Milos

Estiatorio Milo’s Restaurant London is the sixth restaurant from the acclaimed chef Costas Spiliadis. The Greek chef’s attention to detail was the initial starting point for lighting design of the restaurant, in a scheme by DPA, which features over fifty luminaires from Precision’s Retro range.

The restaurant, located at London’s Regent Street, resides in the Grade II listed building that previously served as British Columbia House. As part of the building redevelopment, Canadian architect Alain Carle was entrusted to redevelop the restaurant interiors.

The primary importance for Michael Curry, senior associate at DPA, when defining the lighting scheme was to ensure the food was lit well, with the cuisine at both the displays and and at the diners’ tables was to be the focus.  As Curry states, there was to be “no compromise on fashion or gimmick for decoration” in this respect.

DPA worked closely with Carle, whose design for Milo’s redefined the interior spaces as elegant backdrops to the theatre of the restaurant.

Curry explained how the lighting design was essential to bringing the interior to life: “By adding theatrical lighting accent to the food and tables, bars and displays, we’ve reinforced the visual focus and interest of these areas.”

Lifting the architecture of the space, is the decorative Studio Pendant Orb from Neidhardt, which offers a visual integration between the ground floor in the double height main restaurant space, and the mezzanine level. The affect provided by the pendants is akin to a glowing jellyfish floating within the restaurant, tying the lighting scenario thematically to Milo’s seafood menu choices.

Spotlights from Precision’s Retro range were carefully and discreetly integrated within the ceiling details to pick out both the tables below and focal areas of the restaurant, including the bar and fish displays.

Curry says of the choice of spotlight: “The Retro luminaires were chosen for the simple and sympathetic design of spotlights as well as the seamless integration of the ReTrac system within the ceiling details to the mezzanine and the feature ceiling above the ground floor bar where sensitive detailing was needed”.

ReTrac is Precision’s discreet low-voltage recessed track system, and white cover strips were used to conceal the track for maximum aesthetic integration to suit Carle’s interiors.

Further Retro spotlights, again installed via Retrac, were employed to cast light across the earthenware feature urns that decorate the periphery of the upper restaurant space.