The Boathouse is a new independent café on the banks of the River Wey, which opened its doors in the summer of 2023 to introduce Soulspace, an independent members club, coworking space, event hire area, and café. The Boathouse Café serves a seasonal menu made from local produce, offering a peaceful haven along the English riverside. People can take in the beautiful views over a morning coffee, working lunch, or celebratory dinner and drinks.
The Boathouse features beautiful, sustainable design from the Interior Design agency Raw Clay that uses natural materials and responsible sourcing, taking inspiration from the river. Lighting Design studio Mistry Lighting created a lighting scheme which encompasses the entire building, featuring architectural lighting, hospitality lighting and commercial lighting. Mistry Lighting specified elegant lighting solutions from Lucent Lighting to meet the requirements of each distinctive space.
The lighting design enhances the interior and architectural features of the building. Layered lighting produces a creative and inspiring office environment to work in; the low-level decorative lighting brings comfort into the space, while table lamps provide additional task lighting when required. Pre-programmed lighting scenes within meeting rooms grant the user full flexibility to change the colour temperature and intensity of light levels to suit their requirements.
The Boathouse Café is cleverly illuminated to bring out the stunning architectural and interior features of the space, providing an ambient atmosphere for drinks, and dining and accommodating events held in the restaurant.
The architectural lighting has specifically been designed to use tuneable white lighting that changes colour and intensity throughout the day to reflect what is happening outside. Office lighting plays a crucial role in health and well-being, as it can significantly impact various aspects of both physical and mental health.
When tuned to cooler, bluish-white light in the morning and warmer, reddish-white light in the evening, light promotes the production of melatonin at night, aiding in a more restful sleep. During the day, the exposure to brighter, cooler light enhances alertness and cognitive performance. This dynamic lighting system helps regulate the circadian rhythm, leading to improved sleep patterns, enhanced alertness during the day, and better overall well-being.
Mistry Lighting have implemented this lighting system for the office spaces, illuminating a cool colour temperature in the morning which increases in intensity and colour throughout the day, and after lunch, the lighting slowly starts to turn warmer in colour temperature and dims down in intensity towards the evening hours.
The lighting scheme has been designed to be human-centric, to contribute to a healthier and more productive workplace. Furthermore, it supports energy efficiency goals by optimising lighting levels based on occupancy and external lighting conditions, thereby reducing energy consumption, and minimising environmental impact.
The beautiful, innovative and responsive lighting scheme has helped transform The Boathouse into the perfect place to work, relax, and grow, fostering an intimate sense of community and collaboration.
Project credits:
Lighting Designer – Mistry Lighting
Architect – Mitchell Evans
Interior Designer – Raw Clay
Photography – Gavriil Papadiotis
Products used:
ProSpex Soft 70 trim Accent downlight
ProSpex Soft 50 Trim Accent downlight
ProSpex 100 Trimmed Accent downlight
ProSpex Focus 60 Accent downlight
Micro 40 Focus Accent, Trimmed
ECOdrive 240/A constant current DALI dimmable
ProSpex Tube LED Mini TW Tubular Spotlight
ProSpex Tube LED Mini Gen2 Tubular Spotlight
ProSpex TubeLED Micro Tubular Spotlight
