Articolo at Sydney’s Mercado restaurant

Beautiful custom lights from Articolo Architectural Lighting bring a sense of drama to Sydney’s Mercado restaurant. The result of a successful collaboration with a premier Sydney architect, Articolo’s opulent custom lighting designs are an essential ingredient for this stylish new restaurant.

Articolo was founded in 2010 by internationally acclaimed Australian designer Nicci Green and its beautiful designs now light up some of the world’s most celebrated interior spaces. Despite its international following, the company’s commitment to craftsmanship ensures that each element of an Articolo design is handcrafted to the highest standards by Australian artisans.

When looking for a lighting partner for Mercado, the Sydney based architects sought to engage Articolo due to its collaborative approach and its reputation for unique, luxurious lighting of the highest quality.

Articolo’s partnership on this project is the latest in a long line of successful collaborative projects for Nicci Green and her acclaimed lighting company. Articolo has an enviable track record of teaming up with leading design practices and clients in Australia and across the world and the outstanding results are always based on an intelligent, research-based response to both a brief and the overall ambience of a space.

Located in the basement of the heritage-listed 350 George Street building, Mercado, which is Spanish for market, features an elegant and sophisticated design that spans a large floor plan. With head chef Nathan Sasi (formerly chef of Nomad in Surry Hills) at the helm, the Mediterranean-inspired menu is equally exciting and ambitious. Not only do the culinary talents at Mercado make their own cheese, they also butcher their own meat and bake their bread using house-milled grains. Wood- fired ovens pair up with a rotisserie to produce spit-roasted lambs and suckling pigs and the ever-changing menu features the finest fresh ingredients of the seasons.

Articolo’s initial brief was to develop a series of custom pendant lighting fixtures specifically designed for Mercado based on their beautiful mouth-blown glass Fizi ball fittings. From here, Nicci’s expertise in working in scale, depth and dimension became essential skills to ensure that the pendants did not get lost within the large space yet did not overpower the overall interior design.

‘The lights needed to be statement pieces and this made the Fizi Ball designs the perfect choice. They feature a unique explosion of bubbles that, when lit, throw dramatic patterns and movement into the surrounding space and onto the walls,” says Nicci.

Articolo approached this custom lighting project from a variety of perspectives and developed a number of resolved concepts that allowed the architects and client to determine the most appealing direction.

The final concept features a series of interconnecting Fizi ball pendants that appear to multiply in an almost geometric configuration as they span from the ceiling to the walls.

The Fizi balls are featured in groups of 3, 5 and 10 interlocking pendants and in single and double wall sconces. The mix of fittings in Articolo black finish is accented with linished brass to appear in various elements of the lighting throughout the room. The result is the addition of Articolo’s characteristic artisanal beauty blended with a sense of consistency throughout the space. There are also subtle, intrinsic differences in the handcrafted designs, which add to the distinctive, opulent ambience.

Articolo Architectural Lighting