end restaurant is key to transcending a shopping centre food hall experience.
Regressed track sources highlight tabletops, feature murals and surrounding walls, providing balanced contrast ratios for visual comfort and keeping focus away from the exposed ductwork.
The same track fixtures are integrated behind backlit bulkheads, zoned here for food preparation, dining and menu illumination, minimizing fixture types and complexity of install.
A family of large-scale custom luminaires help anchor and distinguish each area. Bold and memorable to visitors, they keep the focus at the human scale.
Best-in-class colour rendering and quality white sources ensure that food and diners look their best. Tunable white sources adjust for daylight from large windows along one wall.
Efficient direct lighting and dimming control system contributes to targeted LEED Gold and WELL Silver certifications, project is carbon neutral. Power density below ASHRAE targets.
Use of innovative warm dimming sources maintains a hospitality atmosphere, using basic track fitters to manage budgets and allow investment in high impact decorative lighting.
The layered lighting concept provides visual comfort and lighting quality, meeting diners needs while supporting the owners goal, making the dining hall an iconic, and apparently award-winning destination! Congratulations again to the design team of this space – check it out the next time you are in Montreal, and get in touch if you’re considering some award-winning lighting designers for your project!