The Smile · Londres

MCI Group together with our distributor in the UK, Atrium, participated in the lighting of the installation “The Smile”. One of the most important and surprising installations of the last edition of the London Design Festival 2016. Linear Flex flexible LED strips were used for the interior of the structure, and SmartLedFlex at the base of the structure.

The Smile, designed by Alison Brooks Architects, in collaboration with the American Hardwood Export Council, ARUP and SEAM Design, is an immense urban installation that showcases the structural and spatial potential of American tulipwood plywood. The structure’s rectangular, curved design spans an impressive 34 meters long, 3.5 meters high and 4.5 meters wide.

Atrium was brought into the project by SEAM Design, responsible for providing identity and light to the installation, to provide the best lighting solution for the project. “We have worked with SEAM for many years,” said Patrick Lourie of Atrium. “When they contacted us to be part of this incredible project, it was an opportunity we didn’t want to pass up. After sharing the initial lighting concepts for The Smile, we knew immediately that MCI Group’s range of products would be the perfect solution to achieve the lighting effect they wanted to achieve.”

“The installation appears to be levitating and defying the law of gravity,” added Javier Aznarez, lighting designer and architect at SEAM Design. “The lighting at the base with SmartLedFlex has helped us enhance the idea of a floating installation, making the structure appear lighter. Once inside, the curved shape connects visitors to the sky as if the structure and the sky were continuous. Linear Flex lighting helps us guide visitors to the ends where the lighting continues the curve and extends the interior space into the sky.”

“The Smile stages simplicity and weightlessness. The lighting feeds this concept by casting light along the floor where the structure touches the ground erasing the gravity of its mass,” said Emory Smith, principal of SEAM Design.

The lighting fills the volume of the interior with a warm luminous glow. All of this is achieved with Linear Flex LED lines – minimalist and geometric, seamlessly integrated into the structure. “The end result is like a lantern in the landscape, an intimate interior space that draws people in,” added Smith.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

CREDITS AND PARTNERS
Texts by Mondo Arc – www.mondoarc.com
Alison Brooks Architects – www.alisonbrooksarchitects.com
Seam Design – www.seam-design.com
American Hardwood Export Council – www.americanhardwood.org
Arup – www.arup.com
Atrium – www.atrium.ltd.uk
The London Design Festival – www.londondesignfestival.com/smile
Züblin – www.zueblin.de
University of the Arts London – www.arts.ac.uk

http://www.thetulipwoodsmile.info/partners/