As we edge ever closer to the festive season, a discreet and unofficial contest unfolds as London hotels and institutions vie to create the most ingenious seasonal display (we’re already taken with Paul Smith’s Christmas tree at the Royal Opera House). In Hanover Square, Mandarin Oriental Mayfair presents an installation that reinvents the traditional tree courtesy of innovative lighting designer Lee Broom.
Lee Broom at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair
The British designer is known for everything from domestic lamps (like the cute and portable ‘Chant’) to public installations during design fairs and other events – don’t miss his brutalist sculpture Beacon, currently on view as part of the Southbank Centre’s Winter Light festival. At the Mandarin Oriental, he tells a story of poetic brilliance through a site-specific installation.
At the heart of the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair’s emblematic ming green marble staircase, Broom suspends time with a stately chandelier specially designed for the occasion. ‘I wanted this sculpture to converse directly with the hotel’s architecture and to enhance the guest experience,’ he explains of the RSHP-designed property.
Made from brushed anodised aluminium and hand-blown reeded glass LED fittings, the piece casts a gilded glow over the lobby and Atrium Restaurant, which has recently refreshed its menu. ‘When the teams at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair and Mayfair Design District approached me about this project, they were immediately drawn to my idea of creating something entirely different to the traditional Christmas tree for the festive period,’ Broom says. And while a tree is still in place in the hotel, the star of the show is undoubtedly the designer’s Hail Chandelier.
Also on display at the rooftop Hanover Bar, London-based Studio Waldemeyer delivers another whimsical exercise on light design, true to its technology-forward ethos. Inspired by its collaboration with the Mythos Mozart Museum in Vienna, the Amadeus installation transforms light into melody. A constellation of LED candles flickers like a musical phrase, tracing the bar’s curved architecture in a choreographed display.
Both installations continue the hotel’s recent partnership with the Mayfair Design District, which curates a periodic display of art and design at the hotel under the theme ’Elemental Resonance – Nature Reimagined’.
Mandarin Oriental Mayfair is located at 22 Hanover Square, London W1S 1JP, United Kingdom.
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