Gerd Couckhuyt: Zuri, please

(jiří macek) If there was one thing the movie Fifth Element lacked, it certainly was the Zuri club in the Belgian town of Knokke. Its snow-white stylish interior, designed by Gerd Couckhuyt, together with a unique light system by Modular, makes one feel like Mila Jovovich is always very close at hand.

The popular destination of Atlantic coast nightlife is located on the seafront in the luxury building of the municipal casino. When designing it, Belgian designer Gerd Couckhuyt focused on the possibilities of changing the luminous atmosphere, which he brought to perfection with the help of the English brand Modular. The concept starts with the name of the club – “Zuri” means “white” in Basque and “very attractive” in Swahili. If you do not speak these two languages, you can use the word “Zuri” as a spell that will lead you to weightlessness. It is not difficult to jump when one is surrounded by the white color and soft organic shapes. Regular visitors to the club allegedly describe a magical experience from dancing in space where light seems to be one specific mass. The Zuri lights, which Modular launched only a year ago, dominate the collection of lights. It is a luminous puzzle in the form of a chasm. The lights wind across the ceiling like a backbone. However, in individual rooms Gerd Couckhuyt entertains visitors with white color, light, and sound.

Apart from the lighting at Zuri, I would like to point at other pieces from the catalogue of Modular: the Traffic and U-Shape systems of lights that bring spark to a space in the same way as an elaborated sound design. Even though it was not possible to do anything with the façade, the club contains a spot in which nightlife comes up to daylight – a terrace with six islands from the Moon collection by Gerd Couckhuyt, a white carpet under white sunshades, and a view of the beach..

The club opened last summer season. We present it as another tip for a trip. It is open daily from 4 p.m. The address is Zuri, Casino Knokke, Zeedijk Albertstrand 510, 8300 Knokke, www.zuri.be.

Modular is represented by Bulb in the Czech Republic.

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