As a company, 3LR Lighting was founded with the mantra of ‘Lighting by Emotion’. This means that every project the company works on is driven by the emotional connection that lighting can evoke; allowing our clients to truly see and experience the full potential of lighting. Over the years, we’ve greatly diversified the markets in which we work; with several residential spaces now drawing on our services. Given our homes are the places in which we spend most of our time, they are often the ones which are the most personal hence why we’re being approached by so many home-owners to help create the strongest emotional connection within their living spaces. A prime example of this is a residential home in Helsinki, for which we recently delivered a lighting design across the entire house.
The property in question is a high-end residential home, with three bedrooms set across three floors and located next to the sea. It’s a fully equipped living space, with a movie theatre, games room and sauna, yet is also primed for home-working with its own office spaces. The house recently underwent a two-year renovation project and, for the owners, lighting and the atmosphere it creates was of the utmost importance.
The homeowners knew they’d need a specialist team to deliver the exact lighting scheme they desired and so approached 3LR’s in-house Lighting Designer Karoliina Helin. She explains: “When I first met the client, their brief was to have a lighting scheme that was as flexible as possible. They wanted largely tuneable white schemes which they could programme themselves, depending on their mood or the occasion. I’d received the interior designer’s layout and went to visit the house myself to get a feel for the place. Following this, I created an initial concept with some renders for the clients to see and feedback on”.
For Karoliina, her design was broken down into two stages. Stage one saw her work on the main and upper floor whilst stage two saw her work on the basement and exterior. There was also the beach sauna that was separate to the main property. She explains: “A large part of my design was ensuring the lighting was as layered as possible. Similarly, with the client wanting the option to programme the lighting themselves, it also had to be very user-friendly and controlled via their Home Assistant System. Once we had a design we were all happy with, it was a case of then specifying the equipment”.
Karoliina drew on a range of lighting fixtures for the house, including several types of downlights, track lights and linear LED tape. Low level wall lights offer evening light for the floors, whilst indirect lighting brings an atmosphere to the various spaces during the long evenings of Finnish winter.
Karoliina explains: “As with most residential projects, the role of the lighting is largely to blend in and accentuate what’s already there as opposed to stand out as its own element. In all the open spaces, we used mainly architectural fittings such as track lights, downlights and concealed linear LED. With the bookcases, we used shelf lighting which was completely concealed. Similarly, with the various decorative pieces such as table lamps, we needed to find the correct pendants and then specify the actual lamps that could be used – ensuring absolutely all lighting aspects were holistic and fit with the overall mood of the space whilst still being controllable from the home automation system. One of the more unique aspects of the lighting was the pixel-version of tuneable white linear LED which we recessed into the staircase, for which the client wanted to programme a slowly moving chase of white light.
She continues: “Through the beach sauna glass doors, you have a magnificent view of the sea yet, like so many homes in Finland, the sauna has a lot of glazing (as did the whole house!). As such, with the lighting, I had to be careful of the reflection when it turns to night as I wanted to avoid a mirror effect. To get around this, I used low level linear LED lighting just above skirting board level, which was lighting downwards and on which the colour temperate can be changed as and when required. We also updated the garden lighting so that the outside bollards had adjustable heads; again, all for complete flexibility”.
The project is now complete, and the client has moved into their home, commenting: ‘We’re super delighted with the work from Karoliina and the 3LR team. Every lighting aspect of the house has been considered in such fine detail, and it truly transforms whatever space you’re in. As someone who is very sensitive to glare, I was particularly impressed with how they managed to keep this to an absolute minimum and how they delivered everything within a tight timeframe”.
Karoliina concludes: “More and more, we are seeing homeowners realise the importance of lighting within their homes and the impact this can have on the feel of a room. Due to our experience, expertise and access to the latest LED technology, 3LR is in a position where we can work with any individual, listen to what they want lighting to achieve within their own spaces and then deliver exactly this. It was a privilege to work on this house in Helsinki and we look forward to continuing our work in other people’s homes”.
If you’d like to discuss how lighting can transform your residential space, then please contact our friendly team on [email protected]