Five projects that top it all off with unique ceiling designs

When is a light source not really a light source? When it’s reflective. While some mirrored ceilings can bring connotations of seedy hotel rooms, the reality of an honest reflection is far less interesting, only serving to frame the ubiquitous but tedious scene below. Natural-looking warped liquid ceilings, however, like those created by Lindner Group’s TOUCHdesign range, reflect light but leave the rest to the imagination.

The luxurious liquid ceiling featuring prominently at CCD / Cheng Chung Design’s W Changsha hotel in Changsha, Hong Kong, meanwhile, is just one solution in a project full of intriguingly experimental surfaces including perforated, parametric, backlit and diagrid walls and ceilings. It’s the shimmering, distorted reflection of the liquid ceiling, however, that makes the hotel’s communal spaces really shine.