Signify: Bringing Singapore’s garden city indoors

BACKGROUND
Singapore gets serious when it comes to gastronomical experiences. Combine that with an award-winning Singaporean restaurateur and you get Picnic, an out-of-this-world dining concept new in the scene. Taking diners and Instagrammers by storm, delivering the best in great taste in its tastefully done up interiors. Located on the third level of Wisma Atria along downtown Orchard Road, the 10,000 square feet restaurant successfully brings the outdoors in, featuring custom-made food trucks, parked within the indoor gardens.

Serving heritage favourites and contemporary dishes around the world, and housing its own third-wave coffee bar and a bespoke cocktail bar, the lighting concept in the restaurant is dynamic, vibrant yet feels comfortable and natural. Bringing to the table more than just gourmet dishes, diners are promised a fully immersive dining experience. The space has three seatings: the flower conservatory, the Astroturf-covered picnic grounds, and the beer garden, all of which can accommodate up to 270 guests. All three areas have been designed with well-travelled, hip, social media-savvy food lovers in mind.

Well thought-out details such as glass tables, fresh flowers, and lush greenery landscaped by renowned florist Harijanto Setia wan make each area comfortable to dine at, and always picture-perfect. With a menu that changes according to the four seasons, the owner Cheng Hsin Yao researched and looked around for the most natural source of ambient lighting solutions, that could amp up the dining experience, by giving out light alike passing clouds in the day to rosy sunsets and starry night skies.

We were excited when we found that Philips Luminous textiles could recreate softly nuanced and abstracted imagery within the space, without causing glare, which was ideal for the restaurant since diners would be sitting very close to these panels.” Felicia Toh, architect and designer at Quarters Design Studio

THE PROJECT

Bright ideas came alive when restaurateur Cheng Hsin Yao and his architect and designer – Felicia Toh of Quarters Design Studio envisioned a place which could offer the best of both worlds: the liveliness and exuberance of outdoor dining in a much-appreciated air-conditioned indoor environment set within a Mallon the sunny island of Singapore, which is hot and humid all year round.

The challenge they had was how to transform an indoor space within a shopping mall to mimic an outdoor park, which requires a lot of natural ambient light. Moreover, the deep floorplan of the existing Wisma Atria unit, which only had windows along one side, and the relatively low ceiling height made it difficult to achieve the concept.

“We wanted to create an atmosphere where nuances of street scenes could be distilled within the space – moving traffic, cloudscapes, floral fields. We imagined viewing these scenes through ‘window frames’, and suspended overhead from the ceilings, so the atmosphere of the exterior would envelop the interior space. We were excited when we found that Philips Luminous textiles could recreate softly nuanced and abstracted imagery within the space, without causing glare, which was ideal for the restaurant since diners would be sitting very close to these panels.”, explained Felicia.

To turn this vision into reality, Hsin Yao and Felicia passionately worked with Philips Lighting Design specialists to specify innovative and beautifully designed lighting solutions for this project. Philips Luminous Textile panels were used as the stage backdrop, above and all around the flower garden and beer garden to mimic scenes of changing seasons with its customised decorative effects. More than just lighting, the Philips Luminous Textile panels integrate multicolored LEDs seamlessly and romantically within beautiful fabric panels that helped too with sound absorption. It can easily recreate a clear blue sky, a Balinese sunset, the electric glow of neon lights, or a star-lit evening; the only limit is one’s imagination. The fabric panels also enhanced the restaurant’s acoustics; pipe in music came out crisp and clear and was not overpowering, allowing guests to enjoy their meals alongside good conversations.

BENEFITS
With the lighting solutions carefully calibrated to provide the best hues and the right colour temperature throughout the day, Picnic was able to stay true to its name, giving diners an authentic outdoor dining experience in an unpretentious indoor setting. There is a warm, sunset-like glow come evening and the lights gradually dim by night time. The lighting can also be customized to suit the theme of an event or a guest’s personal style. “The dynamic lighting system and professional consultancy services that Philips Lighting Singapore team provided truly exceeded our expectations. Working relentlessly with my systems integrator to solve every creative challenge along the way, it is this spirit of innovation that makes Philips Lighting an amazingly forward-thinking partner, always keen to help customers like us create new  experiences that go far, far beyond illumination,” said Hsin Yao.

Client
Picnic – by Omakase Burger
10,000 square feet
13 gourmet food trucks/counters
located indoors underneath ‘skies’ & walls
illuminated by Philips LED
3 seating zones: Flower garden,Astroturf picnic
park and Beer garden > 2,000 fully programmable and controllable lights from Philips Lighting
Location: Wisma Atria, Orchard Road, Singapore

Philips products
Luminous textiles
Modular Instrument Lighting
Koledo Lights
Colour Kinetics PureStyle
Colour Burst Powercore
Master LED tube
Dimmable LED DecoClassic filament bulbs

Project
Creating a first-of-its-kind indoor garden dining experience through the integration of innovative lighting technology and customer-centric programming, to reflect four seasons along with menu changes throughout the year.

– Construction+ Online