Koriata restaurant is a place with a message. It provides food and hospitality experience, and combines Bulgarian traditional cuisine with symbols of nationality. Placed on the Ring Road of the country’s main city, it greets the citizens and guests of the Capital Sofia.
The main restaurant building is renovated in and outside as it has had the same purpose but different outlook. According to brief it has been the lighting that would create entertaining effects in dining halls. It would also underline embroidery pattern, the integrative architectural element unifying exterior and interior design, aiming to provoke customers’ sense towards Bulgarian famous hospitality, cuisine and cultural heritage.
The building exterior is designed to remind of Bulgarian national dress with its sacred embroideries. The white façade with color lighting replicates sleeves, neck opening and bottom of male and female traditional shirt. Red color is the symbol of mother’s blood, healthy life and protection against evil. Green color brings the meaning of endless life revitalization. White color lighting, also part of the exterior light embroidery, is thought as a symbol of pureness of heart and divine light. All these are also the colors of Bulgarian national flag. The entrance cube itself is highlighted only by monochromatic white 5000 K lighting. Exterior lighting effects are achieved by combining RGB and white LED fixtures and scene controllers by Philips Color Kinetics.
Interior lighting also rely on dynamic RGB scenes. It is both ambient and focused upon embroidery ornaments in textile and blinds. The RGB fixtures are mounted in walls and ceilings. Even the bar itself is lighting integrated construction. As an offset to the colorful atmosphere and in design connection with the exterior white cube, the entrance Barrisol ceiling is tunable white. This way white color becomes the border between the restaurant and the outside world.
Two different but integrated systems for lighting control and maintenance are responsible for interior lighting effects and effectiveness. Philips Color Kinetics controls the RGB lighting and scene setting-ups. It offers dynamic lighting according preset scenes, part of the overall interior project. Philips Dynalite sets the fine tunes as it is responsible for dimming the lighting, its switching on and off in accordance to an astronomic clock. It controls the entire lighting system making it cost effective without compromises with high quality of light.
The restaurant consists of main body, winter garden and garden. Gardens are lit up with white light that corresponds to green color of plans and red color of blossoms. These three colors unify the exterior space of the entire complex. The lamps and fixtures are combined in a way to create cozy atmosphere in both winter and opened gardens.
As a final touch and in order to integrate the restaurant complex in the environment, street lighting is also included in design. Two roads and a parking lot are lit by 31 LED street lamps of high class. One of these roads is a Ring Road turn off, so it is build and lit to look like an integral part of the main road itself.
Koriata restaurant is built as an oasis of comfort and quality with focus upon customer experience. Achieving their main goal, the restaurant managers rely on dynamic lighting design.