Radilum · Architectural Cascades — Atelier Case Studies
Custom · Bespoke · Atelier
Cascades, written into the architecture.
For two decades Radilum has been making lighting that earns its place in homes — but a quieter part of our work happens elsewhere. In hotel atriums fifteen metres tall. In ballrooms the size of small theatres. On staircases that wind for three storeys. Six commissions from the atelier order book, retold from the project files, each one paired with the smaller production fixture it grew out of.
§ 00 · The Atelier Method
A private fixture, scaled to a public room.
Most of these projects begin the same way: a designer or an owner sends us a photograph of a small fixture they already love — a candle-arm chandelier, a beaded pendant, a single alabaster sphere — and asks whether we can build it ten, twenty, fifty times the size, into a ceiling that has to carry a room. We almost always can. The atelier holds the design language and the original geometry; our engineers redraw the load path, recalculate the lighting plan, and rebuild the piece at the new scale.
What follows are six commissions documented against the production fixture each one began as. The dimensions, the finishes, the freight routes are taken from the real project files. Names of ownership groups and design studios are withheld as a matter of course, and full trade references are available to qualified specifiers on request.
01
The Alabaster Rain.
Abu Dhabi · UAE The Oasis Towers Hotel · lobby atrium · Source Alabaster Balls Cluster · 2024
As Installed
Detail · Sphere
Detail · Plate
The Story The reference was the Alabaster Balls Cluster — a fixture small enough to hold in two hands. The site was a lobby atrium in Abu Dhabi, ceiling height fifteen metres. Scaling one to the other meant three diameters of hand-polished sphere instead of the production single, and a matte-black ceiling plate drawn to almost three metres across. We composed the whole cluster asymmetrically in engineering software before a single sphere was turned, so the piece would read as controlled rain rather than a repeating pattern from the lobby's main viewing angle. The plate travelled in four crated sections; each sphere travelled separately, hand-numbered against the hanging plan. Installation ran three days on site.
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02
The Grand Ballroom Chandelier.
London · UK The Westminster Royal Palace · ballroom refurbishment · Source Cebu Chandelier
As Installed
Detail · Cascade
Detail · Candle Arm
The Story The brief came from a refurbishment team in London who had already committed to the room. The reference was the Cebu Chandelier, and the question was whether we could scale it into a ballroom the height of a small theatre without the piece looking timid. The production Cebu holds one tier of candle-arms. We drew three, added a full crystal cascade beneath, and specified a bronze-plated brass frame considerably heavier than the standard piece — with counterweight and load path signed off by the site's structural engineer before we cut any metal. Every crystal position was set in the drawing set. The fixture shipped through Rotterdam and hung at the correct elevation on the first attempt.
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03
The Grand Staircase Cascade.
Paris · France The Heritage Manor Hotel · three-storey stair well · Source Marni Beaded Chandelier
As Installed
Detail · Strings
Detail · Ceiling Plate
The Story A hotel operator in Paris sent a section drawing of a three-storey stair well and a photograph of the Marni Beaded Chandelier. The commission was to open Marni across three floors: spherical light strings radiating out of a circular gold ceiling plate, dropping into a concave V. The lengths were the whole problem. Every string had to arrive at a specific elevation for the guest's eye rising the stair, and no two could tangle in the finished piece. We calibrated the lengths against the operator's sight-line drawings, produced a full-scale plate, and dry-hung the entire cluster in the workshop before crating so nothing on site would be a first attempt. It reads as paused motion — splashing water, or fireworks caught between frames.
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04
The Golden Butterfly Migration.
Vancouver · Canada Aurora Sky Tower Residences · double-height lobby · Source Tidal Art Glass Chandelier
As Installed
Detail · Spiral
Detail · Element
The Story A residential tower in Vancouver sent the Tidal Art Glass Chandelier as its reference and asked for something residents would remember on the way in. The production Tidal is a single spiral. The lobby brief was a spiral of dozens — sized and staggered so the whole descent moved with the eye of anyone walking up or down the internal stair. We built a scale model against the stair drawing before finalising the element spacing, because the piece had to hold together from three different sight lines: the ground floor looking up, the first landing looking across, and the top floor looking down. From the landing it reads as butterflies caught mid-flight. From two floors up it reads as autumn leaves. Both were the point.
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05
The Spring Oak Canopy.
Bespoke Commission Full-height private atrium · Source Spring Oak Tree Chandelier
As Installed
Detail · Drawing
Detail · 3D Render
The Story A private atrium commission taken directly from the Spring Oak Tree Chandelier: same branching geometry, same warm points of light at each bud, drawn to fill the ceiling of a full-height room. The engineering settled around the trunk. Its diameter had to carry the weight of every branch and every lit bud on those branches, and the branch span had to reach the atrium's outer walls without the canopy looking crowded from directly beneath. Drawings and 3D studies moved between the atelier and the client for several rounds before any metal was cut — the second and third images here are from that exchange. The commission was signed off from the renders shown; installation is scheduled for the season.
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06
The Luminous Cascade.
Dubai · UAE Luxury Hotel Atrium · ten-metre drop · Source Collier Chandelier · 2024
As Installed
Detail · Crystal
Detail · Connector
The Story A hotel atrium commission from Dubai, taken from the Collier Chandelier. Fifteen strands. Ten metres of drop from ceiling plate to lowest bead. We kept the production Collier's faceted crystal and warm gold connector — those were the point of choosing Collier as the reference — but every strand length was recalculated for the atrium's specific ceiling height, and the strand-to-strand spacing was tuned by eye against a scale model before the first bead was strung. The piece hangs today from a single reinforced ceiling point, and the maintenance access for lamp changes was engineered into the ceiling plate at the start, not solved after the fact.
Begin Your Commission
A sketch, a floor plan, a fixture you already love.
From concept through engineering, crating, freight, installation, and on-site programming, the atelier handles the whole arc of a custom commission. Most enquiries begin with a single email — a room, a reference, and a question about scale. We answer every one within 24 hours.
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