Spotlight Harrods Men’s Shoes UK Working together with interior designers David Collins Studio and architects Woods Hardwick, Lighting Design International (LDI) have brought a touch of class and distinction to the Men’s Shoes department of London’s Harrods. High-quality lighting integration, dramatic productfocused lighting and excellent colour rendering were prerequisites to the schematic design of Harrods Men’s shoes, and as such, LDI used precise light sources, carefully paired with intricate detailing and carefully coordinated finishes, to give the impression that the joinery, and the shoes themselves, magically emanate light as if they were the luminaires themselves, drawing the shopper in. The project consists of three rooms, each with its own distinctive brands and products, which are complemented by subtle changes to finishes, joinery and lighting to suit the footwear typical to each room. Graham Rollins, Associate at LDI, explained more about the design brief. “We have been working on various projects with Harrods for around six years now. As always, we are brought onto the projects as early as possible to help shape the brief and scope of the lighting through discussion with the client and interior designer. “For David Collins, this followed previous projects in the Menswear department, so the lighting for the Men’s Shoes department had to be complementary to the
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masterplan, but unique to the products and joinery in this area.” As such, Rollins and the LDI team wanted to “ensure that the luminaires were so well detailed and constructed that they were invisibly painting the finishes with light and providing highly focused, high quality illumination, without being noticed, to products”. “All product-focused luminaires are 3000K, >90CRI, with highly focused lensing, for high contrast on the product and glare baffles/detailing to conceal fittings from direct view. Each product display has multiple layers of light and multiple details to create the overall effect,” Rollins added. Entering off the central escalator towards room two, visitors are greeted by a transitional ‘pop up’ space that can be rented by brands, complete with dynamic video wall showcase niches. Custom video content can be played over the 24 individual niche backs, which give branding opportunity behind the shoes. Room two, in the centre of the department, has perimeter shelving units, where products are lit from high colour rendering concealed narrow beam spotlighting profiles, tucked inside black chamfered joinery detailing. The chainmail rear of the shelving units is lit by deep recessed diffused concealed linear LED, to provide ambient light to shelving and space. While room one, displaying formal shoes has the same
