Cienna Ultralounge is a venue in the heart of Astoria [Queens, NY] designed to offer the ultimate entertainment experience to the discerning New York crowd. If Cienna Restaurant is an exercise on experiential lightness, Cienna Ultralounge is an essay on softness. This project is conceptually linked to the mathematical clarification of the shape of a silk cocoon via a cosine Fourier series. Formally, the space transposes such geometric formalization into a meandering system of openings on the ceiling and walls. The space is a cocoon entirely made of a seamless, tufted upholstered shell. The distribution of the 8,888 buttons defining the tufting was organized via 3D software, and allowed for precise fabrication and permissible tolerances. The system of openings in the ceiling and walls of this shell is punctuated by 88,888 acrylic strands. Behind them is a system of LED light fixtures softly flooding the strands and the space with warm hues... and responding to music impulses via adhoc software. The space has reachable boundaries that offer a soft, tactile, sexy experience… the seating is made of sensuously outlined booths continuing the tufted shell. The tables are custom made in a sumptuous, full profile of poplar wood, and are lacquered in a gloss finish. The 45-foot bar shares its design with the bar at Cienna Restaurant. It is a lighted prism of honey onyx, and balances the DJ booth across the venue. The DJ booth also functions as a stage for live performances, as its sides are removable. The sound system is state-of-the-art and is fully integrated in the tufted shell.
The sound system, the lighting system, and all other design systems are experientially and technologically inter-connected, as they exist and support one another to offer a seamless overall performance.
