Project Name: Kimpton KAFD Riyadh
Project Type: Custom Art Chandelier
Original Design: Artychoke Team
Detailed Design & Production: MATTEO Team
Construction Support: Technical guidance provided by MATTEO Team
Maximum Specification: 39 meters in height × 5 meters in diameter
Materials: Crystal Resin, Stainless Steel
Maximum Weight: 900KG
Completion Date: August 2025
Kimpton KAFD Riyadh is IHG’s first Kimpton luxury lifestyle hotel in the Middle East, invested and operated by the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD). Positioned as a 5-star high-end business and leisure landmark in the heart of the financial district, it caters to global luxury business travelers and urban elites. With a lobby ceiling height of over 40 meters, this giant resin installation—conceptually designed by Artychoke and detailed & implemented by MATTEO—serves as the visual focal point of the lobby. Crafted from fully transparent amber-colored resin, it creates a flowing, luminous suspended effect that perfectly echoes the rhythm of desert light and shadow in Riyadh.
Composed of nearly a hundred irregularly shaped resin pieces suspended by thin steel cables, the installation forms a gradient sequence from sparse to dense and large to small in the vertical space, mimicking the outline of light and shadow dancing in the desert breeze and infusing the ultra-high lobby with a light, dynamic artistic atmosphere. During the detailed design and production phase, the MATTEO team overcame multiple engineering and aesthetic challenges: each resin piece is hand-cast, with high-precision molds controlling the outline and multiple hand-polishing processes to achieve a bubble-free, fully transparent texture that emits a warm amber luster and fluidity when light passes through; a multi-point independent steel cable suspension scheme with laser positioning calibrated each piece’s angle, height, and spacing to millimeter-level precision, ensuring the fluidity and symmetry of the overall form, while mechanical simulation tests verified the load-bearing and wind resistance of all suspension joints to adapt to Saudi Arabia’s climate and building environment; light sources hidden between the pieces use the resin’s translucency to create soft, glare-free diffusion, casting dappled, dynamic light and shadow on the lobby’s marble floors and glass curtain walls, creating an immersive "suspended light waterfall" atmosphere; on-site construction adopted modular hoisting, completing high-altitude assembly and tension adjustment in units, ensuring construction safety while accurately restoring the design vision, ultimately presenting a light, levitating, and luminous visual effect.
