The club's motto aptly summarises its' ambitions: 'nightlife is lifestyle is nightlife' - a homage to the fashion and style driven surroundings with which both Belmondo and now Culture Club have become synonymous.

A mixture of quality music and entertainment, fashion, slick interior design, art and technology have merged to create a venue which is both glamourous and luxurious, functional and fun.

Club architect Glenn Sestig has been charged with creating the chic Culture Club environment and was given the responsibility of 'reinventing the concept of clubbing'. This he has done with 'an unrelentingly urban and contemporary design' that combines sharp, minimal lines, a modern use of material and more than touch of luxury. All in all - a simple yet timelessly elegant concept. Indeed Culture Club is one of the first of its type where architecture plays the dominant role

. The club is made up of two individual rooms (a third is set to be added in due course) split by a glass wall. The main room is predominantly House music lead whilst the other has a firm leaning towards R&B. Natural finishes such as stone have been used throughout the club to provide a warm atmosphere whilst differing ceiling heights create areas of intimate and less intimate zones in correspondence with the functionality of space.

Colour remains of major importance and Sestig, whilst constantly attempting to bridge the gap between concept and efficiency, remains focused on the look of the space. Pink predominates and adds not only warmth but accentuates the glamourous, sexy side of Culture Club's personality.

Although the club's interior design takes centre stage, the clever use of lighting effects have brought the club to life via a vibrant splash of primary colour from lighting concept experts Lux Lumen.

"The general idea was to create an atmosphere rather than the typical light and audio show," explains Lux-Lumen's Duncan Verstraeten. "The attention is very much focussed on the club's minimalist architecture and, as a result, a lighting rig in the traditional sense does not exist - every fixture used has been hidden in order to complement the interior concept rather than interrupt it. The use of colour is completely synchronised as the natural materials used at the club do not allow the use of all available colour in the Martin Professional MX4 scans for example. You will never find three different colours at the same time."

Duncan continues: "Gobo selection has proved crucial and only three are used - standard open, the cone and a small dot. Again the architecture limits the movement of the intelligent light. No light is directed onto the walls and all radiation, except that which exudes onto the dancefloor, is prohibited.

These restrictions may seem harsh, but when applied it results in a very special atmosphere. Light Jockeys have had a hard time in this environment, the dynamic is made by shutter sequences manually triggered on the beat since movements and colour changes are very limited. This requires a 100% interaction with the performing DJ's but it works very well."

Lighting control throughout the club comes courtesy of a Light Jockey PC based system from Martin Professional and for direct access a Fingers panel has recently been added.

Central to the club's aesthetic is a custom made DMX controlled RGB fluorescent system which saturates the space with colour when needed. This system works throughout the club and is capable of producing lightning fast colour changes, flashes or smooth transitions.

"The Lighting is simple yet effective," continues Duncan. "Fluorescent tubes with colour filters on conventional 0-10v dimmers produce a global glow. As an added effect we have hidden eight striplights with red dichroic 20w halogen lamps into the air conditioning tunnels around the club and a simple pushbutton in the DJ booth engages a huge red blast."

Audiowise Culture Club makes use of a Nexo sound system which is the same in both rooms and comprises of SI1000 speakers for the main system and a mixture of PS15, PS10 and PS8s for monitoring and peripheral work. The system is driven via amplification from both Crest and Crown.