Le Cab
 Paris
     May 2004

click to enlarge

    When the owners of restaurant-club Cabaret entrusted the design of their new rooms to the Ora-Ito group they were sure to get something special. Dubbed Le Cab, the new bar, club and lounge has been given a scheme which combines form, colour and texture to staggering effect.

    Contrary to what you might expect from a venue with such strong futuristic overtones, the club interior is also soft and sensual. Leather-lined alcoves and geometric shaped furniture reveal a Kubrik-inspired approach to the design. Lighting too plays a major role with French specialist SES Giraudon called in to realise Ora-Ito's vision.

    Giraudon used over four hundered Color Kinetics iColor Cove LED strip units, located behind translucent panels and two way mirrors, to give the illusion of a constantly morphing interior. To enhance this effect, the dance floor was treated as a flat monochrome object, reflecting the everchanging slits of light all around. To counteract any potential disorientation this may cause the clientel, a giant wooden strip has been incorporated into the interior scheme. Running from one end of the club to the other, the strip guides the visitor through the venue, connecting the bar, dancefloor and lounge. It wraps together - and so blurs the distinction between - floor and ceiling, heightening the intimacy of the venue.

    This game is continued in the lounge. A raised dias (or 'bed') is laden with four enormous ring shaped seating banks, playing with size and scale to redefine the visitor's notion of human space and dimension. A perfect example is the large corian-moulded DJ booth, which ensures attention is firmly focused on the turntablist ensconced within.

      light

      412 x Color Kinetics iColor Cove LED strip unit; 1 x Sunlite 2004 First Class controller; 12 x 2KW DMX Lighttech SP 12 Pro; 16 x Pulsar Chromalight LED projectors; 14 x Martin Pro Mini Mac moving head; 5 x SES Giraudon High tension RGB system; 55 x Color Kinetics iColor MR; 4 x Martin Pro MX-10; 1 x Martin Pro Fibersource; 2 x Philips video projecter 1500 LMS; 1 x LGF 50Ó Plasma screen; 1 x Vity 12 Ò control monitors; 1 x Pioneer DVD; 1 x SVHS Pro VCR; 1 x Vity DVM5 video controller; 1 x Vity V12X6
      sound

      DJ booth: 2 x Technics SL1200 turntable; 2 x Pioneer CDJ 1000 CD player; 1 x Allen & Heath X Zone mixer; Dancefloor: 10 x Mach M82I speaker; 4 x Mach M152I Subs; 6 x Powersoft Digam 5000 amplifier; Peripheral rooms: 32 x EV Evid4.2 speaker; 6 x Mach M15I Sub; 10 x QSC 1850 amplifier Zone controllers: 1 x DBX drive rack 480s EQ; 1 x Rami VCA 8 zones; 1 x RAMI SNA5J email: ses.giraudon@wanadoo.fr

      www.powderdeep.com