Aman Tokyo-Concealed LED lighting Hotel

Project Overview

This concealed LED lighting hotel project represents the pinnacle of invisible illumination design, delivering 3,800 meters of high CRI LED strip for hospitality across Japan’s most exclusive urban retreat. Senfey engineered every fixture to remain completely hidden within traditional Japanese architectural joints, allowing light to emerge naturally from washi paper screens, volcanic stone walls, and hand-finished hinoki cypress ceilings. The installation spans the entire hotel footprint including the ground-floor lobby, basement spa, signature restaurant, meditation spaces, and all 84 guest rooms across floors 33 through 38. Furthermore, the design team specified that no guest should ever perceive an artificial light source — only the warm glow of illuminated surfaces. Consequently, Senfey developed an ultra-slim 6mm profile system that integrates within existing timber joinery details, maintaining the architectural purity that defines Aman’s global brand identity. The high CRI LED strip for hospitality achieves Ra99 color rendering, ensuring that natural materials appear exactly as the interior designer intended under both daylight and evening conditions.

Client Requirements & Challenge

Aman’s design philosophy demands absolute zero visibility of light sources — a requirement that eliminates virtually every standard LED profile on the market. Specifically, all luminaire housings had to disappear within 6mm timber grooves routed into the ceiling joinery by master Japanese craftsmen, leaving no visible hardware whatsoever. The color rendering requirement exceeded Ra97 with R9 values above 95, necessary to faithfully reproduce the subtle warmth of hinoki cypress grain and the translucent texture of handmade washi paper screens. In addition, Japan’s strict PSE electrical safety standards required complete documentation and testing for every component, while seismic mounting calculations per Japanese building code demanded mechanical fixings rated for Zone 6 lateral forces. Moreover, the hotel operates within an occupied office tower, therefore all installation work adhered to strict noise and vibration limits during business hours. The electrical contractors coordinated installation sequences with the traditional carpentry team to ensure joinery integrity remained uncompromised.

Senfey Solution

Senfey manufactured a purpose-designed 6mm ultra-slim profile in natural anodized aluminum that slides precisely into traditional timber joint grooves without requiring any modification to the handcrafted joinery. The concealed LED lighting hotel application uses Ra99 warm white COB strips at 2700K, specifically tuned to bring out natural grain textures in hinoki cypress while rendering stone surfaces with gallery-quality accuracy. DALI-2 DT8 drivers create circadian dimming transitions that follow natural daylight rhythms throughout the day — gradually warming from 2700K at dawn simulation through subtle intensity shifts that support guest wellbeing. Furthermore, all components carry full PSE certification with seismic-rated mounting brackets engineered to withstand Zone 6 lateral acceleration forces. Senfey additionally provided 96 flush-mounted DALI-2 presence and daylight sensors that automatically adjust corridor and public area lighting based on occupancy and available natural light, consequently reducing energy consumption by 34% compared to the original fixed-output specification.

System Specification