The finished dome from below – the leaded geometry reading as a genuine sky-lantern.
Restoring the room, making the ceiling
What is now one grand kitchen was two – a small kitchen and a small dining room, partitioned from a space that had originally been whole. We took it back to its intended size, and gave it a ceiling worth the volume: an entirely new glass dome. Behind the glass sits a backlit LED array that emulates daylight, run through the client's Lutron system – following the real sky through the day, or holding a scene of its own. Warm and low by evening; bright and even at midday.
In the glass
The leaded-glass dome was inspired by the one over The Savoy's Thames Foyer, and made by the same specialists – Design Glass. The glass itself was developed as a run of physical samples, not chosen from a catalogue: colour and texture were worked against the backlight, the condition it would actually be seen in, and refined sample by sample, then reviewed in person before the final glass was signed off and made.
Behind the glass
The dome is an independent structure – a new frame and glass carried within the listed shell, so the historic fabric takes no new load. Delivering it meant designing to the tight constraints of the existing building and coordinating several specialists – structural engineer, glazing frame, glassmaker and lighting – to a single result. Much of the design work was in resolving those trades against each other and against the fabric, so the finished ceiling reads simply as a sky-lantern.
