Mao Yerevan is another exciting project where we combine architectural lighting with unique decorative elements of our glass-blowing brand Optical Metaphor.
The customer is one of the most successful restaurateurs of Yerevan, Arsen Hovhannisyan, under whose leadership the best establishments in Armenia were created. He set us an exciting task — to help the institution transform. The idea was that MAO is a restaurant during the day and a bar at night.
There is a legend around the restaurant that the owner, being a person during the day, turns into a cat by evening. To emphasize this transformation, we have developed unique lighting scenarios. During the day, we used warm accent lighting in the evening - brighter, bar-party shades. The caustic light on the path in front of the restaurant attracts the attention of passers-by, inviting them to enter. The restaurant's appearance changes are so significant that the music, uniforms of the waiters, and even menu items change according to the time of day.
The chandelier we created in our glass-blowing workshop for this restaurant resembles the image of decorative fish - fancy carp, which are very popular in East Asia and perfectly connect with the concept of the Asian fusion restaurant.
Creating chandeliers is a very delicate matter not only in terms of working with glass but also in terms of working with light because for the glass elements to play as well as possible, you need to adjust the surrounding lighting in such a way as to accentuate the optical effects in the glass. Each glass element of the chandelier is thought out to the smallest detail, filled with individuality and uniqueness — with individual bubbles, grids, and colors of filling. The fishes were designed transparent, matte, and transparent with matte "tails" - all so that on a low ceiling, each one uniquely plays with light and fills the space with a unique atmosphere.
We do all the main creative work remotely — we think over the principles and philosophy of lighting; we manufacture and send our lamps for installation. After that, our team leaves for a week or two for delicate and exciting work — setting up and adjusting lights and programming lighting scenes.
The lighting scenarios in the MAO change throughout the day, creating the most comfortable atmosphere for visitors. All this is managed by our cloud server Expolight Cloud Control System, which, like a magic wand, helps us configure and maintain projects around the world from a phone or laptop.
