Assaad Garden

This private villa in Mazraat Yachouh sits within a large traditional Arabic stone garden — rough-cut limestone walls, mature trees, sunken terraces, and a stepped facade that draws on Lebanese vernacular architecture. The brief was to light the outdoor spaces without losing that character: no harsh uplighting, no colour, no visual noise. Every zone needed to read as a continuation of the house after dark rather than a lit-up exterior.

EMC SuperLED designed and manufactured all fixtures in-house, specifying 2700K warm white throughout to preserve the natural colour of the stone. Spotlights were positioned to graze the limestone walls at low angles, deepening the texture rather than washing it flat. Tree canopies were lit from below using narrow-beam fixtures buried in the ground, keeping the light source invisible and the effect architectural.

The main terrace connects the interior of the villa to the garden through a sequence of stone steps and planted corners. LED strip lighting was recessed under each step tread — providing safe task lighting along the staircase while maintaining a clean, unobtrusive aesthetic during the day. The terrace perimeter was lit with low-profile wall-mounted fixtures that cast light downward across the stone floor, defining the space without creating glare for occupants seated at eye level.

The rock garden — the dominant visual element from the villa’s main reception — required careful placement. Ground-mounted fixtures were oriented to highlight the natural contours and shadow lines of the stone formations. A second circuit covers the garden walls and planting beds, allowing the two zones to be dimmed independently for different uses: full output for gatherings, low ambient for evenings alone.

The complete lighting system operates on a single dimming circuit per zone, wired back to a central control panel inside the villa. All fixtures are rated IP65 minimum, with the ground-mounted spots at IP68 for the pool-adjacent areas. Driver selection prioritised stable operation under Lebanon’s variable grid — each driver is surge-protected to 4kV and thermally rated for sustained summer operation.