Nigel Coates at Glyndebourne
Newly refurbished restaurant at Glyndebourne with Nigel Coates' 'cloudeliers' (photo: Charlotte Boulton, Glyndebourne Productions)
Nigel Coates and Swarovski Crystal have joined forces to give the restaurant at Glyndebourne a much-needed face lift as part of the opera house’s 75th anniversary celebrations
The re-vamped restaurant, which will be opened this week, has been re-designed by Coates working in partnership with architects Miller Bourne. Coates has opened out the dark 1950s space and has chosen an operatic theme for the interior, using backdrops and props from past productions in a bid to inject a sense of theatrical occasion into the space. And in a fittingly dramatic design gesture, he’s lit it with 45 Cloudeliers, specially designed chandeliers each made from 132 Swarvoski crystals. They’re organic in shape – rather than perfectly symmetrical circles or ovals – and are meant to look like glittering clouds of crystals when hung in groups.
The cloudeliers are part of the Swarovski Crystal Palace project, a programme launched eight years ago to re-work conventional chandelier forms while still incorporating traditional crystals; other designers who’ve been involved in the past include Zaha Hadid, Ross Lovegrove and Tom Dixon. And this isn’t the first time Coates has used Swarovski crystal in his lighting – his dramatic Medusa light which he made for Italian lighting company Slamp was dripping with them.
www.glyndebourne.com
