Wellness Resort

           Wellness above all, this was the overarching theme we were presented with when we were tasked with illuminating a private resort tucked away just 2 hours south of Manila. This prompted us to take a little more of a scientific approach to employing the design, as we wanted to preach wellness with every bulb and fixture we put in place. 

          Lighting can affect two main aspects of a person’s overall well being, the first aspect of this would be the eyes. Light that’s too bright can cause irritation, tearing, and diminishes overall optical health, meanwhile something too dim causes the person to strain their eyes far more than they have to in order to see what’s around them. The second aspect is light’s ability to alter someone’s mood, believe it or not lighting as the power to do just that. Perpetual dimness can diminish a good mood, and perpetual brightness can sometimes cause physical irritation to the eyes which then can affect the person's mood. 

           Once we were able to establish a plan, we went to work tackling the communal spaces first before going on to the living and spa spaces. We wanted to quickly implement a strategy that at no point throughout a guest’s stay here should they have to strain their eyes. Which meant we were quick to decide on a range of color temperatures to use throughout the property. 2500-3000k was where we settled and consistently stayed within those parameters for the duration of the project. 

          In the rooms, we utilized cove lighting running around the perimeter of the ceiling to create a generally relaxing ambience in the room. For the task oriented areas we used a slightly stronger lumen output, so when the guests needed to step back and focus on something for a while they could do so in the comfort of their own room. 

              For the communal areas, we challenged ourselves to utilize beam angles to show the lights glowing inwards into the property. While this is usually a fundamental design principle with retail stores, in order to attract customers, we also found it useful here as well. One of the client’s core wellness tenets is to create an introspective environment. We felt that creating an inward glow for the lights was right on theme. 

           Overall we really felt like we accomplished our clients goals of creating a wellness-centric environment without being too overwhelming. While the property in itself is beautiful, and feels like an escape from the hustle and bustle of Manila, we did not want our lighting to take away from that.