Lighting plays a key role in defining GAP’s new visual identity in the company’s Seattle flagship store. Six individual shops are combined within an open, three-floor volume to create a striking 37,000 square foot retail environment. The lighting’s design centers on large suspended ‘clouds’ of custom-designed prefabricated metal ceiling panels, simultaneously bringing definition to individual spaces while creating a strong, coherent whole.
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Within the clouds, metal ceiling panels are perforated by a series of predefined apertures placed asymmetrically across their breadth. Lighting thus becomes the signature design element of the space, creating an expressive series of elements that define the space without the rigidity of a straightforward grid.
Many of these modular, easily fabricated and assembled panels house multiple lamps clustered within an oblong aperture and are juxtaposed with panels housing round aperture metal halide or compact fluorescent downlights.
At the project’s entry the two-story atrium is capped with a ceiling cloud that defines this tall, vertical space with the glow of asymmetric fixtures that light the soffit and the space below. Custom fixtures with metal halide lamps are integrated within this architecture to illuminate the entirety of the thirty foot high space.
Lamps in track-mounted adjustable accent fixtures are recessed into architectural slots in the ceiling and the adjacent metal panel ceiling, highlighting merchandise which can be flexibly arrayed through the entire store.
The architecture of the atrium’s suspended cloud ceiling is also enhanced by a glowing ring of backlit acrylic panels, creating a diffuse light from which the clouds appear to float with no visible means of attachment. This system of secondary lighting works in conjuction with other ambient and focused sources to accent merchandise on the floor below.
This array creates a color mix reminiscent of warm sunlight which permeates the space below, providing a relaxed retail environment which can be both focused or more diffuse, lighting spaces at a range of scales from the grand multi-level entry to intimate displays.
At either side of the space, floor-to-ceiling graphics are illuminated with continuous linear wallwashers while smaller PAR lamps deliver punch to the lower portion of the graphics from the eighteen foot high ceiling. Merchandise in front of these large scale displays is separated by a series of focused lights, creating a series of layered lighting systems which results in an even, glare-free illumination.
