Assembly Hotel, London


March 20, 2019

Nulty has recently announced completion on the lighting scheme of one of London’s newest urban-inspired hotels: Assembly Hotel. Based centrally in Charing Cross Road, Assembly is an incredibly exciting addition to the capital’s hotel scene, featuring nine floors of guest rooms and a cosmopolitan rooftop restaurant on the tenth floor with outstanding views of the bustling city below.

Working closely with architects Scott Brownrigg, Nulty’s team were given a brief to reflect the edgy and urban tone of the Assembly brand. Lighting designer Kathrin Nuestro says, “the hotel has an alluring and seductive vibe within all of the spaces, and the top floor restaurant has spectacular views. We were very excited to have a chance to play with colour and textures in the space and use lighting elements to reflect and support the brands strong aesthetic.”

This cosmopolitan look is immediately apparent upon approaching the building where chevron-shaped, linear LED lighting is positioned in repetition above the front door, and then on the ceiling of the internal corridor, confidently welcoming visitors in.

A micro-reception desk required carefully targeted small LED downlights to illuminate the task area and ensure enough light for visitors upon booking in.

These narrow downlights continue throughout the corridors of the hotel, keeping these spaces moody yet ensuring the doors are properly illuminated to ensure ease of entry. Bright pink acrylic boxes punctuate the corridors encouraging way-finding, whilst producing a pop of provocative coloured-light in a relatively dark space.

Each of the cosy, yet perfectly formed bedrooms have a diffused glass tube of LED light attached on the wall as you walk in, mimicking a neon-baton. When guests immediately enter the room, this light gives off a deep magenta glow. When the key card is inserted it turns to a more practical, white light. The effect of this is a sense of playfulness and surprise, and the hue also reflects the hotel’s distinct branding. This striking magenta is carried through into the bathroom in a similar way. Before entering the bathroom, the frosted globe wall light’s brass plate is back-lit with a magenta light reflecting off the white tiles. When the light switch is turned on the magenta back light disappears, and the white globe turns on, serving a more practical purpose of ensuring non-shadow, diffused illumination in front of the mirror.

This back-lit reflection is repeated in the bedroom with an innovative coat rack, where the largest circular hook is back-lit serving as a practical place for storage as well as a mood-enhancer.

A series of lighting options around the bed ensures guests have various choices for controlling the lighting of the space depending on the need. A soft integrated cove detail above the bed washes the back wall with an ambient light and a pair of suspended naked bulbs with a concrete-like base provide an urban, industrial feel. Reading lights are fixed on either side of the bed frame, with dimmable switches for all of these, at arm’s length.

The 10th floor rooftop restaurant – The B&H Garden Room, is a luscious addition to the hotel. Floor to ceiling windows with outstanding urban views are punctuated by strips of outdoor LED lights between the planting and the base of the exterior windows. These strips of light also reflect in the exterior glass railing, making for a fun play of light, and maximising the illumination provided. In the outside lounge area, the integrated linear lights are continued through and sit flush against the timber floor and concrete wall.

www.nultylighting.co.uk