A solstice dinner in the jungle

The brief came from a hotelier opening their second property: design one evening that says, without saying it, what the place will feel like when it opens.

We put the table in a clearing the architects hadn't drawn yet. Forty seats. A six-course menu shaped around what was within forty minutes of the kitchen. No speeches.

The candles were set so the light moved when people did. The playlist was eighty-six minutes long, and we played it once. The only printed thing in the room was the menu, on cotton paper, set under the bread plate.

Designed for a private client. Forty guests. One evening. Two thousand candles.