Dancing Leaves

Dancing Leaves

Ever since 1908, Peninsula Hotel in Paris has been located in the 19th century French neoclassicist building. In collaboration with Henry Leung and the Peninsula Hotels team, Luděk Hroch has placed the Dancing Leaves lighting body of 800 hand-blown plane-tree leaves in the main hotel lobby.

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Concept

Plane trees affiliate the Paris hotel with its sister house in Hong Kong. They grow in both of the cities, otherwise so distant, so different. Connection through idea, idea made into image, image made into realization. Realization that there’s a motion always in progress.

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The story behind the light

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Sketches

Suddenly, a motion occurs in the static hotel lobby. As if a vortex took armloads of plane-tree leaves up in the air and as if, at the same time amidst this dance, everything froze for one brief moment. As if everything in this frozen dance lit up in the dimness.

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Innovation

As if hundreds of tiny, precision-made originals were here just for the sake of composing this monumental and yet extremely light unit.

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Production

Each of the 800 leaves is a unique original. Each of them a demanding component as for dexterity, precision, and talent, and there are only a very few glass-makers capable of creating such piece of artwork.

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Components

Each component’s model is a real plane-tree leaf.

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Installation

Each leaf is design-specific and required a unique suspension solution. Due to complicated logistics, all drilling and assembly work was conducted on-site.

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Light in space

Everything stops for a moment and you stand in the vortex of autumn leaves hovering and dancing all around – around you.

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Great thanks

We appreciate all these lit people!

Luděk Hroch

Light and glass are life, and I am delighted that I can combine both in my work.