Illumination of Ginza Diamond Shiraishi

Photo 1 Illumination of Ginza Diamond Shiraishi Hamamatsu Matsubishi Store

Outline

Ginza Diamond Shiraishi is a Wedding Diamond specialty store. Each store offers a unique and pleasant shopping environment where couples — mainly those soon to be married — can come to find dreams and happiness in the form of precious stones.

Only the minimum required illumination is used for each store to show the stones at their most beautiful. Halogen lamps with dichroic mirrors are used to present diamonds in the most attractive way possible.

Lighting Plan

The lighting Plan for this store was developed based on the concept of “the required light, where it is needed” (Photo 1, 3). From the construction stage, the position of fixtures and equipment was set to match the various elements of each store, including showcases, customer reception areas, glass wall cases (Photo 2), and marking boards. Equipment and light distribution from lamps was selected with attention to incidence angles based on the relationship between the fixtures and the ceiling height, and similar lamps with different light distributions were used in the same store in locations where the ceiling height differed.

Of the various types of halogen lamps with dichroic mirrors available, 3200 K bulbs were selected for their ability to present diamonds at their most attractive. In this case as well, lights were selected to suit the unique characteristics of each store, as the colors and other aspects of interior decorations can influence the effect substantially.
The level of Illuminance above the showcases is set at about 2,000 lx, and above the customer reception areas between 1,000 and 1,500 lx. All other lighting is set at between 100 and 300 lx to create a differentiation in the lighting and emphasize the beauty of the products.

Lighting Fixtures

To suit the environment of a retail store, we selected equipment with simple designs to focus the customers’ attention on the products. Pendant type spotlights, small adjustable ceiling lights, and ceiling lights with accessories were used to highlight the special characteristics of each section of the store (Photo 1, 3, 4). Lamps with 50 W halogen lamps with dichroic mirrors are used to light the products, while indirect light from incandescent bulbs and 100 to 200 W pinspot dichroic halogen lamps are used to light the main logo mark boards and glass wall cases.

Location	Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture
Client	Cima Co., Ltd.
Design	administration K.K. Urbia Sekkei Jimusho
Lighting Planning	K.K. Minori; Mika Matsuda
Completion	September 2001 (Hamamatsu Matsubishi Store) June 2001 (Nagoya Main Store) September 1995 (Ginza Main Store)
Materials provided by	Association Member Mika Matsuda (K.K. Minori)
Photos 1 - 4:	K.K. Minori