arc Issue 126

#126 Cover Story: BIO4 Lauren Dandridge Michael Grubb Hospitality Lighting

Photo: Stefan Wolf Lucks

seventies 70’s plus – the specialist for museums In use worldwide for excellent light here Futurium Berlin, Library Alexis de Tocqueville Caen, Library Het Predikheren Mechelen, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Deutscher Werkbund Exhibition Venice, Dior Fragrance Stores worldwide, Goethe-Institut Kiev, Humboldt Forum Berlin, Jewish Museum Berlin, Kunsthalle Schweinfurt, Museum Hotel Antakya, Museum Marta Herford, Museum of East Asian Art Cologne, Museum of Innocence Istanbul, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Travel Centers SBB Switzerland and many more Designer seventies 70’s plus: Jan Blieske, Jan Dinnebier mawa‒design.de Made in Germany

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#126

Welcome As I sit writing this, it has been two whole years since we published our big Light + Building preview issue, where I talked rather prematurely about how excited I was to be heading back to Frankfurt for the big show. Two years later and we’ve still not made it back there, and with the event once again being postponed (this time to October this year), that wait will go on a little longer. Since those heady days of February 2020, the world has changed considerably, and in the process, many are questioning whether the big shows such as Light + Building even need to happen anymore, especially with the emergence of new, smaller, more boutique events (like our very own [d]arc sessions). I guess time will tell on that front.

Speaking of change, by this point you’ve no doubt noticed that we’ve gone through a few changes of our own, with a very jazzy new look. Hats off to our Production Manager and designer Dave Bell for all of his hard work over the past few weeks to freshen up the magazine and deliver this beautiful redesign. I hope you’ll agree that it looks incredible.

You’ll see in the pages ahead that we’ve mixed things up, dropped some features, reworked some others, and even introduced a couple of new elements too. One such element is the very welcome addition of Kaye Preston, Founder of Designers Mind, to our team of contributors. Over the past two years, the subject of mental wellbeing has been brought firmly to the front of our minds, and the work that Designers Mind is doing to raise awareness and acknowledgement of the subject in the design community has been tremendous.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing Kaye’s contributions in the magazine going forward.

Change is also one of the key topics in one of this issue’s big feature interviews - change on a much larger scale. Regular readers will know that we’ve been discussing equality and privilege in recent issues; while this has previously been focused more on gender, this time around I broach the subject of racial diversity, equity and inclusion in the lighting industry in a fascinating chat with Lauren Dandridge. It is a very frank, at times challenging conversation, but as Lauren herself says, it is only through having these difficult conversations that true change can start to happen.

I hope that you like the new look. Enjoy the issue!

Matt Waring Editor

Front cover: BIO4, Copenhagen, Denmark (Image: Allan Toft)

#126

Inside this issue Regulars 026

Event Diary

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Drawing Board

038

In Conversation Lauren Lever sits down with arc to talk about her new studio, Minoux.

040

Snapshot Lisa Marchesi Studio

042

Designers Mind New columnist Kaye Preston discusses the links between our energy levels and productivity.

124

GreenLight Alliance With Tom Ruddell of EGG Lighting and Simon Fisher of The Regen Initiative

128

David Morgan Review Kingfisher Navar

130

Product Launches

132

Manufacturer Case Studies

146

Back Page Bucket List

Features 034

40 Under 40 The winners of the revamped 40 Under 40 awards were revealed at the end of 2021.

036

DALI Lighting Awards Returning for its second year, the DALI Lighting Awards recognised the best use of DALI controls in projects around the world.

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Lauren Dandridge The Co-Founder of Chromatic joins us for a frank discussion on diversity, equity and inclusivity in the lighting industry.

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Spark Studio Roosegaarde

044

Kontxa Sebastián Arquitectos

056

Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) Robert Irwin

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Staying Alight GNI Projects

074

Prism Hakuten Creative

084

Megaliths in the Garden teamLab

122

Tower of Light SEAM Design

038

Michael Grubb arc talks with the Founder of Michael Grubb Studio on his rise to fame and what the future holds for the Bournemouth-based firm.

Projects 058

BIO4 Speirs Major and Gottlieb Paludan Architects have created a wondrous façade for Copenhagen’s BIO4 biomass-fired power station.

068

Glenlivet Visitor Experience Glenlivet has created an immersive, interactive visitor experience at its Speyside distillery. A vibrant lighting scheme from Into adds to the warm, welcoming atmosphere of the space.

086

Hospitality Lighting Focus A range of hospitality lighting projects, featuring work from Inverse Lighting Design, Artin Light, Lighting Design International, and Isometrix.

Eye Openers

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Proudly Supporting

EDITORIAL Managing Editor Helen Ankers h.ankers@mondiale.co.uk Editor Matt Waring m.waring@mondiale.co.uk

Events Diary

Contributing Editor Sarah Cullen s.cullen@mondiale.co.uk

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*NOTE: All dates correct at time of publication. Subject to change* 026 / 027

eye opener

Spark Bilbao, Spain Inspired by the magical light of fireflies and a desire to update the culturally ingrained ritual of fireworks, artist Daan Roosegaarde has unveiled his latest installation, Spark.

Launching at the Wellbeing Summit for Social Change in Bilbao-Biscay, Spain on 1-3 June, Spark is envisioned as a sustainable alternative for community celebrations.

The concept for Spark stems from a desire to transform traditional and oftentimes polluting methods of celebration such as fireworks, balloons, drones and confetti into a new, sustainable celebration. Through a combination of design and technology, thousands of light sparks made of biodegradable materials are moved silently by the ever-changing wind; inspired by fireflies, flocks of birds and the galaxy of stars.

Taking place in Bilbao’s central park, Roosegaarde hopes that the dynamic, 50x30x50-metre cloud of Spark will inspire visitors to wonder and reflect on their connection to each other, themselves, and nature.

“Spark invites everyone to become part of the journey to an environmentally-friendly future. With Spark, the interconnectedness between humans and nature is celebrated, and traditions can be maintained in a new way. Moreover, it is a sustainable alternative for community events that want to promote reflection and celebration,” said Studio Roosegaarde.

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Corinna Otto, Curator of The Wellbeing Summit, continued: “Celebrations are an important moment for communities to gather together and cherish their cultures.

Spark evokes a child-like wonder that reconnects communities.”

Daan Roosegaarde added: “For many people, the current situation feels restrictive, and traditional fireworks are getting prohibited everywhere.

Spark is a place of wonder that triggers reflection and shows a new, sustainable alternative of celebrating together.” www.studioroosegaarde.net

Image: Spark by Roosegaarde, Photography by Roberto Conte

Drawing Board

Dnipro Metro Stations Ukraine Construction has begun on three new metro stations for the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Designed

by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), the new stations (Teatralna Tsentalna and Muzeina) will connect the residents, businesses, cultural and academic institutions in Dnipro’s eastern districts with the city centre and the Dnipro-Holovnyi railway terminus.

Reducing traffic congestion in central Dnipro, the metro line extension will also enable access to parks, beaches and recreational facilities on the banks of the Dnipro River to be easily accessible from the city centre.

The city of Dnipro has a long history in engineering, metallurgy and manufacturing. These rich traditions are echoed in the welded steel entrance pavilions of the stations. Comprising a family of thin structural shells designed to be constructed in recycled steel from local foundries, the pavilions’ sculpted forms showcase the city’s history of steel craftsmanship. Each entrance pavilion will be situated within a new public plaza, providing an easily recognisable landmark indicating access to the stations below.

The design of the ticket halls is unique to each station, while the interior concourses, corridors and platforms share a cohesive formal and spatial logic that gives the Dnipro Metro a strong identity.

Defined by concept of intuitive navigation, the interiors are designed to orientate and direct passengers through each station while enhancing their experience to ensure safe, comfortable and enjoyable transport across the city.

Office for Visual Interaction (OVI) worked with ZHA on the lighting design concepts for the stations.

The studio explained the how lighting concept for the stations sits within the wider architectural design: “Lighting should be a natural extension of the architecture, but at the same time it has to be functional and practical. This is not a museum, it’s an active, operational building so we had to consider elements like safety, glare, wayfinding; but they don’t guide us, the setting out point is the architectural approach, and we make it work with the technical elements.

“The idea was to illuminate the surfaces and bring out the textures and materiality of the space through layers of light. One layer extends the architecture into night time, while a second layer uses miniature sources hidden within shadow gaps or coves to create wayfinding and bring light to the levels required. The concourse, for example, has cove lighting that grazes the surface so that you focus on the materiality and the illuminated lines. But within the coves, we have miniature integrated downlights that meet the technical needs while bringing out the bronze material of the space.

“The entrance canopies for the stations are beautiful intro moments, and we addressed these by using light to shape the forms of them - not to illuminate every piece, but implement a gradient 030 / 031

of light from the floor that tapers off to the top in a way that creates a contrast between the light and dark areas, while bringing out the three dimensionality of them.

“Those are the magical moments that we as lighting designers look for when we go into a space; you don’t know where the light is coming from but the space itself is bright, and you see the architectural story behind it. That was the idea for this entire project.

“Working with Zaha Hadid Architects, their spaces have a technical requirement, but they don’t feel technical, they have an artistic expression. We

draw attention to this expression with light.

“These subway stations are very different to any other, and this is why ZHA was selected for the project - because of their architectural expression.

Through light, we want to accentuate this and make sure that the project is timeless.”

The three deep level stations of the Dnipro Metro line extension are integral to the city’s ongoing programme to upgrade its transport network.

Passenger services to the three stations are planned to begin in 2025. www.oviinc.com www.zaha-hadid.com Images: Atchain

DRAWING BOARD

Breaking Waves Germany To mark the fifth anniversary of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Dutch artistic duo Drift is preparing a spectacular light installation to highlight the building’s beautiful façade.

Entitled Breaking Waves, the work will use hundreds of illuminated drones, choreographed to the second movement of Thomas Adè’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, which will be performed in the anniversary concert in the venue’s Grand Hall.

The temporary installation will last for around seven minutes; it is scheduled to premiere on 28 April, with the work continuing to be shown after nightfall on the following three evenings.

Visible from anywhere in the surrounding harbour area, Breaking Waves will be realised in close coordination with the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, which is also dedicating a four-month solo exhibition to Drift - Moments of Connection - from January to May. The commission was organised in collaboration with Superblue.

In Breaking Waves, Drift will explore the movement of the water that surrounds the Elbphilharomine, connecting that to the movement inside the building. The relationship between the building, the water and the music is a key element in how Drift hope to synchronise visitors with the Hamburg landmark. “As humans, we are admissible to waves in different waves, and can become one with the movement,” said Lonneke Gordijn, co-founder of Drift.

The piece accentuates the duo’s mission of bringing art into public spaces so that it can reach a larger audience. The artists’ core objective is to create physical installations that allow the audience to experience and feel the art with all of their senses. Co-founder of Drift, Ralph Nauta added: “Art should be accessible to as many people as possible. That’s why we designed our installation for the public space. When we started working with Elbphilharmonie, we both immediately agreed that we need to bring what’s happening indoors to the outside, where people can see it.”

Christoph Lieben-Seutter, General and Artistic Director of the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle Hamburg, said: “I’m really looking forward to this artistic work, which will bring the Elbphilharmonie to life in spectacular style. At the Elbphilharmonie, architecture and music come together in a particularly inspiring way. Breaking Waves takes this dynamic and transfers it to the building’s façade.

The collaboration with Drift demonstrates once again the concert hall’s openness to and interest in other forms of art beyond music.” www.studiodrift.com

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Das gute Licht.

For fascinating staging.

40 Under 40 Making its return last year, the 40 Under 40 awards announced its Class of 2021 in an online ceremony on 15 December.

The end of 2021 saw the return of the 40 Under 40 Awards. Resurrected by Filix Lighting and Light Collective, the 2021 instalment was the 6th edition of the awards, with the winners announced on 15 December.

The 40 Under 40 Awards is designed to highlight an honour young and outstanding individuals who work in a creative capacity within the application of lighting in architecture.

Nominations are accepted from international candidates under 40 years old, and nominators must cite why they are exceptional; candidates should be passionate about lighting and display outstanding talent and potential, and have demonstrable achievements in the field.

The returning 2021 competition elicited a huge response from the lighting design community, with just over 300 nominations received. Entries spanned across 36 countries, with the UK and the USA home to the most submissions. While these regions have long been hubs for lighting design, the spread of entries from other countries demonstrates how lighting design continues to grow across the globe.

The global nature of the lighting industry was also reflected in the awards’ judging panel. The 6-person panel comprised Paul Traynor (Light Bureau, UK); Regina Santos (Light Fusion, UAE); Elias Cisneros (333 Luxes, Mexico); Aviva Gunzberg (NDYLight, Australia); Randy Reid (Designing Lighting, USA); Christine Sicangco (Christine Sicangco Lighting Design, Philippines).

The judging panel had a difficult task to determine the top 40. Winners were selected through a points scoring system, and it went down to decimal points to decide the final 40.

Judges commented on the overall quality of the submissions, and due to the close nature of the results, organisers and judges alike have urged those who missed out this year to consider trying again next year.

Christine Sicangco said: “This year’s candidates are genuinely talented and very creative, and it was a challenge to pick the winners. They all had a great understanding of light and though the entries were very diverse, it is wonderful that everyone is brought together by light.”

Paul Traynor added: “The standard was so high that I wondered if I would have made the standard if the 40 Under 40 existed when I was under 40. There were some really outstanding entries.”

“I worry a bit about the lighting design community, but when I saw the talent, when I saw the projects, when I saw the work that went into the entries, it gave me great hope that our 034 / 035

lighting design community worldwide is very strong,” said Randy Reid.

Following the unveiling of the winners in an online presentation in December, the 40 Under 40 website will host information on the Class of 2021, and share the reason that they ‘Chose Light’ to help inspire others. The presentation saw the announcement of the start of the 400 Olive Grove in Croatia. Through this, Filix has moved away from traditional trophies, and instead pledge to plant an olive tree per winner.

The company has committed to this for the next ten years, creating a “lighting-inspired” olive grove. Each winner will get a certificate of ownership, a share in the olive oil created and an opportunity to visit their tree. Filix sees this as a huge leap forward in helping to create a more sustainable approach towards awards in the lighting industry.

Winners were also provided with a “Golden Ticket” that entitles them to a site visit to the Filix factory in the Istrian region of Croatia.

Filix said: “We were privileged and honoured to be able to continue to support the lighting community in what we think is a great way of promoting young talent within our industry.

Working on this initiative allows us to express ourselves and the messages that our organisation wants to put forward. Innovation, passion and hard work should be recognised, celebrated and awarded. Our involvement in 40 Under 40 in the years to come will give us the motivation and inspiration that we need to make a difference in the lighting industry and hopefully, the world we live in.”

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www.40under40.events www.filixlighting.com www.lightcollective.net

The 40 Under 40 Class of 2021 Opposite page from top, left to right: Row 1 Juan A Fuentes Munoz, Kristina Allison, Elisa Artesero, Luke Artingstall, Ingrid Baldwin, Camila Blanco, Lauren Blow, Diane Borys, Jacquelyn Cacan, Brenda Castillo, Isabella Cheung, Philip Copland, Ellie Cozens, Jinkie de Jesus, Jamie Devenger, Midory Esquer, Claire Hamill, David Hernandez, Emilio Hernandez, Shunichi Ikeda, Kristina Jajalla This page from top, left to right: Hadar Koren-Roth, Jessica Krometis, Isabelle Lane, Kyungbinn Noh, Barbara Rodriguez Pando, Michele Schintu, Brice Schneider, Lauren Schwade, Jason Scott Read, Clemens Seipelt, David Seok, Harshita Shetty, Christopher Ventresca, Daniela Viloria Garcia, Linsey Walker, Brian Wiley, Yang Xiu, Ashley Yin, Ting Yu Ng

DALI Lighting Awards Winners of the second annual DALI Lighting Awards, organised by the DALI Alliance, were revealed in an online ceremony this January.

The DALI Lighting Awards aim to celebrate the best use of DALI control solutions in international projects, as well as recognising the value of delivering quality illumination to clients and end users.

Expanding its format from the inaugural awards in 2020, this year saw winners recognised across eight categories: Commercial/Professional; Entertainment & Architectural; Healthcare & Education; Industrial; Infrastructure; Outdoor/Smart City; Residential; and Retail & Hospitality. Alongside the overall winners, some categories also featured highly commended entries, where the international panel of judges felt the design or technical aspects of the project deserved recognition.

The judging panel included: Jeff Shaw, Arup; Mark Lien, IES; Karen van Creveld, SLL; Tad Trylski, IALD; Chen Zhongli, Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute; Scott Wade, DALI Alliance; Markus Helle, Highlight Magazine; and Matt Waring, arc magazine.

In the Commercial / Professional category, Helvar picked up the win for The Spine, a new building in Liverpool, UK. Helvar supplied an intelligent, fully-addressable DALI lighting control system for the 70,000sqft space occupied by the Royal College of Physicians.

The control system ensures the quality of light and improves the user experience, with defined light levels also included for the biophilia aspects of the project.

Judges said of the project: “This is a beautifully designed building that seamlessly combines artificial and natural lighting to create a bright and welcoming environment. The extra attention taken by Helvar to create an intelligent, fully addressable DALI lighting control system is highly commendable, while the additional focus on biophilia should also be noted.”

In this category, two projects were also highly commended: Intelligent Environments received a commendation for the Colliers Head Office in Aukland, New Zealand, while Signify was commended for the technical aspects of the DALI installation in the Huada Semiconductor headquarters in Shanghai, China.

Delmatic was the winner fo the Entertainment & Architectural category for its work on the Sustainability and Mobility Pavilions at Expo 2020 in Dubai, UAE. Here, DALI systems provide highly sustainable, scene-setting 036 / 037

control, monitoring and smart data sharing throughout the two pavilions.

Judges described this as a stand-out architectural lighting project on a very large scale, with strong use of DALI technical capabilities combined with many notable creative and design features.

Delmatic was also highly commended from a technical perspective within this category for its work on the Qatar 2022 World Cup Stadiums, while Schuler Shook received a commendation for its lighting design on the renewal of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne, Australia.

Within the Healthcare & Eduction category, zencontrol won for its work on the Faculty of Arts building at the University of Warwick, UK. Working closely with architect Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, electrical engineers specified a range of feature lighting alongside functional and wayfinding solutions based on DALI-2. This enhances the internal environment, and ensures the sculptural forms of the atrium and any feature artworks are well illuminated.

In this category, Helvar was commended for its work on the newly built Hospital Nova - one of the largest in Finland; while Laing O’Rourke was commended for the technical merits of its work on the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran, Wales.

In the Industrial category, Trilux was the winner for its role in the Kühne+Nagel Logistics Hubs in Hamburg, Germany where existing conventional lighting systems were replaced with highly efficient, DALI-based, networked LED solutions. Helvar was again highly commended for the Oyak-Renault Factory in Turkey.

Meanwhile, in the Infrastructure category, Delmatic got its second win for the Doha Metro - a project where DALI lighting control and monitoring extends across a network of 37 stations. Judges praised the strong use of DALI, combining with architectural lighting design elements to bring light underground, creating a comfortable environment for travellers. Moso Electronics was highly commented in this category for the technical merits of its work on the Guangzhou Metro in China.

The Outdoor category was won by Shanghai Euchips Industrial Co. for the Overpass in Xi’an, China. Judges were impressed by the novel and low-glare lighting scheme, which creates a more welcoming space in the areas

beneath the overpass.

In the Residential category, Lighting Design International picked up the win for its work on Regent’s Crescent - a listed building in London that was redeveloped into 76 luxury contemporary residences with shared amenities. DALI provides a modular, digital lighting control system for precise, low-end dimming performance on a range of light sources. Judges commented on the very attractive lighting design, and noted the use of DALI for both illumination and emergency lighting, including energy-use monitoring.

Within this category, Delmatic was highly commended for South Quay Plaza 1 in London, which uses DALI to provide accurate, energy-efficient digital dimming and realtime management and monitoring of the entire lighting network across the 68-storey building. The judges also had special mention for a residential project on a much smaller scale - an entry from Martin Lighting Controls + Integration for the renovation of a single residence on Karabar, New South Wales, Australia. In this residence, DALI was utilised throughout to enable interoperation between home automation systems, as well as smooth, flicker-free dimming. Judges were particularly impressed with the implementation of such a detailed control system in what could be classed as a “normal home that most of us could imagine living in”.

The final category, Retail & Hospitality, was won by Inverse Lighting Design for its impressive work on London’s new boutique hotel, The Londoner. More than 17,000 DALI luminaires were used to achieve dramatic lighting for the guest-accessible areas, soft lighting in the guest rooms and functional lighting for the staff areas. Judges recognised the primacy of lighting design in a unique space with many underground levels, which creates a significant challenge to get scenesetting correct and achieve a balance between natural and artificial light [read a full feature on The Londoner inside this issue on page 82]. www.dali-alliance.org

The Spine, UK

Doha Metro, Qatar

Mobility Pavilion, UAE

Faculty of Arts, University of Warwick, UK

Kühne+Nagel Logistics Hub, Germany

Regent’s Crescent, UK

Xi’an Overpass, China

The Londoner, UK

After more than 14 years’ experience in lighting design, last year Lauren Lever established her own practice - Minoux. arc sits down with Lever to discuss the move, and her aspirations for Minoux.

IN CONVERSATION LAUREN LEVER

How did you get into lighting design?

I am one of the ‘old school designers’ in our industry, when lighting design wasn’t a subject that you could take at university. We came from different backgrounds, whether that’s architecture, product design or engineering. This is part of the reason why I love our industry, as we have such a rich mix of backgrounds and knowledge. I always had a passion for design at school, even though I was one of only two girls in the class and was told that it was normally categorised as a boy’s subject; this still didn’t stop me as I loved the subject and wanted to learn more. This led me to study Product and Furniture Design at De Montfort University in Leicester. During my time there I decided that one of my work pieces would be to design and build a light fixture. When it was time to see which career path I wanted to go down, I found out that lighting design was an actual job and I jumped at the opportunity. I have now been in the industry for more than 15 years and continue to love what I do.

What led you to setting up your own studio?

It was something that I always wanted to do and knew that it would happen when the time was right. I decided to take the leap and start my own lighting design studio last year and I haven’t looked back. Some people thought I was mad doing it in the middle of the pandemic, but I believe there is never a right time to start a new business; you just need to jump right in.

Do you have a ‘Mission Statement’ for Minoux?

I feel my ethos is all about creativity, innovation and being customer focused with an appetite for great lighting design. No project is too small, and I relish the opportunity to share my passion with others.

Will you specialise in a particular area?

I have worked on a number of diverse areas during my career as a lighting designer, but found my focus is prominently in the Hospitality, Residential and Commercial sectors. I do not have a ‘housestyle’ and believe that each project deserves to be designed and tailored to suit the client’s needs. I particularly enjoy working on hotel projects, where varied atmospheres and ambiences can be created for each space; ranging from dark and moody bars, to sensual spa experiences or bright and welcoming receptions.

How have your past experiences shaped your approach for Minoux?

I believe that my past experiences have shaped me into the designer that I am today. Each lighting consultancy had their own particular specialism,

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which has helped me learn all aspects of lighting design and improve my skillset. I have had the pleasure of working for some of the top women in the industry and I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to learn from each of them.

What are your aspirations for Minoux? What do you hope to bring to the lighting world?

Lighting design is still unfortunately one element of a project that gets left to the last minute or forgotten about. I believe that lighting can make or break a project. I have been lucky enough to talk at many events in front of architects and interior designers, which has allowed me to fly the flag for getting a lighting designer in at the earlier stages of a project, showing the end client that good lighting design doesn’t need to cost the earth.

Can you tell us a bit more about your collaboration with Prolicht and Tom Dixon for the Workspace Design Show?

I had the pleasure of working with the Workspace Design Show and they asked Minoux to provide a lighting installation at their main entrance. I was excited to see what could be achieved within the iconic space of the Business Design Centre.

Lighting installations should be fun, engaging and draw people in. Prolicht had recently collaborated with Tom Dixon to design a range of light fixtures which shows a rawness and industrial feel to LED technology. Looking at the range, I thought it was perfect for the show, combining the use of smooth lighting controls and programming which was provided by Casambi; this allowed the product to come to life using animation.

What sort of reaction have you had so far? Do you have a lot of work already in the pipeline?

The reaction has been really positive and supportive, especially during the pandemic and I have been fortunate to hit the ground running. It is scary and daunting at times, but looking back I wish I took the plunge sooner. 2022 is looking promising to say the least.

What does the future hold, both for Minoux and for the lighting industry as a whole?

The lighting industry has come on leaps and bounds with the growth of new technology. The new focus at the moment is all about sustainability of fittings and circularity, which has been a long time coming in my opinion. We need to work with manufacturers and future proof our designs to develop much more sustainable projects. As for Minoux, watch this space. www.minoux.co.uk

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Light is the fourth dimension of architecture 220112_Produktanzeige_Parscan_236x333_3.indd 1

07.02.2022 08:25:55

Snapshot Lisa Marchesi Studio Italian lighting designer Lisa Marchesi has recently launched her own self-titled studio. Covering a wide range of sectors across Italy, Marchesi uses light to create emotional and atmospheric experiences.

Illy Cafè Ponterosso Trieste, Italy Located on the ground floor of the historical Palazzo Berlam, with outdoor seating beside the Canal Grande and the Rive of Trieste, the distinctive Illy identity traits merge with those of the historical space, wisely restored in order to bring back an important moment of the city’s past, revamped in a contemporary key.

The lighting for the space is founded on the desire to integrate fixtures into the architecture, leaving just the light to be seen.

A functional lighting scheme, it serves everyone working in the space, but also the clients who visit.

A diffused ambient lighting envelops the space, while a focused accent lighting emphasises the tables, the architectural and decorative details and the displayed products.

With the use of smart control, light scenes have been set up in relation to the different times of the day. The light scenes have allowed different scenographies to be created within the space, but they also play an important role in energy saving, with artificial light levels reducing when natural light levels are higher.

In the back of house areas the lighting design is focused on functionality. Technical lighting fixtures have been selected for these spaces and they serve different visual tasks.

Finally, for the outdoor area, decorative wireless lamps create a delicate ambient lighting on each table.

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Garden on the Colle dell’Infinito and National Center for Leopardian Studies Recanati, Italy The architectural enhancement and renovation of the Colle dell’Infinito, the solitary hill of the famous Italian poem by Giacomo Leopardi, realised by FAI (Italian Environment Foundation), has highlighted two significant facets of the location: the landscape one and the poetic one.

Keeping in mind these two facets of the project, the lighting design of the interiors of the CNSL (National Center of Leopardi Studies) and exteriors of the nuns’ botanical garden have

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been thought to offer luminous atmospheres.

The lighting scenes were studied to enhance the environments, but at the same time to work as timeless guidelines through the spaces.

In the interiors, the project aimed at preserving the existing precious chandeliers and wall lamps by Venini. The lighting for the interiors has added functional lighting, integrated within the architecture and in the furniture.

The main intent of the lighting design was twofold: to enhance the spaces and to obtain lighting scenes that could easily be adapted to the different visual tasks of each environment.

In the exterior pathway, the project wanted to intensify the emotional side of light. In this garden, the poet Leopardi used to walk in the moonlight or guided by the light from the candles. The project has kept this in mind and lighting solutions have been studied that could echo the atmospheres of the past. It guarantees a guide through the garden, allowing the scenographic and emotional side of the penumbra to emerge.

Lanterns suspended from the pergola remind the visitor of fireflies that delicately illuminate the path, while rays of light through the tree branches envelop the garden, replicating the moonlighting and the effect of warm summer nights.

Thannhauser Collection Milan, Italy The Thannhauser Collection, inaugurated on 17 October, 2019, was designed by Pierluigi Cerri Studio. It displayed about 50 masterpieces of the great Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Avant-Garde masters of the early years of the past century. Included in the collection are masterpieces from Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, Gaugin, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Rousseau, and many more.

The lighting design project has been studied to be adapted to these different painting styles and allow the correct illumination of each painting, to enhance the subjects but also to guarantee their conservation.

Lighting for works of art should firstly be functional and guarantee the correct vision of the paintings, but also the perception of

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the context in which they are being displayed, to guide the visitor through the exhibition.

The light creates the space, the dimensions, enhances the perceptions and creates narrative paths within the exhibition, focusing attention on the artworks.

For this reason, each light source is chosen carefully, so that all relevant technical and functional requirements are fulfilled: lux levels limitations, total absence of infrared rays, limitation of ultraviolet rays, as well as glare, reflections and shadow control.

All these technical sides to the design are strictly necessary to guarantee a correct vision of the masterpieces, and that they are complemented by a distinctive atmosphere of diffused and warm lighting that wraps up the exhibition set up walls, emphasising the graphic content and enhancing the historical Palazzo Reale interiors.

Berluti Milan, Italy The Milan Berluti store has a double height ceiling at the entrance, that reaches about five metres in height, and it has been designed to create a space that unfolds on many levels.

In the double height area, the ceiling has been emphasised through the use of wooden beams with indented and irregular sides, divided by luminous surfaces that highlight them. This ceiling is perfectly in line with the custom-made spirit of the firm and pays tribute to one of the main codes of Maison Berluti, the Patina.

Between each wooden beam, tracks have been installed for spotlights dedicated to the illumination of the space and products.

The materials typical of Berluti designs have been included in the staircase that leads to the upper level in a system of layers that increases the perceived space.

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Lisa Marchesi Studio is an independent lighting design firm that enhances the designed spaces and places with light and darkness. For about 20 years, when designing the lighting, Marchesi has placed the human being at the centre, creating luminous atmospheres that contain emotions, while combining different techniques to preserve and emphasise any type of architecture and environment.

Lisa Marchesi Studio offers a sensitive approach to light for different sectors such as cultural heritage, temporary installations, events, exhibitions, luxury retail, residential, offices, outdoors, faÇades and more. It offers a wide range of lighting design services from the definition of the concept that, through the preliminary and definitive projects, is taken to the construction phase and the lighting focusing. www.lisamarchesi.com

Image: © pastrovicchio.com

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Pic: Dario Fusaro

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Image: Stéphane Muratet

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Protect Your Energy

DESIGNERS MIND KAYE PRESTON

In the first of a new series of articles from Designers Mind, Founder Kaye Preston discusses the links between our energy levels and our productivity, and how by prioritising our wellbeing we can improve our focus and motivation.

Like many things in life the design industry has two sides: on one it’s an incredible industry filled with passionate, creative minds; on the other it can be a stressful environment with long hours to meet tight deadlines. Often the simplest of wellbeing practices get overlooked, putting a strain on our mental and physical health.

This got me thinking: we know how important our health is yet we still struggle to prioritise it, to make the time.

I admit that through my own journey and experience with burnout I had to change my mindset around wellbeing. It wasn’t until I started learning more about health through my own healing and coaching and I experienced first-hand how connected our physical and mental health are that I understood the importance of prioritising my wellbeing.

Time is often cited as a top reason why many people don’t prioritise their health. But if by putting our wellbeing first we could be more productive, have improved focus and motivation, wouldn’t this actually save us time at work?

Too often health gets slotted in around a long work day, family commitments, our partners, even life admin. What if we flip this around and start with our health instead? Our healthy habits creating the energy we need to show up every day the way we truly want and achieve our goals.

Our energy level really does determine how we show up every day

Prioritising our mental and physical health by incorporating more sleep, eating well, moving more and taking breaks may feel counterintuitive.

Surely taking time to spend on ourselves takes away from work? Not in this case. Imagine what we could accomplish if we woke up feeling energised, motivated and ready to take on the day instead of feeling tired, overwhelmed and exhausted from the long day before?

And this brings me to a little secret that I’ve learnt about time.

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Time Management = Energy Management

Our energy is actually an excellent measure of our current level of wellbeing and linked to motivation, productivity, focus and creativity.

Let’s start measuring time by quality instead of by quantity. We’ve been conditioned to measure our time by blocks of hours and minutes. And of course, this is useful to a certain extent. But a thought I’ve been pondering lately is if we show up energised our time could be spent very differently than if we’re tired, overwhelmed and stressed out.

An energised hour could mean more quality time for our work in the moment and more quality time for loved ones or other areas of our lives later on.

We may think we don’t have time for our wellbeing and sometimes prioritising our health can even feel counterproductive. But taking 15 minutes out to have a break, go for a walk, get some water may mean the next 45 minutes are spent in deep focus, ultimately achieving more than a distracted or tired full 60 minutes.

Our energy levels are affected by our healthy habits, stress, work and relationships.

So, what are some things we can do to protect our energy so we can wake up energised, motivated and ready to take on the day?

Meditation, yoga, sleep, relaxation, exercise, eating whole foods, keeping hydrated, getting outside, connecting with loved ones and setting healthy boundaries are all practices that can help improve our energy levels.

What may be depleting our energy?

Lack of sleep, not taking enough breaks, eating a diet full of processed and sugary foods, not drinking enough water, lack of exercise, toxic relationships, too much time in front of our screens, not enough time in nature, poor time management, lack of boundaries and procrastination.

It’s important to try things out and see what works for you. To discover what gives you energy and what doesn’t.

“We’ve been conditioned to measure our time by quantity. But if we show up energised our time could be spent very differently than if we’re tired, overwhelmed and stressed out.”

Steps to protect your energy

Here are some steps to help get you started: 1. Get back to basics with your health by prioritising sleep, food, hydration, exercise, movement and rest.

2. Learn ways to manage your stress by prioritising your health, practicing meditation or getting more time out in nature. Identify your stress triggers and make any possible changes.

3. Think of small steps you could take rather than trying to change everything at once. You’re more likely to be successful creating new healthy habits making small changes consistently over time.

4. Recognise that you may feel differently throughout the day, throughout the month, seasons, or different chapters of your life. As you get better at listening to your body you’ll be better able to identify your needs.

5. Practice compassion and kindness towards yourself. Wellness is a journey. One that needs to adapt and change with you.

6. Acknowledge your accomplishments. When making any changes it’s really important to recognise what went well for you during the day.

7. Be mindful of any self-sabotaging behaviours that may be depleting your energy and derailing you from what you want to achieve. For example, scrolling on your phone first thing, eating that food you know disagrees with you when you have a big deadline, or avoiding starting a big project.

8. Reach out and get support from your friends and family, colleagues or a professional. Set healthy boundaries, learn how to communicate your needs.

Imagine starting your day from a place full of energy? What could you achieve?

By prioritising our physical and mental health we protect and build up our energy. Having more energy optimises our time, allowing for better focus and creativity. We have more energy to design, getting more done in less time, which in turn allows more time for our wellbeing and all areas of our lives (I do love when something goes full circle!). www.designers-mind.com

eye opener

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Kontxa San Sebastián, Spain Historically, the relationship between art and nature has produced different types of conversation depending on the degree of intervention, bringing suggestive, abrupt, violent, kind, enriching or surprising dialogues.

One such artwork, situated on San Sebastián’s natural dock, La Concha (the shell) in December 2021, sought to create an ephemeral connection between the land and sea and add another remarkable element to the already beautiful coastline.

Kontxa, created by Sebastián Arquitectos, uses artificial light as a tool to bring La Concha to life, redrawing the gigantic shell in the San Sebastián night in a play of light and sound. However, the tremendous visual impact of the vast urban mural was instantly blurred, as if nothing had ever happened – the illusion of light, the magic of event.

Sergio Sebastián, Founder of Sebastián Arquitectos, said of the installation: “It is an

ephemeral land artwork made of light and sound that draws what everyone knows is there, but no one has traced, a beautiful shell in one of the most privileged places in our geography. San Sebastián as a great urban theatre, the largest stage we can imagine.

“Kontxa operates on the boundary between sea and land, between nature and the city, between the environment of a wild and domesticated sea, between tradition and modernity.”

For this, light interacts with sound in a series of pieces where the sounds of traditional instruments such as txalapartas and albokas dialogue and dance with the beams of light that illuminate the city and the beach and play with the waves, making all the elements of the bay resonate in unison.

The installation used 15 long-range Arc laser projectors situated on the island of Santa Clara, shining 1.2 miles to the beach of La

Concha, alongside eight Robe Megapointe located on the beach. This was accompanied by an audiovisual show that covered the entire bay, allowing for different perceptions from the beach, the promenade and the surrounding Igeldo and Urgull mountains.

From the high points of the city, the work was perceived as a large shell, while on the beachfront, the rays of light acquired their own extraordinary dimension; emanating from a large lighthouse, they displayed a wide visual repertoire of dynamic effects as the lights interacts with the atmospheric conditions of the beach – the mist, the movement of the waves and the sand. Various suspended moisture filters generated dynamic shadows, vaporous clouds of colour, and the diffraction of light in a chromatic prism, bathing the sand in a multicoloured rainbow against the wall of the historic promenade. www.sergiosebastian.es

Image: Sebastián Arquitectos and Pablo Cifuentes

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“Is there equity in lighting?

No. If you look at the people who are practicing in lighting design, if you walk the Lightfair show floor, you will see that there’s not equity there.”

Lauren Dandridge

Lauren Dandridge, Co-Founder of Chromatic, sits down with arc for a frank discussion on intersectionality, diversity and inclusivity in lighting, and how the industry can become more equitable.

WOMEN IN LIGHTING LAUREN DANDRIDGE

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ver the past two years, the world has been a tumultuous place. As we stayed inside to avoid the ongoing pandemic, we watched in shock and horror as societal injustices and inequalities were brought to the forefront.

The murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed in May 2020, and Sarah Everard’s murder in March 2021 were particular flashpoints, shining a harsh spotlight on the inequities that still exist surrounding race and gender. These moments forced many of us to look inwards, to question our own subconscious biases and privileges, and ask ourselves what we can do, what we need to do better. It led to a lot of difficult, in some cases uncomfortable conversations, but they are conversations that need to be had, nonetheless.

These conversations are what led to the formation of Chromatic – a new lighting design studio led

by Lauren Dandridge, alongside co-founder Nick Albert, that is focused on addressing issues of inequity and accessibility in the lighting industry.

“The skeleton of Chromatic is the conversations that Nick and I have that come from a place of extreme discomfort for both of us as a Black woman and a white man – or at least it was at some point,” Dandridge explained. “Now the hard initial phase is over, and we’ve reached a point of comfort in terms of talking about these things.

“When we started the firm, we said from the outset ‘we don’t want to be just another lighting design firm’. There are truly outstanding lighting design firms that do really beautiful and artistic work. I think we can be capable of that and make the biggest, best work out there, but so what? Art without purpose goes in the hotels by the freeway that people only see when they’re in transition.

“I want something that is meaningful not just for me personally, but to my community and to the lighting industry as a whole, and at the time when we were talking about it, I didn’t see it. I found people outside of lighting talking about it, but I didn’t see my industry, that I’ve been in for a really long time, taking a firm stance and then doing something. That became an important part of what we do; we do lighting, but with the human condition always at the forefront.

“The human condition is so much larger than the parts that we as an industry have traditionally thought about. What we are here to do is have lighting talk about the whole human experience in a greater way than it has been so far. I think of Chromatic as a perspective: there’s a view that we take on how lighting informs and is used by humanity, but also the process through which you can execute those designs.”

For Dandridge, the journey that led to the formation of Chromatic was a long one, that saw her travel through theatrical lighting design, architectural lighting design, education, sales, and then back to architectural lighting design again.

But through it all has been a love and fascination for light that has endured from an early age.

She recalled: “I went to a private school in Maryland. It had a theatre programme, and I remember in one of the theatre group’s plays there was a lighting effect that I saw, and I thought it was so cool. I talked to the teacher and asked them how they did that, and they showed me a lighting console. That was in middle school, so I ended up making a bit of a thing out of it and kept helping on the plays and the performances.

“Eventually, like most people, someone influential came into my life – her name is Susan Tannery, she was the theatre director at my high school. She told me she went to school for technical theatre, and it seemed like something that I would be interested in.”

As such, Dandridge went on to study Theatrical Lighting at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Here, she said that she took to heart the classic mantra of ‘do what you love, and it won’t be work’. She explained: “I thought I love theatre, so I’m going to do theatre. But it turns out it isn’t work, because it doesn’t pay well enough to be considered work.

“I decided to take a couple of chances on other things, where I first learned what it really meant to pivot and use all these skills that I had, but in a different avenue. I got an internship on a movie that was shooting in Chicago and worked in the art department. I learned a whole set of different things – we’re still creating environments and trying to create moods, but it’s much more based in reality.”

This experience led to another internship in Los Angeles the Spring before she graduated from college, which in turn led to a job. “But then another influential person came into my life, and they were not a nice person,” Dandridge continued.

“I thought ‘you’re still working in this industry, even though it’s common knowledge that you’re not a great human being’. I realised that this is an industry that will continue to promote people who are not their best selves, and I had a really hard time with that. So, I thought ‘if I’m going to be in this industry, I need to have more skills and I need to be able to pursue a different position so that I know how to get there, so that I don’t have to work for that kind of person’.”

As such, Dandridge enrolled in some extra classes at UCLA. It was here that she met another influential person, Kathy Pryzgoda, who taught the lighting classes in UCLA’s Architecture and Interior Design programme. Like Dandridge, Pryzgoda had a degree in theatrical lighting, but was teaching the architectural lighting class – something that piqued Dandridge’s interest.

“I cold-called her and said, ‘I see you’re teaching architectural lighting; I have the same degree as you and I’m curious to see what you’re doing with it’. We went out to lunch and had a great connection, and she hired me to be an assistant.

She was running an amazing, single-designer firm, making it work and still doing work at the Hollywood Bowl. I thought ‘this is the best life ever’, she was doing architectural work, which kept the finances consistent, as well as the theatrical work, which was the passion.

“But then, the economy tanked at the end of 2008, so I needed to find another job.”

Luckily for Dandridge, she had done some freelance work for another firm, Konsortum 1, where she met the next influential person in her life, Eileen Thomas. “She was working as a singular lighting designer in a massive electrical engineering firm. She was amazing – incredibly humble, and incredibly giving in terms of knowledge. When you meet someone who genuinely wants you to succeed, all you want to do is succeed for them, and that’s how I feel about Eileen. She saw potential in me as a junior designer, she was incredibly patient with me, and I embarked upon a very steep learning curve.”

And then, as Dandridge puts it, “life happened”. “As simple and terrible as it boils down to, I needed to make more money. I have an ambitious husband who has his own business, and we were looking at the kind of life we wanted to live – it wasn’t that I wasn’t making good money, but as hard as I was working for the money I was making, he said ‘you might as well be working for yourself’.

“David Komonosky, a salesperson at Performance Lighting Systems, had previously said to me ‘if you’re ever thinking about making a change, just give me a call’. So, I made this choice, which at the time seemed like an end of the world decision to leave design and become a sales agent. I thought that I had sold out and given up on life, but then what I realised once I started doing it was that being a sales agent is amazing. I could be the 050 / 051

kind of sales agent that I would have wanted to call on me – I always kept a designer’s mentality while keeping a very clear line between what a salesperson does and what a designer should do.

I felt that it was my opportunity to learn how the sausage is getting made.”

Dandridge worked in Specification Sales at Performance Lighting Systems for nine years before, in May 2021, making the decision to return to architectural lighting design to establish Chromatic alongside Nick Albert.

“I had been feeling for a few years that this career is checking so many of my boxes except for my personal passion – I work for great people, I make good money, I’m able to take care of my kids, Performance helped me be the kind of mum I wanted to be for a really long time. Now it just so happens that I need to show them something different,” she said.

“Nick and I met around 2015, when I started to call on the design studio he was running. We started talking about future plans in late 2020. We had already become good friends and spent a lot of time talking about the industry, things we liked and things we wished were better. Shortly after, he was speaking with his wife, Susan, and she mentioned that he and I should work together. So technically the beginning of Chromatic was neither of our idea, but instead Susan’s.

“We spent 6-7 months thinking and marinating on the kind of firm we would want to have and the kind of work that we wanted to do. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we launched in August of 2021.

“Chromatic is something that I had always wanted to do – not necessarily having my own firm but being a designer and having your work be viewed and done in a way that is reputable and good for the environment and good for humanity and all these things.

“Chromatic is our love song to how we want lighting to be effective in the world. It’s about process and perspective. We’re saying, ‘here’s this diverse firm with different perspectives in terms of race, gender, our personal histories’ – we value all of that and it informs how we approach projects.”

Since forming Chromatic last year, and indeed since the tragic events of 2020, Dandridge has been looking at what she can do as a designer and an educator within her role as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of South California (USC), to address issues surrounding equity, or the lack thereof, within lighting. In a particularly stirring piece for Architect Magazine, published in October 2021, she talked with Editor Wanda Lau about the “legacy of inequity in architectural lighting”.

“Most of my words start from a place of personal perspective,” she said. “I think about the entry into lighting design that I had as incredibly accidental.

If you think about all the things that interested you as a kid, how many of those stuck? Why was it lighting? I don’t know, other than that’s the seed that got the most nurture and attention.

“Is there equity in lighting? No. If you look at the people who are practicing lighting design, the people who are practicing in lighting as a

WOMEN IN LIGHTING LAUREN DANDRIDGE

“When it comes to race, people are incredibly uncomfortable because there’s no sophisticated language for dealing with all the layers that racism has.”

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whole, if you walk the Lightfair show floor, you will see that there’s not equity there. Is there equal access to the industry? Sure, from a paper standpoint; anybody can go to a university that has a programme and enter that. But just like most things, if you don’t know it’s there, you don’t know how to ask for it.

“I listen to a podcast by Malcolm Gladwell called Revisionist History, and in one episode he talks about the nurturing of students and how Ivy League schools were having a really hard time getting students of colour, Black students to come to these STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors; but on the flipside there are these historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) that are pumping out STEM-educated kids of colour. Yet when the predominantly white institutions are asked why they don’t have more students of colour, they say they can’t find them.

“The parallel that I’m drawing with lighting is that it feels very much the same way. If we can increase the access point from at least one mechanism that we can control – we know that trade schools have entry points, we know that if we start early, we can get kids more interested in STEM and artistic endeavours – we can let them know that this is an opportunity that they can ask for.

“I teach at USC, and I have very few Black or Latinx students, and so much so are we singular in our existence that when we launched Chromatic, all the students that I heard from were students of colour who specifically remembered seeing me in that class and thought ‘oh my gosh, I have a Black teacher’.

“The industry isn’t equitable because it started off as an industry that wasn’t equitable, and it can’t change until the people in that inequitable industry decide to reach out and pull other people into it.”

As for her own personal experience as a Black woman in the lighting industry, Dandridge said that she hasn’t received any “incredibly outward or noticeable experiences of discrimination”, but rather micro-aggressions and unintentional biases.

“I have consistently been the only Black person in a space for years. But most of the spaces that I have been in have leaned much more towards the ‘I don’t see race’ part of the conversation; and when you don’t see race, it’s impossible to have tokens, because everyone is exactly the same – ironically until you have a baby, then all of a sudden, you’re a woman.

“But what’s interesting is that people are very willing to acknowledge gender, because it feels like a natural organisation of humanity. People talk about marriage, about having kids, all these things that have gender implications built into them, and that may change based on the level of equity we’re seeing in terms of non-binary gender issues.

But when it comes to race people are incredibly uncomfortable because there’s no sophisticated language for dealing with all the layers that racism has. When you say racism people immediately feel like you’re talking about them, and it’s so hard to have conversations in workplaces surrounding race where the immediate defensiveness isn’t projected onto you.

“The idea of ‘colour-blindness’ has put white people essentially on defence, where if they even say the word Black or acknowledge Blackness, then they are somehow opening the door to someone questioning them. And until that dynamic, where the immediate defensiveness of acknowledgement of race goes away, the equity part of lighting is going to be very hard to counteract.”

The contrast between gender and racial equity in the lighting industry leads the conversation to the notion of allyship and privilege – something that arc has been particularly focused on over the last few issues. Where the lighting design community has been very keen to support gender equality and highlight male privilege, is Dandridge concerned that racial equity and white privilege is being overlooked?

“The constituency of women has grown over the years, and any time you have more voices, a singular message can be heard more loudly,” Dandridge said. “It’s interesting because the intersection of race and gender and religion and all of these other things happen, and we don’t always know how to acknowledge them simultaneously.

“If we look at the mindset that being a white man is the ‘norm’, or the standard that we’re trying to get to, then white women are right there. But then you have the complexity of, depending on your perspective, I would argue that men of colour have more privilege than white women because of their position as men. You could do-si-do the different human points a million different ways to make it seem like none of them are achievable and yet all of them are achievable.

“The hard thing about privilege is that it’s something that you don’t realise that you have.

Trying to convince somebody who worked really hard to get where they are, who sacrificed, made less money, put their head down, that even in all of that work and in that success, they were privileged is going to go down like a lead balloon. Until we can all acknowledge a level of privilege it’s going to be hard to make substantial progress.

“I have it as an educated person, as a lighter skinned Black person, as an American. The level of privilege that I have, I have to acknowledge when I’m in conversations.”

Alongside Dandridge’s views on equity in the lighting industry as a profession, she’s also heavily invested in achieving wider, societal equity through light. In a previous interview inside arc, Dr. Shelly James referred to light as a ‘social differentiator’, and while Dandridge agreed to an extent, she feels that it is “a symptom of a larger problem in how it is applied”.

“Lighting does not care what it does, it is an inanimate object that is taken as a tool by which people in power can wield it against those not.

Much like being able to own a home is indicative of a larger financial and economic system, lighting falls into the same category of something that can be weaponised against a group of people, because it is a necessary item that we need for nightlife, for existing in buildings, and anything that is of need, once it is withheld, it puts you in a place of discomfort.

WOMEN IN LIGHTING LAUREN DANDRIDGE

“I think lighting is a social signifier, not in the same way that having a fancy car is, but that you become part of a group that is being transgressed upon, or surveilled, or undervalued by a system that is supposed to look at everybody equally.

“The second issue is that lighting design as a service industry, for better or worse, largely exists in a place of privilege, in that we are an additional service fee on top of an already expensive process.

It’s considered extra fancy if you have a lighting designer in the same way that if you had an interior designer or a landscape designer – it’s hard to say that we aren’t specialised to the point of exclusion.

“This is also something that Nick and I talk about; how can lighting design be more equitable? How can we get on the projects that affect more people, that make the quality of light a necessary item to consider?”

This is one of the primary considerations for Light Privilege – a design framework established

by Chromatic, through which Dandridge and Albert are trying to address inequities at night by

understanding the ways in which light intersects life, talking about privilege and its role in our illuminated experiences, and confronting the ways that light has been used in systems of racism and oppression.

“Accepting that privilege exists becomes the imperative for identifying, understanding and working to counteract the systemic mechanism of inequity,” Dandridge said. “Light Privilege seeks to ensure that all communities have access to the beauty and possibilities of light. We want to take this information and present it to stakeholders and say that lighting has to be a part of this conversation – not lighting from a financial/ economic standpoint, but as the creation of an environment, because we know that doing lighting for the least amount possible, by people who don’t understand the greater implications, doesn’t work.

“It will forever be a work in progress, there are always new mountains to climb, but for right now I’m happy for every opportunity to be able to talk about it.”

WOMEN IN LIGHTING LAUREN DANDRIDGE

Looking ahead, Dandridge is keen to continue spreading the word about Light Privilege and building up Chromatic’s portfolio of work. The studio has several projects nearing completion, and Dandridge explained that they are already looking at expanding.

“We have this firm that has this perspective, we created this process, but we’ll need to hire soon,” she said. “I don’t want to have just any firm, because then it wouldn’t be my firm, and I want to have a place where people can truly bring their whole selves. You shouldn’t have to put away 40% of who you are to have peace at your job, and that’s the goal of Chromatic, to be able to have people who believe in our mission and us, and who we believe in and work together to support this way of life, of being your whole selves: the uncomfortable, sticky parts and the parts that are shiny and polished. They exist in the same place, so that’s a big goal of mine for Chromatic – I want to be even better than the people who were great to me.”

Until then, Dandridge will continue to have the difficult, uncomfortable conversations. Although she feels that over time, they are becoming easier.

“In some ways, it’s liberating. Part of working for somebody else is that you’re not sure you’re supported in all the ways that you can be your whole self, and part of entrepreneurship is that I can be my whole self and the consequences only rest on me, and specifically for Chromatic, Nick. But 054 / 055

our partnership allows us that freedom because we both 100% believe in the things that we’re saying,” she said. “It’s terrifying at times, because there’s a certain level of success that you can have when you can be invisible and small, and when you step out and become visible and make statements, you’re inviting judgement and opinion, and there are days when those opinions can be a lot sharper than others.

“Dr. Manuel Pastor, a distinguished professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at USC, said to me once that having these conversations is like going to the gym: the first time you go it’s really hard – but then you go a second time, and it still hurts, but it’s not like the first time. And you go again and again and eventually you can do the workout more effectively; you have been trained.

And that’s what these conversations have to be like – I know that if I choose to do the work, I will get better, and I think that there is a universal truth in that, and that can be reflected here as well.

“If we continue to have these incredibly uncomfortable conversations with a level of honesty and protection, but not defensiveness, then we can make changes. The conversations beget the change, they are the door through which we walk, but we have to do the work and we can’t be scared of doing it, even though it hurts.” www.wearechromatic.com

Daste Bistro, Bergamo, Italy

Futon

Night’s silence

Say goodbye to noise combining ambient lighting and functionality of acoustics.

eye opener

Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) Berlin, Germany One of the most prominent figures of the Light and Space movement, Robert Irwin created a new installation at Kraftwerk Berlin at the end of 2021.

Commissioned by LAS, the installation is the latest addition to Irwin’s Light and Space series, and was the largest work to be exhibited by the artist in Europe.

Over the course of his six-decade career, Irwin has become well known for siteconditioned works that use the effects of light to explore human perception and use of space. An early proponent of sitespecific installations, he creates largescale experiential works, using minimal means that challenge our perceptions and reimagine our environments.

For Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin), Irwin intertwined the impressive, industrialist architecture of the venue, taking over the entire space from 5 December 2021 to 30 January 2022 to fully immerse visitors in his ongoing experiments with light and space.

Irwin is considered a seminal figure of Light and Space, a loosely affiliated art movement originating in southern California in the 1960s as part of the radical cultural scene that was emerging on America’s West Coast over that period, and that is characterised by its interdisciplinary approach, convergence of art and science, and stepping away from object-centric practices. From the 1970s onwards, Irwin favoured a site-specific approach in which he perceived art as closely shaped by the conditions of the surrounding space. He brings this approach to experiential relationships with the built environment to his latest installation.

Irwin’s Light and Space series was first conceived in 2007 and commonly features fluorescent light tubes arranged in rhythmic yet undecipherable abstract patterns on white walls with high finishes. Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) used blue fluorescent lights for the first time, in combination with the artist’s traditional white, positioned on a freestanding wall measuring 16x16 metres.

In another diversion from Irwin’s usual practice, Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) was double-sided, making use of both sides of the freestanding wall. The installation filled the former power station with light, prompting visitors to interrogate the very notion of perception itself.

Bettina Kames, Director of LAS, said of the piece: “Our programme enables artists to realise their most ambitious artworks, so I’m thrilled that Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) was Robert Irwin’s largest project in Europe.

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“Radical and forward-thinking, Irwin’s interdisciplinary practice - collaborating with everyone from James Turrell to NASA - chimes with LAS’s commitment to projects that intersect art, technology and science. We are also dedicated to making art accessible to all and Irwin’s experiencebased approach makes his work particularly approachable and transformative.” www.lightartspace.org

Image: Robert Irwin, Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin), 2021.

Commissioned by LAS (Light Art Space). © Foto: Timo Ohler.

VG Bild-Kunst, 2021.

BIO4 Copenhagen, Denmark

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Speirs Major and Gottlieb Paludan Architects have collaborated to create a wondrous façade for Copenhagen’s BIO4 biomass-fired power station.

PROJECT BIO4

s part of Copenhagen’s drive to become the world’s first CO2-neutral capital by 2025, local utility company HOFOR has drawn attention to its transition to sustainable energy with a bold and dynamic intervention of architecture and light at its new biomass-fired CHP power unit, BIO4.

Situated on the site of the original Amagervæket power station, the plant has undergone several upgrades since it was first constructed in 1971, eliminating the production of harmful emissions and ensuring that it is not an eyesore to nearby residents.

Completed in October 2021, the new project was spearheaded by Gottlieb Paludan Architects and Speirs Major, who won a design competition in 2014 with a concept that uses dynamic light to activate a unique ‘Forest Façade’. This six-metredeep façade is adorned with a fascia of suspended tree trunks, creating the appearance of a dense forest. A clear visual signifier of the unit’s use and its move away from fossil fuels, the façade also plays an important role in engaging the local community and helping to embed the building into the wider identity of Copenhagen as a city.

Jesper Ravn, Architect and Lighting Designer at Gottlieb Paludan Architects, said of the initial design concept: “The story we wanted to tell was a story about wood, and giving the citizens of Copenhagen a relationship and connection to where their heating comes from.”

Keith Bradshaw, Senior Partner at Speirs Major, added: “What is very clever about the way the façade was designed, and the access in through the façade, is that it remembers to connect people to this huge, oversized, industrial facility. You don’t realise quite how big it is until you stand near it, and you certainly don’t realise how awesome it is until you stand within it. Allowing people to understand the scale of the project is something

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that was really ambitious, yet simple, but for me that is the nature of relating to a forest; as you walk towards it you realise that it’s much bigger and more sophisticated and complicated and layered than you might have imagined from the outside.”

Given the scale of the building and its prominent location, just two kilometres from downtown Copenhagen, its architectural expression and visual identity was also crucial. By day, the unique, organic wooden cladding system, mounted in a galvanised support structure, helps to soften the lines of the vast building while adding a sense of nuance and texture.

After dark, Speirs Major designed the visual image to be strong, yet subtle, managing the light intensity so that the façade would sit comfortably within the city context. The projected light creates a beautiful, dappled effect, gently revealing the depth and texture of the façade, while the kinetic animation celebrates the building as a source of heat for the city.

Bradshaw continued: “We went through several ideas about whether the fixtures and the light should be in the façade or projected onto the façade, and where we ended up was, in really simple terms, a very large-scale impact created with as minimal energy as possible.

“It’s layered up, sometimes with three layers of light, because you need that layering to create the magic moments where you don’t realise it’s artificial light. That’s a very rare thing in the work that we do. It’s like when you go to the theatre, most people don’t look at the lights, they just look at the effect, and they either believe it or don’t believe it. Once you clear away the technical solutions and just think about the effect, that made it feel magical.”

Ravn agreed that the new façade lighting brings a feeling of magic to the building: “One of the big achievements is when you look at the light, you can’t stop looking at it. You just want to dream your way into it. It’s like looking at little ripples in the water, a field of crops in the wind; it’s very recognisable, and yet you’ve never seen anything like it. It pushes buttons in your imagination in that it looks natural and organic, and it organically brings back the thought of where the wood comes from, that it’s alive.

“Residential buildings are less than a kilometre away, they can see this from their bedroom windows, and I don’t think that they tire of it because it’s so gentle and natural. There’s a great achievement in that.”

The lighting for the façade appears in tones of warm white under normal circumstances, with a limited palette of colours for special and civic occasions provided to further boost the local community’s engagement with BIO4.

To achieve this, Speirs Major used 49 Martin Professional Exterior 1000 projectors, while 150 DALI controlled lights from the likes of iGuzzini, Stoane Lighting, LightGraphix and Vexica are used for downlighting, linear stair handrails and other elements of the design.

Bradshaw explained further the components used to create the dynamic façade scheme: “It’s

theatrical effects within architectural fixtures, and what is significant about it is that it is permanent, and it’s very robust,” he said.

“It is one of the most difficult environments in which you could put light fittings outside. There’s a lot of weather that comes through the harbour, so you need a fixture and an installation that can handle that. Also, because it’s an industrial facility, the detailing needed to feel appropriate for the setting. It’s a robust piece of infrastructure, but it creates a very delicate, theatrical effect.”

Although the six-metre-thick forest appears only on the main façade, the ‘forest’ thins out to a single skin of trunks along the east and west façades.

While this may have been a challenge to Speirs Major, Bradshaw believes that the positioning of the light projections helps to reinforce the feeling of depth.

“While most of the fittings are on the public side of the project, we could project the light threedimensionally around the corner, which created the layered effect that we were getting elsewhere on the main elevation. This means that the side elevation, which is only one-metre-thick, and the main elevation look like one piece. It took a lot of skill and quite a bit of luck for it to look just as beautiful as it does, as it is not just an elevation, it’s a three-dimensional object that we’ve lit. Everything about the façade is very three-dimensional – it is an abstracted, framed view of a forest that we’ve gently placed around the building. It’s a playful abstraction of what’s going on inside the building.”

Within this abstract forest of light, a staircase leads up to a viewing platform on the roof. By ascending the stairs, visitors can immerse themselves in the forest and experience the kinetic light effect from within – an experience that Bradshaw compares to entering a remarkable alternate reality.

“The journey up the staircase is really amazing because this is a civic infrastructure project, it’s not a space that you think would be easy for people to inhabit. But what is so beautiful about the architectural design and the scaling of the staircase is that as you walk through it and experience the effect of the dappling of light coming through all the layers, all the narratives of being in an enchanted forest begin to start. There is something mystical about it. There is an energy in the forest.

Even though the temptation may be there for some, you don’t really want to look for where the light is coming from, you just want to experience the effect.”

The addition of a means for the public to directly interact with the building is something atypical to what one might expect for this kind of infrastructure project, but Ravn feels the move was an integral part in giving citizens of Copenhagen a connection to the power station.

“If you think of power stations from different generations, Battersea Power Station for example, that is effectively a Victorian cathedral saying ‘we love energy, we love progress’. The next generation didn’t want to build in brick, they wanted quick, efficient, hidden sites that were out of the way.

But that’s not enough today,” he said. “Cities are growing, and someone will be living close to these Image: Jens Lindhe

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PROJECT BIO4

things soon, so it’s not acceptable that we build ugly infrastructure that no one wants in their back yard. That’s why we tried to make something attractive that people can relate to and appreciate.

We then took that to extremes by inviting people to come closer, to touch it and walk up the façade, which is very unusual. Our desire was to connect citizens to the reality of where we get our heat.”

Bradshaw added: “Connecting people to where their heat comes from is what underpins this entire project. The level of civic engagement and civic responsibility, pride, and knowledge is extraordinary – people care about this project, they care about where their heat comes from, and they want to know what this site is for. By being humble enough to say, ‘this is what it is, this is the reality of who we are, let’s do something special with it’,

rather than pretending it doesn’t exist is very brave.

“The celebration that this power plant is a major green provider of heat for Copenhagen – it covers almost 60% of the district heating in the city – means that as we continue to engage people with issues of energy and sustainability, telling the story of what it takes to power a city, rather than hiding it away or burying it underground, we are using light to promote its lower carbon footprint.”

Since the competition stage in 2014, Speirs Major and Gottlieb Paludan Architects have been in close, constant collaboration on this project, working together to create a finished project where the architecture and lighting are seamlessly intertwined in one, cohesive narrative.

Both Bradshaw and Ravn believe that this collaboration is something that directly contributed

PROJECT BIO4

Client: HOFOR Lighting Design: Speirs Major, UK Architect: Gottlieb Paludan Architects, Denmark Lighting Suppliers: iGuzzini, LightGraphix, Martin Professional, Pharos Architectural Controls, Stoane Lighting, Vexica Photography: Allan Toft (unless stated otherwise)

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to the success of the overall project.

Bradshaw said: “If we were making a film, Jesper was the producer, the person that really made it happen, where he kept everyone connected and focused on what this was. That would not have happened had Jesper not done it.

“People use the word collaboration all the time, but there’s another story to what good collaboration is, and it’s much rarer. We do a lot of projects, but very rarely do you come out of it with an amazing result and an amazing feeling that you have done something special. There are no doubts on this project; we were always pointing in the same direction because we had an idea that was appropriate, timeless, authentic, real, and we felt that we had to protect it for as long as possible until it was delivered. Getting down to the heart of what we aspired to do, we can say that it has been delivered beautifully.”

Ravn concluded: “I’ve always known that I could trust Speirs Major, and that they could deliver a beautiful solution. It took a long time before anything regarding the lighting got specific, we were very close to the end before we saw what this was going to look like, but by throwing words back and forth about what we feel, what it is, how we

understand each other, reassured everyone.

“That is the strong link between light and architecture; I don’t think that you can separate the two. I work with both and they’re one thing – there is nothing that architecture is about that light is not also about.

“How does the light work together with the architecture? How can it bring the space to life?

How can it be the visual music to the physical building? The soul in the body? The electricity in Frankenstein’s monster? How can the light be that?

That’s hard, but that’s the point in bringing light and architecture together, and I think we’ve been able to do that all along.” www.smlightarchitecture.com www.gottliebpaludan.com

eye opener

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Staying Alight Murten, Switzerland Staying Alight is an interactive light and sound installation from GNI Projects, commissioned uniquely for Circuit Secrete in Murten, Switzerland, taking place from October 2021 to March 2022.

The piece invites small groups to interact with each other, encouraging them to immerse in and share a unique sensory experience as the world strives to return to a new normal. To experience the piece, visitors descend a staircase to a dark, medieval stone chamber. Using low intensity blue floor lighting as a guide, visitors enter the space exploring its boundaries, until sensors react to their presence.

A 2x2-metre zone protecting the heart at the room’s core is marked in light by its corners – reminiscent of the social distancing measures designed to protect each other – but the heart is not yet visible. As people move closer, the heart gradually reveals itself, line by line, encouraging people closer as if gathering around a fire, mesmerised by its glowing, pulsing spell.

Each strand is perceived perfectly straight, and is formed from a single glass fibre less than 1mm in diameter. The heart floats as if suspended by its extremities, gradually building, slowly beating, calming, welcoming and soothing until it is fully activated by people’s togetherness. As visitors reach the two-metre zone, the heart comes to life, pulsing brightly in celebration.

The fibre optics are woven around a minimal, non-reflecting black frame that is almost invisible, creating what appears like an ever-changing ball of illuminated strings from most viewing angles; the lines only

reveal themselves as an abstract heart shape when viewed straight on.

Graham Rollins, co-founder of GNI Projects, said: “The piece was conceived as an all-new extension to the Light Loves Collection, and in response to the emotional effects of the pandemic. In these times of uncertainty, our emotional strength and our connections to others have been tested like never before, and our hearts and feelings have struggled to find their way in occasions of isolation, sadness or confusion.

“The iconic heart that was once completed by holding the hand of another has become weakened or faint during times of social distancing, but it has not been broken.

Staying Alight welcomes people back to cautiously and respectfully remember the friends they have missed or people they have lost, reaffirming the love they find in their own hearts.

“The heart can be seen to change, fade and deconstruct as it endeavours to stay strong during this challenging period, only to recover and pulse brightly as people are brought closer together by its display.

Visitors can see how their actions and interactions can affect the emotions of others and brightness of the heart, as they move around the piece exploring the space.”

Music by sound designer Ben Stephens reaffirms the welcoming aura of the space, with elements of excitement and exuberance in phases as people enjoy reconnecting.

Sound plays on an endless loop building and deconstructing in complement to the interaction provided by the sensors. www.gni-projects.com

Glenlivet Visitor Experience Speyside, UK

The iconic whisky brand Glenlivet has created an immersive and interactive visitor experience at its Speyside distillery that reflects its rich heritage, high standards, and welcoming nature. A vibrant lighting scheme from Into adds to the warm and welcoming atmosphere of the space.

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PROJECT GLENLIVET VISITOR EXPERIENCE

he Glenlivet, Speyside’s original single malt, is welcoming whisky fans to its newly refurbished home in Speyside, Scotland. After undergoing 18 months of extensive renovations, the home of The Glenlivet has become so much more than a distillery, with a new look and feel.

Following in the footsteps of its founder, George Smith, and his legendary hospitality, the redevelopment reflects his high standards and welcoming nature. Using innovative technology combined with exclusive bottlings, immersive tours, and whisky tastings, The Glenlivet brings visitors an experience like no other. From exploring the art of whisky-making and showcasing rare editions, to reflecting The Glenlivet’s heritage throughout the interiors, the new visitor experience pays homage to being the original mark of quality for Speyside single malt.

Designed by London-based studio Blacksheep, with lighting design from Into, the valley of the smooth flowing River Livet echoes throughout the visitor experience, while the interiors have been inspired

by The Glenlivet Estate and the wilderness of the Cairngorms National Park, in which it sits.

Working closely with the interior designers throughout the entire project, Johanna Paice, Associate at Into talks arc through the design process: “When we first met with the interior design team, they ran through their concept for

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each area – their visuals had a very strong aesthetic and really helped us to get an idea of what the client would like and how the overall space would work. We discussed possible lighting ideas and solutions at this stage; for some areas, they had very strong ideas of what the lighting should be like and the effect they wanted to create, in other areas it was more of a discussion. Our concept was to make the space feel inviting and to ensure there was a balance between showing off the products and experience but still making it feel authentic to the original space and location.”

The visitor centre is spread over the ground and lower floors of the distillery. Visitors enter via the reception where they are greeted by a spectacular custom chandelier by London-based florists, Grandirosa, which is made from local dried wildflowers. From here the visitors embark on a guided explorative journey through a series of spaces that bring the story of The Glenlivet to life.

Spaces that follow, include a lounge, which acts as a waiting area ahead of the tour; The Tasting Room - a dramatic circular space featuring a round custom walnut table at its centre as well as a sculptural display that rises from the table displaying a selection of whiskies; then there’s The Sample Room and The Provision Room retail spaces; The Drawing Room - an atmospheric and relaxed onsite bar; The Smugglers Hideout - an elevated private space for tasting the finest bottles

NEW NEW

line

Advanced LED performance Aligned with the environment

140 Lumens per Watt

7.5mm

10W or 20W/m • 94 CRI

9.5mm

1:1

TiMi A010 & A020, featuring our powerful new 10W/20W LED strips with ultra‑high lumen efficacy of 140lm/W (No Cover) or 120lm/W (Diffused Cover)

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PROJECT GLENLIVET VISITOR EXPERIENCE

of whisky; and then finally The Glenlivet Warehouse, featuring floor to ceiling whisky barrels that are illuminated with hidden linear LEDs washing down.

The Warehouse space is split into three, the angel’s share showcasing the aging process of the whisky with a large backlit display, with the two other areas focusing only on the areas of interest making the space feel moody and interesting.

Initially, Into focused on each area of the Experience separately, reviewing the integral details via mock-ups to ensure they worked with the finishes suggested. The team then added layers of light to the space to enhance Blacksheep’s interior design. “Every fitting was reviewed and colour temperatures throughout the space were considered to get the best effect possible,” said Paice. Final fixtures for the project were selected from: KKDC, Engima, UFO, LightGraphix, Stoane Lighting, TM lighting, Hunza, Lightform, Lite-house, and Soraa.

Into used clever lighting design to differentiate the various spaces while ensuring they were seamlessly linked. “We wanted the space to feel harmonious, but the individual areas also needed to stand out in their own right, especially the retail spaces,” Paice explained. “Lighting was used to zone the areas with dimming to each; we also used colour temperature to denote different areas. The retail spaces were slightly cooler with 2700K light fittings, this also helped highlight the true colour of the whisky. Whereas the Experience area was a lot warmer with 2200K fittings.

“Showcasing the products was one of the main focuses of the lighting scheme,” Paice continued.

“This was done with integral lighting details mounted within the joinery and I think this helped to get the balance between showcasing the products and staying true to the concept and the homely feel of the ground floor space. It helped that the interior finishes were naturally warm, with lots of rich colours and woods used. The whiskey itself is such a lovely amber colour that highlighting this with warmer light helped to really bring the bottle to life.

“The tasting room was slightly different to the other spaces, while it was still very dramatic as you walk in, the lighting was more visual with large circular suspended profile rings mounted at high level and used as a feature. They were dimmed very low instead of using them to light the space. We also highlighted the bottles within the display using light sheets hidden within each bespoke shelf. As the visitors taste each one, the shelves with the whisky they are tasting illuminates.”

The main theatrical elements throughout the space are within the lower ground floor experience and as guests walk into the Speyside room filled with barley, the architectural lighting is used to create drama within the space. “We wanted to bring the barley to life and make sure it didn’t get lost,” continued Paice. “This was done with fibre optic pavers mounted within the base of the barley shining up and through. The light shimmers and moves to create the effect of barley moving in the wind.

“The rest of the lighting in the space is focused, with dramatic pools of light on the floor and uplighting details to the carved wood walls to add depth and layering the space.”

For Paice, as there are so many beautiful handmade displays and finishes within this project, highlighting them in a sensitive way became even more important. “Lighting also helped to create unusual effects and make the space feel more impactful and dramatic,” she said. “We are really happy with the overall lighting design. It’s very close to what was originally discussed at the concept stage with the only differences occurring because of the various mock-ups, which identified the best execution of each lighting detail. Not only did these demonstrate to the client possible ways to present their product, but they also steered the collaboration between lighting and joinery, which was a great success.”

Darren Orrow, Director at Into, added: “This was such a fantastic project to work on; both the interior designer and client had some great ideas for lighting. We all worked very closely on mockups and detailing to make sure our collective creative vision could be realised within budgets and timescales.”

Commenting on the finished product, Miriam Eceolaza, Director of The Glenlivet, said: “After 18 months of renovations, we can’t wait to open the doors to our local communities and bring whisky lovers into our new visitor experience. It’s a true immersion into the iconic Speyside region, walking guests through our stunning indoor field of local barley, tasting from our old and rare archives, experimenting with our famous cocktail capsules and taking a unique piece of Speyside home with our straight from the cask personalised bottling.

From the decor and design to ambience and atmosphere, guests will witness something truly original at every turn.” www.into.co.uk

Client: The Glenlivet Lighting Design: Into Lighting, UK Interior Design: Blacksheep, UK Lighting Suppliers: Crestron, Enigma Lighting, Hunza, KKDC, Lightforms, LightGraphix, Lite-house, Mode Lighting, Soraa, Stoane Lighting, TM Lighting, UFO Photography: John Paul Photography

eye opener

Prism Sarushima, Japan

Created by Japanese studio Hakuten creative, Prism was an installation exhibited at Sense Island, an art event on the island of Sarushima, which was used by the Japanese military until World War II. The island still features relics from the past, such as the site of a gun battery, and through Prism, Hakuten sought to revive these remnants through beautiful, colourful light.

For the installation, Hakuten drew a map on the beach based on the outline of the island and the ruins of the gun emplacements, and laid out a collection of small prisms.

Visitors were then invited to directly engage with the installation, manipulating spotlights to interact with the prisms and create a colourful play of light and colour along the beach.

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Through its installations, Hakuten hopes to unearth the memories of places and things, and to bring them back to life through beautiful experiences. During the day, the prism was visible and the outline of the island appeared. The piece used minimal materials with the stand made of renewable wood and the finish composed of local sand.

The lights and prisms will also be kept for future installations.

The installation as completed gradually over the course of the exhibition, which lasted for about a month. It was designed to eventually be buried in the sand to become part of the landscape.

Large numbers of people attended the installation, revitalising the area and beautifully transforming some of the island’s

darker memories through the power of art and design. For locals and international visitors alike, the installation, Hakuten hoped, would have the power to alter people’s understanding of history.

“This work does not speak to glorify war,” Hakuten said of Prism. “We simply believe that it is important to preserve memories of the past through various expressions of art and design that prevent them from being forgotten. We wish to spread this work to the world as an expression that beautifully reminds us of memories born from a negative legacy.” www.hakuten.co.jp

Image: Kim Dong-Gyu

talking with…

“I’m not a believer in standing still, because eventually you’re going to get caught out. There’s an energy in doing new things and being positive and exciting.”

Michael Grubb

With a big year on the horizon for Michael Grubb Studio, arc sits down with its founder to talk about how he became one of the hottest names in the UK lighting design community, and what the future has in store for the Bournemouth-based firm.

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Top right: Lost Light, Arts by the Sea Festival (Image: Mike Massaro) Bottom right: Guinness Storehouse (Image: James Newton & Donal Murphy)

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hen the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns first hit back in 2020, many of us were understandably quite panicked, taking to social media to remind the world that yes, we are still here.

However, for Michael Grubb and his self-titled studio, he went in the opposite direction, using the enforced pause to look inward and reflect on his position in the lighting design world.

“I got a bit bored with throwback projects,” he told arc. “I get why people did it, but we went the opposite way and instead took a step back to reflect on who we are, who we want to be, what we represent, what our ethos should be moving forward.”

During this period of reflection, Michael Grubb Studio has undergone a rebrand and, as we start to cautiously move into a post-pandemic world, Grubb is looking ahead to what he called “Michael Grubb Studio Part 2”.

The rebrand comes just nine years after the formation of the Bournemouth-based practice, during which it has become one of the most sought-after lighting design firms in the country.

Grubb formed his eponymous studio in January 2013, shortly after working as Learning Legacy Ambassador for Lighting at London 2012 and winning the Lighting Designer of the Year award.

His journey into lighting though, began back in the mid 1990s where, like many designers in his generation, he “fell into lighting design”.

“I studied Industrial Design and Product Design at Arts University Bournemouth and ThreeDimensional Design at the University of Plymouth, and I liked lighting as a thing, and I appreciated the mood and ambience that came with it,” he said.

“It wasn’t alien to me, but my understanding was very surface level as a graduate. But through work experience I found it interesting and exciting.”

Graduating in 1998, Grubb considers himself “very lucky” that he entered the working world just as the country was gearing towards the new Millennium.

Moving from the South Coast to London, he joined Sutton Vane Associates, where he gained access to a number of exciting projects. “There were all of these Millennium projects - the famous ones like the Dome and the London Eye, but there were also museums and national theatres, popping up everywhere. Over a very short period, I got access to a lot of them at a very junior level, and I loved it; I realised then just how important lighting design was, and how varied it was.

“It was like falling in love with someone; it wasn’t love at first sight, even though it’s more romantic to say that. I fell in love with it deeply over a period of months. When I was training, I never really knew where I would fit. I never felt that I wanted to be an architect or an interior designer, even product design even though that’s what I trained in. What lighting design does is it covers everything.”

Grubb worked at Sutton Vane Associates for 14 years, rising through the ranks to the position of Director, before leaving at the end of 2012 and returning to his hometown of Bournemouth.

“When I left, I didn’t really know what I was going to do,” he said. “I got some extremely well-paid offers

to work with some manufacturers, but by having these offers, it made it clear to me that I didn’t want to do that, and what was left was ‘you’re going to have to do it on your own’.

“I took six weeks over Christmas to think things through, but once I knew I was going to do it, I got really excited, and my brain was working in overdrive. I was also very nervous - I had one kid back then, a mortgage, a family, and people kept saying to me ‘you’ll never do it in Bournemouth, you’ll never succeed outside of London or a major city’.

“But it was an extremely liberating thing. It’s like having a blank canvas - you don’t know what the name of your business is going to be, what your logo is going to look like, your website, you haven’t even thought about projects yet - it was a very exciting period.”

To that end, Grubb explained that he never intended to name the new studio after himself, as the goal was never for it to be a solo project.

“I didn’t want the company to be Michael Grubb anything,” he said. “I was adamant that it would be called something else. I spent two weeks getting hardly any sleep, thinking of every possible name I could come up with which had either already gone; was unbelievably cheesy and clichéd; or so vague and pointless that it was pretentious.

“But then someone in the industry said to me ‘you’d be an idiot if you don’t use your name, because you’ve just won Lighting Designer of the Year, and everyone knows who you are. Start with your name and by all means change it in the future if that’s what you want to do’.

“In a weird way, I didn’t feel the pressure at the beginning because I never necessarily saw it as being me. I had no intention of being a one-man band. I started from day one with a collective team mentality not as an individual - my mindset was quite blinkered on being a team from the outset.

“And that happened very quickly as well: within six weeks to three months, it was quite surprising what contracts and what clients we had. That’s when I realised more than anything, people work with people, rather than companies or names or logos, and I hadn’t really appreciated that until I started up - I thought much more that I was starting again, but I wasn’t.”

With such a keen focus on the studio being a collective, he has always sought to surround himself with a strong team of designers, something that he feels is “absolutely critical”. “I’m at peace with this now, but my name is a brand, and the problem we have is that sometimes people do assume that it’s just me, so it’s really important that I have a strong team around me to be able to say it’s not about me,” he said.

“A few times people have said to me ‘what you need is another you’, and I always say that’s the last thing I need. What I need is people that challenge me, are happy to disagree with me, there’s no point in getting ‘yes’ men or women who just nod.

Diversity in thinking and skillsets and talent is really important. It’s like a football team – there’s no point in having the best 11 goalkeepers, you need to have diversity and balance.”

TALKING WITH... MICHAEL GRUBB

TALKING WITH... MICHAEL GRUBB

Bath Abbey (Image: James Newton)

“I want to create an ethos where we appeal not just to clients, but lighting designers, to be a part of something.”

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Grubb’s mindset of the wider collective is something that isn’t limited to his own company either, as he added that from the offset Michael Grubb Studio always recognised the community feel of the lighting design industry. “One of the things that I definitely bought into was the idea of being positive and embracing other people’s work. I don’t allow anyone in the office to say ‘competitors’, they’re ‘friends of the industry’.

“Generally, I get on really well with all of the other consultants, so at events like [d]arc night, we’ll chat to everyone; at awards parties, I’ll congratulate the winners afterwards, and it’s all genuine. That genuine community spirit is something that I want to embrace, and then that creates positivity internally as well.”

On a stylistic level though, Grubb hoped from the beginning that he could tap into what he identified as a gap in the lighting design market to create something more unique and standalone.

“At the time, everyone was quite rigid in terms of how they worked, on the one hand you had the engineering-minded designers, and then the architectural lighting designers; and on the other hand, you had the light artists. I wanted to position ourselves between architectural lighting and light artists; we’re not saying we’re light artists, we are architectural - but there’s a creative, theatrical, bold, statement area that I didn’t think was being

exploited but more importantly, fell where I thought I was as a designer at the time.

“We wanted to create technically sound, but really subjective lighting design. Our approach was ‘as long as we think it looks cool, it’s done’. That was enough of a starting point to know where we were going. Even when we did the logo, everyone else’s was black and white and we had a big, colourful logo, so it was a statement of intent - we’re going to be different and we’re confident in being different.”

That being said, Grubb doesn’t feel that he has a particular ‘signature style’, at least, not intentionally.

“Two or three times when I’ve done talks and we’ve had a Q&A at the end, people have asked ‘you do a lot of bold, wow, impact projects and you don’t mind using colour, is that deliberate?’ I always said no, but the fact that I keep getting asked about it, maybe it subconsciously is.

“People say that lighting design should be effortless, that you walk into a space and feel the warmth, and while I buy into that, to some extent I do want people to walk into a room and think ‘look at this restaurant, it’s really warm, really cosy, and wow the lighting is cool’. I want that end bit where people notice the lighting.

“When we get hired, clients are looking for a bit of bang, something that is not too subtle. The bigger you get, you can’t always be like that, but you’ve

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only got to go on our portfolio page to know that there’s quite a lot of intensity there at times – that’s what people wanted, they wanted a creative statement with light.”

This approach has seen Grubb and his studio work across a wide range of projects, from public realm and exterior lighting to retail, museums, and visitor experiences. “I would say that we’re quite diverse,” Grubb said. “I quite like new challenges.

For example, when we got involved with Lush it wasn’t retail that appealed to me, it was their brief, approach, what they were trying to do and untangling problems for them, creating our own creative brief that they then bought into, and then pushing them in the right direction.”

With a diverse portfolio of work, Grubb feels that there isn’t one particular “landmark” project that helped put the studio on the map, but rather a consistent collection of projects “that all happened at the right time”.

“You’re only as good as your last project,” he said.

“If you look back six or seven years ago, I’m still very proud of what we did, but if you’re still openly promoting them, I feel like you’re living off past glories.

“We’ve won a lot of awards for Bath Abbey recently and I’m really proud of that. We’ve had moments when we worked on the Olympic Park, the project with Lush, developing the design language for the Guinness Storehouse – these are all quite different, but the key thing for us is that we’re staying relevant across different sectors and different disciplines; we’re always thinking differently and moving forward.”

One area in particular where Grubb has been relatively forward-thinking has been his longstanding push towards sustainability and the circular economy – something that the lighting

Tasting Rooms (Image: Donal Murphy)

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industry at large is now much more committed to. Not long after the formation of Michael Grubb Studio, Grubb established Re-Lit, an initiative that works with manufacturers to take superseded, damaged, or ex-demo lighting products, recycle and reuse them.

Grubb explained that the formation of Re-Lit wasn’t a preconceived, conscious idea from the start, but something that evolved over time. “A lot of ideas come to us through conversations,” he said. “If you have conversations, over days, months, years, things will bubble to the surface.

“Re-Lit started as a conversation in the pub between Stuart [Alexander, Associate at Michael Grubb Studio] and I. The whole idea came from the number of samples that we had knocking around, and in the LED world, just how much waste there was when we only had them on for 20 seconds and they last for 20 years, but when we tried to return them, the companies had already made better, newer products. We thought that was a big waste, but maybe we could turn it into a charity.

“These things evolve naturally, and when we worked with Lush, they came to us with a completely different set of problems; they were telling us about their green credentials, and we happened to be doing Re-Lit at the same time, so we merged some of that together. It wasn’t called the circular economy at the time, but that’s what we were doing. We looked at how we could get products maintained through multiple stores over 20 years, even to the point of designing the packaging and how it would be stored. We went through the whole process before this idea of the circular economy was widely discussed.”

Although Michael Grubb Studio was relatively ahead of the curve when it came to thinking about the circular economy in the lighting industry, Grubb said that he feels “slightly awkward” when people tell him that he was at the forefront of the movement. “We weren’t pioneering anything; we were just naturally doing it on commercial projects.

There were better, more impressive people than us doing it, but people realised that we were doing it and brought us into the conversation. We were more than happy to contribute, and still are, but to say that we drove the industry with it would be very misleading, and makes me feel like we would be getting more credit than we probably deserve.”

Looking ahead, Grubb believes that the circular economy and “second-hand lighting industry” will continue to gain steam, although he doesn’t believe it’ll be the next big revolution.

“It’s a bit like Back to the Future 2, isn’t it? You can predict the future and you’ll get some things right but most things wrong. It depends how far into the future you’re trying to predict,” he said.

“I think what is going to happen now though, where we used to have massive moments like the advent of LED, now there’s going to be lots of little things that shift the way we think. I think education and training needs to change, and it will.

The lighting design community is becoming more diverse, there’s more studios and practices than ever before, and everyone is going to find their way of carving themselves into the market.”

TALKING WITH... MICHAEL GRUBB

West Downs Campus, University of Winchester (Image: Design Engine Architects)

As for his own studio, Grubb revealed that he has big plans for 2022. “I’m never a believer in standing still, because eventually you’re going to get caught out,” he said. “There’s an energy in doing new things and being positive and exciting.

“The biggest thing we’re going to do in 2022 is start a London studio. This isn’t a reaction to being in Bournemouth, but a positive step as we’re looking to expand the Michael Grubb Studio brand longterm, globally.”

Alongside a rebrand for the studio, Grubb also added that in 2022 he is looking “to push the team as individuals in the collective to give them the recognition and acknowledgement and support that they deserve”, while also offering more in the way of education and training.

“I’m creating an entire training matrix that then creates a roadmap for each individual designer in the team,” he added. “The roadmap is about career progression, but also based on skills, knowledge, creativity and being clear in terms of what the stages are and how you get there.

“I’ve also registered Michael Grubb Academy, as I believe that there should be some kind of apprentice scheme in place for lighting designers.

I’m trying to create a system internally to then be able to open it up externally. I’ve also been in discussions with the ILP among others, as it doesn’t

have to be a Michael Grubb thing – I don’t see it as a commercial idea, but a gap in the industry.”

Continuing with the recurring theme of spotting gaps in the market, Grubb also revealed that he plans to publish a book this year, entitled Stories with Light. “There are a lot of technical books on the science of light, and a massive range of books in terms of inspiration, but what I realised was that there are all these stories about light that sit in the middle, and that’s what I wanted to explore.

“There are musings, stories, some that are quite bizarre, touching, random, there are sorts of weird characters – it’s a bit like being around a campfire and swapping tales of lighting.”

With all of this going on, Grubb sees 2022 as the beginning of a new phase for Michael Grubb Studio, and hopes that he can continue to build a brand, and a culture, that people will want to work with.

“We talk about the Great Resignation – I think as human beings, not just lighting designers, everyone has now got strong ideas of who they want to work for, why they want to work for them.

I want to create an ethos where we appeal not just to clients, but lighting designers, to be part of something. That’s what people want now – people want a purpose and to feel like they’re part of a movement that they believe in.” www.michaelgrubbstudio.com

eye opener

Megaliths in the Garden Shanghai, China Art collective teamLab unveiled its latest installation, the ever-shifting interactive artwork Megaliths in the Garden, at Shanghai’s One ITC Mall in December 2021. Standing in the middle of a garden, seasonal flowers of the region such as White Magnolias continually bloom and scatter within the work, while images of flowing water shift with the interaction of passersby.

When people move near the artwork, the flowing water changes, causing the flowers to scatter; when people are still, the flowers grow and bloom more abundantly. Seasonal flora in the garden itself have also been planted to mimic the installation, as these will also bloom and scatter over the course of the year.

The interactive light show within the megaliths takes place over the course of an

Image: teamLab

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hour, while the cycle repeats in perpetuity.

Rather than being a pre-recorded image that is played back, the artwork is created by a computer programme that continuously renders the work in real time.

The interaction between people and the installation causes continuous change in the light show, meaning that previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur. teamLab said of the piece: “The real time in which the viewer exists, the time of the city and the time of the repeated life and death of the flowers, all of these different times intersect and overlap, while the viewer’s body, the city, and the world of the artwork remain connected. The artwork space is an overlap of different times and space.” www.teamlab.art

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HOSPITALITY LIGHTING

The Londoner London, UK

Blending an art gallery and a theatre within a luxurious boutique hotel, The Londoner offers guests a relaxing yet mysterious environment to unwind.

Inverse Lighting Design sought to use light as a means of complementing and enhancing the decadent interiors of the hotel.

escribed as ‘the world’s first super boutique hotel’, The Londoner is nestled in London’s world-famous Leicester Square, offering guests a luxurious stay with a vast array of amenities and experiences, as well as the highest levels of comfort and decadence across its 350 rooms, 35 suits, seven meeting rooms, six bars and restaurants, ballroom and Wellness Retreat.

The hotel is the latest project from the UK’s largest family-owned hotel group, Edwardian Hotels London, and was designed by architect Woods Bagot, interior designers Yabu Pushelberg and lighting designers Inverse Lighting Design to play into the roots of Leicester Square as London’s historic theatre district, with a ‘West Side Story’ narrative underpinning the guest experience.

The hotel is spread across 16 floors, but due to strict planning, restrictions limited any upwards build. This means that eight of the 16 storeys form the capital’s deepest habitable basement - the hotel was even, at one point, the largest excavation project in Europe. The bedrooms and suites remain above street level, while public areas, guest attractions and services are housed in the lower floors, with no natural light - a significant challenge from a lighting design perspective.

Edwardian Group Founder and Chairman Jasminder Singh hoped that The Londoner would be “a centrepiece and anchor of the West End; a celebration of London, its history, aesthetic and people. Stylistically, the public areas have been designed with a minimal and cohesive neutral palette, a modern British sensibility, continuous reminders to theatricality, and a sense of mystery, with nods to British humour, especially in the vast and multifaceted art collection.

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“The lighting scheme reflects all of this with hints of theatrical lighting, surprising moments and a focus on the artwork,” said Nicola Agresta, Senior Lighting Designer at Inverse Lighting Design. “This has also been infused into the guest rooms, but in a more subtle way so that they are still spaces for comfort and relaxation.”

The lighting concept is based on the main themes present in Yabu Pushelberg’s interior design: theatre, mystery, and the art collection. One of the best examples of this can be found in the ground floor bar, The Stage, which references a living theatre orchestrated around a box-shaped, veiled piling with mirrored surfaces for added spectacle.

The use of surface and track mounted spotlights and framing projectors reinforces the idea of being ‘under the spotlights’, like on a real stage; the corrugated velvet walls mimic the curtains of London’s West End theatres, and the light strikes them exactly as they would theatre curtains.

Agresta continued: “The sense of mystery is achieved by balancing focus and accents, playing with reflections and shadows, or creating moments of surprise: on the mezzanine level of The Residence, a floor dedicated exclusively to hotel guests featuring three distinctive spaces to enjoy a drink, relax and engage, the Y Bar wood panelling is neutral by day but in the evening guests are surprised every 60 minutes with vivid, illuminating illusions of artist Andrew Rae’s comic illustrations.

The light is focused on the tables, leaving the rest of the bar in darkness, allowing the illuminated walls to become as visible as possible.”

Elsewhere on the mezzanine level, the Drawing Room offers guests a plush, soft environment to relax, characterised by cove and diffuse lighting that is offset with decorative floor and table lamps. Meanwhile the Whisky Room is one of The Londoner’s hidden secrets, featuring just six tables, sumptuous velvet seating and a collection of the world’s finest whiskys. The glass cabinet housing the spirits illuminates each individual bottle and is the main feature of the space, while the rest of the room is kept very dim.

On entering the hotel, visitors are greeted by a large, open space. An unobtrusive reception to the side allows for free passage through to the lounge.

Lighting here keeps the atmosphere inviting with soft and integrated fixtures.

Opposite check-in and beyond the lounge is Whitcomb’s, The Londoner’s all-day restaurant.

The space transforms throughout the day with two harvest tables changing for breakfast and dinner, each highlighted by the lighting. Illumination for the rest of the space is more general, owing to the flexibility of the tables.

Heading down to the basement levels, the sense of mystery is further highlighted within the Green Room - the hotel’s private club and lounge space.

Fixtures hidden behind the mirrored ceiling create accents and shadow that accentuate the soft waves of curved wood panels and rich velvet seating within the space.

On level B2, the ballroom is one of the largest in a hotel in central London. A glowing halo encircles the ceiling, concealed behind a suspended metal

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING THE LONDONER

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING THE LONDONER

mesh curtain - again giving the impression of theatre curtains. The ballroom comprises three layers of lighting: general, from suspended black floodlights; functional, courtesy of remote controlled spotlights; and decorative accents through RGBW glass globes, which interact with the other coloured lights in the space to create different settings.

Completing the basement levels is the Retreat, which houses a pool, treatment centre, gym and juice bar. The pool is beautifully lit from Barrisol panels in the criss-crossed ceiling for a bright yet soft atmosphere. RGBW LED strips create different settings, from warm to dim throughout the day to colourful and playful scenes for special occasions.

Above ground, The Londoner is capped off by its rooftop izakaya lounge. Upon arrival here, thick, dark wood slats stand floor-to-ceiling, revealing glimpses of the dining space. Spanning the ceiling and partitioning the dining space is a network of intricate ropes, reminiscent of the ancient Japanese art of shibari. To create a soft dining atmosphere and highlight the shibari ropes, surface-mounted spotlights graze the wood ceiling surface to diffuse 090 / 091

the light and highlight the ropes by contrast.

Among the various bars and restaurants, the hotel also hosts a large art collection, which the lighting design team studied in great detail. From flexible spotlight solutions to dedicated picture lights in both the public spaces and guest rooms, lighting focuses on the artwork to create highlights. One of the key areas that shows this is The Gallery on level B3, where artworks rotate and alternate with empty frames: plug in spotlights have been used here to give maximum flexibility while still reducing the number of fixtures needed, accenting the artwork and playing with shadows from the empty frames to connect with the hotel’s overriding sense of mystery.

Agresta explained how throughout the project, Inverse worked closely with Yabu Pushelberg to create a lighting scheme that would enhance and complement the interior design. “We’ve always worked very closely with Yabu Pushelberg in our projects. They have a great sense of how they want the spaces to look, but they also always left us enough freedom to design our own scheme and create different moods, as long as it was coherent with the overall concept.”

With a brief that desired the contrasting feelings of theatricality and mystery with a balance of drama and functionality, Agresta highlighted some of the main challenges that the lighting design team faced in bringing the concept to life: “As the two main themes of the interior design were the connection to the West End and the sense of mystery, the main challenge in turning the brief into a reality has been trying to balance these two almost opposite directions.

“With the theatre theme, we had to show the luminaires, the spotlights and the projectors to have a direct, visual reminder. For the sense of mystery, we had to conceal the lighting fixtures, create interesting and magical moments. And obviously all of this had to fit into the guest experience of a luxurious hotel.”

With half of the hotel being situated underground, Agresta added that the lack of natural light in the front of house areas was another cause for concern. “It was a real challenge from the very beginning,” he said.

“We had to make sure that these spaces would have looked bright enough during the day to avoid a contrast too big when entering or exiting the hotel, while still looking interesting and sexy.

We achieved this by creating accents, washing the corrugated velvet walls to mimic the curtains of London’s West End theatres, in connection with the theme.

“Uniform peripheral lighting on walls usually creates subjective impressions of relaxation - we used a combination of both to highlight interior design features, make the rooms feel bigger, and play with day and night scene settings.”

Control also played an integral role in achieving the required ambience throughout the hotel. As such, Inverse sought to implement a lighting control system that enabled automatic adjustments throughout the day to set the right mood for guests, but also provided the necessary reporting

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING THE LONDONER

Client: Edwardian Hotels Lighting Design: Inverse Lighting Design, UK Architect: Woods Bagot, UK Interior Design: Yabu Pushelberg, USA Lighting Suppliers: Anolis, Applelex, Atrium, Color Kinetics, Cooledge, Barrisol, Flos, iGuzzini, LEDFlex, LightGraphix, Lucent Lighting, Targetti, TM Lighting, RCL, XAL Photography: Henry Bourne, Matt Livey, Andrew Beasley

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to ensure that any faults were reported promptly to minimise disruption to guests and operations.

As such, the use of DALI-controlled luminaires in combination with Lutron’s lighting control system allowed the lighting designers to meet the challenging requirements of the project. The attention to detail in specifying a fully-controllable scheme led to Inverse winning the Hospitality category at the 2021 DALI Awards.

Agresta said: “The Londoner is a showcase for what the use of the latest technologies can achieve to deliver unforgettable experiences. DALI enabled us to meet the customer’s expectations, and to be able to improve on them in the future without having to change the infrastructure.”

Throughout the hotel, Inverse opted primarily for fixtures from Lucent and TM Lighting, while products from LEDFlex, iGuzzini, LightGraphix, Targetti, RCL, Cooledge and Applelec also helped achieve the required ambience of the space.

Lucent in particular worked closely with Inverse to provide architectural lighting for all rooms and penthouses, including downlights, LED strips and profiles, and low level wall lights. The corridors are also lit with Lucent LED strips and downlights, with the manufacturer specifically designing a Line 1 Cell unit for this project. The façade and public areas, which rely on the mixture of dramatic and intimate light, are also lit with Lucent’s downlights.

Speaking of the specification process, Agresta added: “The lighting plays a double role in enhancing the luxurious feel of the hotel - it highlights the interior design features and the art collection, and helps to create a great atmosphere.

“All products have been specified knowing that they would ensure a great result, being good quality products. Specifically for the exposed spotlights and all the picture lights, the main reasons these have been specified were the great light quality and glare control - absolutely necessary for the guest experience - and the beautiful finishes the light fixtures can be made of, to match the rich materials specified by the interior designer.”

Looking back on the project following its completion, Agresta is satisfied that the lighting design meets the brief and the intention of the interior design, adding to the luxurious feel of the space.

He concluded: “There’s an incredible mix of feelings when you walk through the hotel: a visible connection between the exposed light fixtures, the theatrical theme and the art collection; a sense of mystery and discovery that creates interest, and an overall sense of comfort and relaxation. All of this couldn’t be possible without a methodical study of the space, and a meticulous control of the light scene settings.” www.inverselighting.co.uk

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Yotel Vega Glasgow, UK

With a dynamic, retrofuturistic lighting scheme, Artin Light has created a vibrant, experiential journey of light at Glasgow’s newly opened Yotel hotel and Vega bar and restaurant.

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HOSPITALITY LIGHTING

or those of us that enjoy a city break, the hotel is often seen as a place of respite, somewhere to lay your head after a busy day of exploring. But, for Glasgow’s newly-opened Yotel hotel, and adjoining Vega bar and restaurant, the hotel is a destination in itself.

As a brand, Yotel has become known around the world for its quirky, vibrant aesthetic, and the Glasgow branch is no exception. Designed by Canadian interior designers DesignAgency, with lighting design from Artin Light, the hotel takes visitors on a retro-futuristic adventure from the lobby - dubbed ‘Mission Control’ - up to the Vega bar and restaurant on the seventh floor.

Peppered throughout this journey are a series of dramatic light interventions, more akin to a trail of light art installations than a traditional architectural lighting scheme; from the Purple Pills in Mission Control, to the Reflection Portal in the lift lobby, the lift experience itself, and the dynamic, graphic equaliser-inspired bowling alley inside Vega.

Luke Artingstall, Director of Artin Light, explained the concept behind the lighting: “There was a lot of influence from what other Yotel branches had done, and the experience that you get when you

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first walk in,” he said. “I wanted the lighting design to tap into that, but with a futuristic twist so that when people walk in, they think that it’s really cool and a little bit different.

“The interior for Mission Control was quite minimal and clean, with lots of curves and strong materials.

This worked really well with the lighting design as we could then integrate lighting into details; there’s a lot of indirect lighting, letting light dissipate from the perimeters into the interior space.

“The Purple Pills in the entrance area were such an important part of the visual experience as you approach the building as you see them externally in the double height void, and as you walk underneath them, they are slowly and subtly animated in the purples and blues synonymous with the Yotel brand. The design for the pills was inspired by the interior vibe - there are no sharp corners, everything is smooth and curved, so that was the start of the journey.

“We wanted to create an immersive experience where it’s not just about lighting, it’s like you’re entering an art installation. Interaction was such a big part of what we were trying to achieve.”

With so many bold light elements across the space, Artingstall said that he was encouraged throughout by a very enthusiastic client. “Yotel were really excited about our initial concepts,” he said. “They bought into the theme straight away, and that was really exciting for us because there are some iconic pieces within the building that create this fragmented journey, and then the lighting design flows through it.”

From Mission Control, guests are guided to the lift lobby - a beautiful, arched space that has been highlighted with concentric channels of indirect light. Here, Artin Light created a “surprise” element: the Reflection Portal at the end of the archway.

Inspired by reflection and movement, as well as the concentric geometry of the space, the Reflection Portal features a backlit, digital mirror that was designed to play on illusion and perception of the 3D space, drawing visitors into a ‘portal’ and absorbing them into the artwork. The digital mirror features bespoke artwork content developed by Artin Light, alongside Studiotech, which creates a “digital portal” that reacts to the movement detected within the lift lobby.

From here, guests step into the feature lift, which takes them up to Vega on the seventh floor. A far cry from the typical lift experience, Artingstall wanted to create a “complete inversion” of the lobby experience.

“The lift lobby where we have the mirrored arch is a beautifully bright, light space, and the concept was to flip it on its head and play with your perception of space and darkness,” he said. “Inside the lift, we wanted to create a black void, where you walk into this cube and everything is blacked out, with no light whatsoever. The idea was that as you go up to the seventh floor, it’s like going through space, so from the black void we created an animated experience with light and sound that would take you on a journey up the building, immersing you into a digital artwork that is inspired by the different elements of the interior design.

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING YOTEL VEGA

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HOSPITALITY LIGHTING YOTEL VEGA

“It was a really challenging part of the project, because of the confinements of the lift and what we had to work with, but it’s such a massive element of the scheme and was one of the starting points where we developed the whole concept from there. One of the first things that the client said to us was ‘we’ve got this lift and we want you to do something with it’, and that then inspired what we did in Mission Control, the Purple Pills, the Reflection Portal, and it had an influence on the bowling alley in Vega too. It was as if once the client had a taste for it, they wanted to see how far we could push it, and that’s ultimately what you want to hear as a designer.”

Moving up the building, the Vega restaurant and bar continues with the overarching “futuristic, sci-fi, cyber city crossed with Miami Vice” feel that was established in Mission Control, with neon lighting details punctuating the dark and moody atmosphere of the space.

This also served as a direction influence on what Artingstall did with the final artistic element of the project, the bowling alley.

“The bowling alley was a space that the interior designers wanted to take in one direction, using projection to create interaction, but because of the architecture of the space it was a little bit problematic. That was the opportunity to take the neon influence from the bar area and bring it to the bowling alley by creating a retro sci-fi, synth wave mashup of an installation, that would have a visual interaction as you bowled as well.”

The vast ceiling installation, for which Artin Light again collaborated with Studiotech, serves as a digital canvas, with bars of light that interact with users as they bowl, tracking the ball down the alley and creating a vibrant play of light. “I don’t believe anyone has ever gone down that route in terms of what we achieved with the final installation,” Artingstall continued. “The space had a massive ceiling expanse that needed us to do something cool with it. When I first saw it, I thought that we could do something so much better.”

With the various dynamic, artistic lighting elements throughout the project, the lighting for the Vega bar and restaurant was kept deliberately minimal, with low levels adding to the intense, moody atmosphere of the space. Alongside pops of colour from decorative pendants and neon-esque wall lights, the lighting for the bar is characterised by an expansive mirrored ceiling, interspersed sporadically with “night sky” panels.

Artingstall explained: “Within the mirrored ceiling panels, we saw an opportunity to create miniature infinity panels as well. We used fibre optics to create a night sky effect, which was a big part of the concept. We also had mirrors in the walls of the restaurant and bar that had fibre optics behind them too, so while it was dark and moody, the colour pops and the twinkling lights in the mirrors help to amplify the whole visual experience.”

The night sky effect comes into play after dark, mixing with the coloured lights within the space to add to the vibrant ambience of the space. “During the day, the lights are switched off and everything is quite bright and light, and not about the colour,

but at nighttime it would transition - all of the RGBW elements of the scheme go into pinks and blues, while the fibre optics in the mirrored panels completely flip the space,” Artingstall added.

“But the contrast of the lighting was so important; it wasn’t about trying to over-light the space, but using really tight, narrow beams where we could, pin spotting tables and letting the colour and reflectiveness in the space do the talking.”

Looking back on the project after completion, Artingstall believes that there were a number of unique challenges to overcome, but the end result proves that the work was worth it in the long run.

“Naturally with any type of project like this, it was not just about the visual effect but the detailing as well - this was such a big part of the process, and coordinating all of the elements into one buildup was very difficult. It was one of those projects where you step a bit out of your comfort zone, but you don’t progress unless you do that.

“I believe that the lighting design really complements the interior design - the two go hand in hand. The artistic moments where we did the Purple Pills, the Reflection Portal, the lift and the bowling alley make a massive part of the hotel.

People want to go there and experience that, they want something different and a bit more, and I think that we’ve done that with this project.

“I love art, I love light art and playing with perception and space. I wanted the project to be a visual experience that is like going to a mini light art festival.”

Artingstall concluded that it was through the encouragement of an engaged and supportive client that he was able to create such an experiential journey of light throughout. “Yotel is a worldwide brand and it has got some amazing sites and hotels. It’s a really exciting brand to work with, and they really pushed it on this project. They let go, and I think that’s what’s really nice about it.

“Naturally, it’s got an excitement about it that draws you in, and hopefully the general public who go there will really enjoy it as well, as it’s such a visual treat for the eye.” www.artinlight.co.uk

Client: Yotel Lighting Design: Artin Light, UK Architect: Mosaic, UK Photography: Fumito Suzuki Interior Design: DesignAgency, Canada Additional Design: Studiotech, UK Lighting Suppliers: Lucent Lighting, Studiotech, Tryka Photography: Gunner Gu

Capital Center Hotel Athens, Greece

Completed in late 2020, Lighting Design International has brought a fresh, yet homely feel to the luxurious Athens Captial Center Hotel, highlighting the beautiful artwork and striking interior design of the space.

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HOSPITALITY LIGHTING CAPITAL CENTER HOTEL

ompleted towards the end of 2020, the Capital Center Hotel – M Gallery in Athens, Greece received a complete interior renovation and upgrade. The hotel is located near Syntagma Square in the heart of Athens, across from the Parliament buildings on one side and the bohemian district of Kolonaki.

With a unique identity, the hotel’s interiors are heavily inspired by its Greek surroundings. Lighting Design International (LDI) was commissioned to provide a fresh yet homely approach to highlight the elegant interiors created by MKV Designs. arc hears from Sandra Brookes, Senior Lighting Designer at LDI, to find out more about their involvement in the project: “LDI has been working on many successful projects in Greece for several years now. We have developed excellent relationships with our clients in the area. As a result, one of our clients recommended us to MKV Designs.”

Brookes explained how the initial design brief shaped the approach for the lighting, ensuring it was balanced throughout: “This was created was created through layers of light, while the unique and distinctive atmosphere in each space added drama, which is highlighted through accent lighting.

“We worked in tandem with the interior designers creating harmonious integral lighting that highlighted the interior in places and was the protagonist in others.

“One of the project’s strengths was that once the lighting brief was defined, it was thoroughly maintained. The final design result was an elegant, sophisticated ambience with a residential feel focused on art, which represented the initial vision agreed with the client.

“LDI was commissioned to provide a fresh yet

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homely approach, highlighting the elegant interiors

by MKV Designs. The concept was brought to life via the art and the successful relationship with lighting throughout the hotel. Art plays a very important role within the interiors of the hotel.

The different pieces dotted around the hotel were emphasised with light, reinforcing the significance of great artistry to the M-Gallery brand.”

The hotel presents a luxurious arrival experience starting at the porte-cochere, where a valet service receives the guests. You are welcomed by a warm and vibrantly uplit façade and an arcade containing the Gallerie Café. The arcade café incorporates an abstract marble relief on the inner perimeter wall. This element is enhanced by accent lights that emphasise the form and texture by using light and shade. The marble wall also provides an introduction to the excellent blend of art and architecture that is experienced throughout the hotel.

In the reception lobby, vibrant colours and bold patterns are highlighted with soft lighting to give the space a residential feel. The light wrapping around the grand staircase, the subtle vertical washes and the lighting concealed within the furniture make this a unique space.

“The ground floor public areas are a labyrinth of areas interwoven with each other tied up by a central atrium flowing from the main entrance to the Galerie Café,” continued Brookes. “Art is dotted around with lighting providing an interest and focus in every corner.”

“The reception is at the far end, away from the entrance, offering a sense of intimacy and exclusivity, which is highlighted by the subtle lighting atmosphere. This area is perfected with two paintings by Yannis Adamakos that were highlighted with recessed spotlights, enhancing, and lifting the blue hues that are a symbol of Greece.

“LDI designed the lighting layouts with the existing structure in mind, but with the advantage that most of the equipment was concealed from view successfully by the new interiors. Bespoke tailored details were developed in conjunction with the interior designers and incorporated within furniture and the building envelope.”

Central to the building is a large atrium that houses a Mappemonde art piece mounted on the entirety of the façade viewable from the staircase, guest rooms and roof terraces. The original Mappemonde was sculpted by Greek artist George Lappas for the Venice Biennale of 1988. This piece consists of parts of metal cut out of a houseshaped form at roof level and mounted horizontally on square white boards in a checkerboard formation. Composed of 3,000 metal pieces, it is carefully lit with colour changing floodlights, producing textures and patterns with movement enhanced by individually controlled white and colour changing lighting.

As daylight moves throughout the space, different shadows form through the silhouetted sculpture.

At night, the piece comes alive with concealed colour changing spotlights that cast shadows across the boards in various directions. At night,

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HOSPITALITY LIGHTING CAPITAL CENTER HOTEL

the lights, which are located at different levels, are programmed to cross fade with changing colours to create an animated focal point to the centre of the building.

Telling arc about some of the challenges the team faced during this renovation project, Brookes explained that bringing the historical building into the 21st century in a careful and considered manner was a main consideration, with the focal point art piece in the central lobby being another.

“The project was a refurbishment of an existing site. The outer shell and structure were maintained while the building was completely renovated. The original layout was maintained throughout, but the building services and interiors were totally upgraded. Therefore, we had the opportunity of having a new and more current lighting scheme and control system incorporated within the building, leaving a minimal lighting aesthetic visible so that guests could enjoy the warm inviting lighting ambience without knowing where the equipment is located.

“The pièce de résistance of this project is in the central atrium and is viewed from the terrace above; The Mappemonde art piece. During the night, the metal pieces of the work were carefully lit with colour changing floodlights producing movement and creating an explosion of shadows, textures and patterns through individually 104 / 105

controlled white and colour changing lighting horizontally positioned throughout the length of the piece. A special effort was made for the sources to be carefully concealed from view within the building envelope, focusing on the art piece.

“Designing and programming this piece was one of our greatest challenges as the lighting effect needed to be the focus and the equipment totally concealed from view, and for the lighting to transition seamlessly not only from day to night but to subtly crossfade between the colours, performing a spectacle of light at night.”

Art played a major role in the design scheme throughout the hotel, so it was integral to the overall success of the project for Brookes and the team to integrate lighting to suit the individual artworks cohesively into the grander design.

Brookes explained further: “Art and light is a relationship that has always existed from the beginning of time: from the humble picture light to more immersive installations. Art and lighting are used throughout hotels to help accentuate the identity of their location, so the guest gets a local feel. Nowadays, art is taking centre stage in hotels more and more, attracting the interest of potential guests and passers-by and with lighting adding a new dimension to the experience.

“There are several ways of using light to accent art, and these have all been used throughout the

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HOSPITALITY LIGHTING CAPITAL CENTER HOTEL

Client: Accor Group Lighting Design: Lighting Design International, UK Interior Design: MKV Design, UK Architect: Alexandros Masouridis, Greece Lighting Suppliers: acdc, DGA, Ecosense, iGuzzini, John Cullen Lighting, LED Linear, LightGraphix, Lucent Lighting, Lumino, Phos, TM Lighting Photography: Gavriil Papadiotis

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Athens Capital Centre Hotel – M Gallery. The hotel’s art was inspired by Greek culture. The hotel is at the heart of Athens in a prominent position looking towards one of Athens’ most popular tourist destination, the Parthenon, on one side and on the other side looks towards the bohemian quarter of Kolonaki with its numerous art galleries setting the scene.”

Moving further into the hotel to the contemporary and cosy guest bedrooms and suites, luxurious materials, flexible lighting, and the addition of original artwork were chosen to add to the experience of luxury and intimacy. “The interiors and art represented the Greek heritage and the resulting fresh approach helped to enhance the art within the rooms. Spotlights and traditional picturelights were used to add accent to all artwork exhibited,” explained Brookes.

“Intimacy and art were connected via the creation

of lighting scenes. At the touch of a button the atmosphere of the room changes, and different objects were highlighted in each different scene.

These scenes are governed by a control system, which is essential to realise the subtlety required to create the perfect balance of lighting effects within a space.”

The layered lighting used throughout the project came to life with various scenes created. “Like an artist, the lighting designer uses different combinations of light levels across the space to create the desired ambience throughout day and night. During the daytime the ambience was welcoming and lively but with levels balanced enough to provide a homely feel. During the night scene the levels were subtle, and the art was emphasised by increased brightness,” said Brookes.

When asked about the mix of classical and contemporary architecture throughout and whether it was challenging to create a scheme that would effectively complement the varied architecture, Brookes commented: “The success of the scheme was in the creation of the right ambience for each style in a cohesive way where the classical and contemporary architecture felt unified in its approach to lighting. In both, there were commonalities that made the transitions seamless. The lighting worked as a silent backdrop creating that all-important consistency throughout.

“The lighting complemented the distinctive look of the interiors through the careful control of accent lighting. Each space focuses on that special ‘je ne sais quoi’ created solely for that space with lighting in a subtle way.”

The blend of architectural and decorative lighting allowed the decorative pieces and the artworks to take centre stage. “Oversized bespoke decorative luminaires help to retain a cleaner soffit and introduce a sense of scale. Their special design adds uniqueness to the style of the Gallerie Café, the lobby lounge, and the lift lobbies,” explained Brookes.

“The warm, welcoming atmosphere at the reception area is provided mainly through a decorative loop of lighting that flows, interweaving the labyrinthic spaces. These are curved coves with integral linear lighting, which are shaped around the columns, providing soft lighting. Accent lighting was positioned only as required and highlighted the intricate lattice behind the reception.”

Reflecting on the project and the lighting’s success, Brookes concluded that the “overall impression is a fresh yet homely space brought to life via the focus on the art and its successful relationship with lighting throughout the hotel”.

She added: “Art played a key role within the hotel’s interiors, which was part of the initial brief and was developed as the main feature during the whole process. The different pieces of art dotted around the hotel were emphasised with light providing a cohesive approach where traditional and contemporary architecture were combined successfully by the power of light.” www.lightingdesigninternational.com

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HOSPITALITY LIGHTING

The Nobu Portman Square London, UK

The Nobu Portman Square is the third Nobu Hotel to open in London. Well known for its contemporary décor, the client brought in lighting designers at Isometrix to create a complementary scheme for the new branch.

ounded by renowned Japanese chef Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa and his partners in the 90s, the Nobu brand is well-known for its contemporary décor, with highend Japanese restaurants and luxury hotels all over the world.

When Nobu London Old Park Lane opened, it was the first international outpost and was an immediate success; this was closely followed by Nobu Hotel London Shoreditch. Portman Square is the latest addition to join the London-based hotels; located in the heart of central London’s chic Marylebone area, the hotel features 249 guest rooms and suites, and world class dining options including Nobu Restaurant, Nobu Bar and Nobu Terrace, plus the relaxed restaurant and bar, The Lounge. The hotel also features a ballroom and meeting spaces, as well as the world’s first Nobu Pilates Reformer studio, which is situated in Nobu Wellness & Fitness.

With an existing relationship in place with the Nobu Group - having collaborated on several projects in the past - lighting designers from Isometrix were called upon to enrich the atmospheric and visual expression of the architecture, both internally and externally. The aim being to provide a guest experience in keeping with such a luxury lifestyle hotel – embellished with lighting accents that express the contemporary Japanese décor.

One of the key lighting considerations on this

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project was the façade, which was completely revamped from the previously dreary Radisson Blu hotel aesthetic. The design team evolved the architectural lighting design and focussed the external façade with some strategically positioned lighting elements. This subtle lighting scheme delivers an enriched atmospheric and visual effect, expressing the building fabric and contours of the architecture.

As soon as you walk through the door everything about the space radiates a sense of calm. In the lobby for example, a cast-shining silver piece by kinetic sculptor Ivan Black is suspended from the ceiling, rotating hypnotically. Working with two separate interior design teams – Make Architects for the guest rooms and David Collins Studio for the public areas – the Isometrix team had full freedom to design their own lighting scheme. They discussed decorative lighting pieces with the teams to ensure the spaces were visually appealing and aligned with the concept and for the architectural lighting, specified the right products for application from brands including: Lucent, Precision Lighting, LightGraphix, Trkya, Kreon, Prolicht, iGuzzini, Soraa, and L&L Luce & Light - ensuring they were also aesthetically pleasing to create a clean finish, in-line with the Nobu brand.

With its close relationship with the Nobu Group, Isometrix understands the brand identity when it comes to lighting and approached the Portman Square location as an extension of the brand – wanting to create a sense of timeless elegance and sophistication that guests will adore. Having visited a previous Nobu hotel project they had worked on in Willow St, the lighting team used this as their foundation to then apply their own flair and set this unique hotel apart, all the while keeping its identity.

The building’s unique architecture and bespoke interior design provided the Isometrix team with the opportunity to design a beautifully lit environment – bringing a serene, calm and effervescent ambience through light for guests.

Working with all disciplines to bring the scheme to life, the lighting design team built various mockups to review and personally visited the factories where the decorative light fittings were being produced. Working closely with the manufacturers, the team ensured the colour temperatures for all the fixtures were consistent with the overall lighting within the hotel.

As with all projects, Nobu Portman Square did have its challenges – some of which specifically relate to the fact the site was once a Radisson Blu hotel. As the space underwent a complete transformation, the design team found depths and voids were not as per originally designed and so had to specify particular luminaires to work within the set site conditions, while providing great illumination. As well as this, having to work with multiple main contractors and design teams across the project meant working with various approaches. Isometrix assisted by unifying the project as a whole, from guest rooms to the signature bar, ensuring all the while an attractive experience; the main objective being to create a coherent lighting design language and produce an alluring ambience throughout.

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING THE NOBU PORTMAN SQUARE

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING THE NOBU PORTMAN SQUARE

Client: Nobu Hotels Lighting Design: Isometrix, UK Interior Design: David Collins Studio, UK; Make Architects, UK Lighting Suppliers: Flos, iGuzzini, Kreon, L&L Luce & Light, LightGraphix, Lucent Lighting, Precision Lighting, Prolicht, Soraa, Tryka Photography: Jack Hardy

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The lighting throughout, helps to facilitate a sense of calm by softly accenting the materials and furnishings without being noticed. The low-level lighting provides a soft glow as you navigate the public areas. The warmth from the colour temperature allows guests to feel comfortable. This is enriched by the lighting system, which gently alters the levels throughout the day, creating the finest of atmospheres. The décor then adds to this sense of calm, which flows throughout with the fine detailing and integrated lighting fittings that subtly draw guests’ attention.

“Our specification of high CRI LED light sources, the consistent warmth emitted, our input on bespoke lighting elements and the refinement of beam angles, all work to enhance the feeling of grandeur and luxury at Portman Square,” Ryan Jones, Senior Lighting Designer and Design Lead at Isometrix told arc. “We wanted to illuminate the spaces without the sources being visible - preserving the sense of calm and tranquillity known from the brand.

“As designers, we are very detail oriented and

we paid close attention to finishes and materials – testing various lighting products, colour temperatures and CRI’s to make sure the light emitted enriched the surfaces they touched. We worked closely with manufacturers to create and tweak lighting products solely for the project to maintain the reduced visibility of the source, as this was a key factor.”

Reflecting on the project, fellow Design Lead and Intermediate Lighting Designer at Isometrix, Daniela Cordova, added: “Our lighting design on this project gives us a great sense of accomplishment. It’s incredible to look back at the initial concept visuals and compare them to the finished product. To see our ideas brought to life by the collaborative efforts of the various teams highlights the value our design carries.” www.isometrix.co.uk

Image: Ryan Gobuty, courtesy of Circa Resort & Casino

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Circa Resort & Casino Las Vegas, USA

The Circa Resort & Casino is a throwback to the classic Las Vegas skyline of years gone by, while also offering something new and exciting to visitors. Shop 12 Design worked with illumination Physics for its striking façade.

irca is a preposition usually followed by a date or time of importance – a moment in time. For Circa Resort & Casino that moment in time was December 2020. Circa was the first brand-new resort built from the ground up in the downtown area since the D Las Vegas, which opened in 1980, known then as The Sundance.

Designed to draw patronage to Downtown Las Vegas, Circa was built anew, but is also deliberately reminiscent of the retro-style neon and signage that had gone before.

Derek and Greg Stevens, owners of multiple downtown casinos, constructed Circa upon the combined sites of three other properties they acquired: The Mermaids Casino, The Las Vegas Club and the Glitter Gulch Club (Glitter Gulch was once the nickname for Fremont Street). Collectively they constitute the best development site: 18 Fremont Street, at the corner of Fremont and Main Streets.

“The new resort looks modern and yet it looks like it belongs in Fremont Street”, said Paul Steelman, CEO Steelman Partners, the Circa project architects.

The lighting design was the responsibility of Steelman Affiliate, Shop 12 Design, with the goal that the hotel would compete for attention with every other Las Vegas property, particularly in the downtown area.

An integrated media façade facing Fremont Street formed the core element of a multi-faceted lighting design. However, there would be a nod to the light bulb style that has become synonymous with the local illumination history and architecture of the old Las Vegas. Shop 12’s vision would be a digital recreation of the analogue past.

The hotel tower is the stand-out new landmark in the area: 35 inhabited storeys rise above seven floors of podium. The south façade creates a canvas to draw attention and simultaneously send a message.

Shop 12’s President, Jon Champelli, had conceived of a media wall integrated into the 28 spandrel panels in the double-height curtain wall units that comprise the façade envelope. The LED component would be introduced at each floor slab, approximately 10ft apart vertically.

The depth of the LED display on each floor would

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be limited to a height of approximately 1ft due to the design of the curtain wall spandrel panels. The LED media was to span the full width of the south, with the LED density becoming progressively less at the western end to produce a visual gradient.

Shop 12’s design was based upon closely spaced RGBW luminaires. Each RGBW pixel would be spaced at 57mm. The use of illumination Physics data pixels illuminated an area of 40mm for each fixture. In proportion, the Shop 12 design mimicked Las Vegas’ illumination history and the pervasive use of the incandescent signage bulb, particularly in the downtown area. At night, the influence of history would be unmistakable, albeit digitally recreated in RGBW. Most importantly, the new LED fixtures were to be as invisible as possible during the daytime so that there would be no indication that there was lighting embedded in the façade at all.

Individual control of every pixel in four colours was required – a total of 94,675, including the signage.

In daylight, the LED lighting equipment needed to be imperceptible, blending with the curtain wall spandrel panels. illumination Physics consequently had to match the custom white colour of the painted parts of the curtain wall panels. illumination Physics has manufactured a range of LED pixels mounted in strings for years. However, the company was an early mover in moving from DMX onboard to SPI protocol for the pixel strings and ArtNet as the input protocol for the drivers.

Not only highly cost-effective, but this would prove to be the key to defining the method of control.

The illumination Physics Data Pixel 6 was ideal from both a size and light output perspective.

Additionally, the metal housing could better withstand Las Vegas’ high summer temperatures and provides more sturdy and robust mounting options.

But this was only part of the answer, just the luminaires and drivers; a fully integrated solution was required: The data pixels needed to be preinstalled in panels and then delivered to the curtain wall factory and integrated into the curtain wall modules that would form the building envelope of Circa’s hotel tower. The curtain wall panels would then be tested and shipped to the construction site in Las Vegas.

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING CIRCA RESORT & CASINO

Image: Key Lime Photography | Las Vegas

Client: Derek and Greg Stevens; Tre’ Builders Lighting Design: Shop 12 Design, USA Architect: Steelman Partners, USA Lighting Specified: illumination Physics

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A specialist in integrated façade lighting, illumination Physics has collaborated with most of the largest façade engineering companies that manufacture curtain wall building envelopes. In some cases, the brand has been their consultant when it came to incorporating lighting into the curtain wall of a new or existing building.

Working with Shop 12, the company developed metal panels in four sizes into which the data pixels could be securely mounted. The panels had laser-cut perforations to expose LEDs on the front.

On the back, CNC machined mounting studs were attached to match the mounting lugs of a revised illumination Physics Data Pixel 6 LED module. A selection of media panels was tested in a full scale, 2-storey façade mock-up in Las Vegas.

The 853 media panels are all the same height (1ft), but produced in four widths, from 343mm to 1,429mm, with a total of 2,075 strings made for the façade.

US signage contractor to the project, YESCO, used a further 11,000 data pixels in Circa’s signage.

The media panels were mounted in a back pan that was then glazed into each curtain wall panel.

If required, a media panel can be removed from the front as the flush retaining screws are on the outside, painted to match the white finish of the panels and the rest of the curtain wall. Hong Kong-based façade consultants Hiersemenzel & Associates (HS&A) certified the media panel to curtain wall mechanical fixing design. illumination Physics produces ArtNet to SPI drivers

in several configurations with different outputs.

For Circa, it made mathematical sense to use a combination of the IP Driver 8 output model (267 pcs) and the IP Driver 1 output model (118 pcs).

The drivers were installed in the hotel bedrooms, thus specially designed to run silent cooling.

The media panels were shipped out of Hong Kong to the curtain wall factory, where they were met by a remote illumination Physics team who supervised and assisted with the integration of illumination Physics’ panels and cables into the curtain wall panels – a process that took seven months. The panelised IP data pixels were tested prior to shipping, upon arrival, prior to installation and after installation into the curtain wall panels.

Two containers of complete curtain wall panels were shipped to Las Vegas per week. Despite the challenges of 2020, Tre’ Builders was able to complete the façade and oversee the fit-out so the hotel could open on time.

With its vibrant and dramatic façade, Circa has set a new standard for the Vegas skyline, becoming another noteworthy addition to the strip, paying homage to the classic casinos of years gone by, while creating something new and exciting for visitors to the city. www.shop12design.com www.illuminationphysics.com

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING

case study

The Hotel Bruxelles Brussels, Belgium With a façade lighting scheme provided by GVA Lighting, the Hotel Bruxelles makes its mark on the Brussels skyline.

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Located on the upmarket Boulevard de Waterloo in Brussels, Belgium, the Hotel Bruxelles is a sleek and sophisticated hotel. Making its mark on the Brussels skyline, the hotel towers above the city at 94-metres tall – one of the highest public viewpoints in the city. Its impressive height offers guests superb views of Brussels and beyond, with some of the rooms and suites offering breathtaking panoramic scenes. As well as a comfortable and friendly stay, Hotel Bruxelles offers high-tech workouts in its spa and fitness zones, as well as excellent food and drink options.

The hotel building itself is an impressive structure, designed by Montois Partners Architects, an agency located in Brussels. Architects Michel Penneman and Georges Hirsch, who were responsible for the recent lighting scheme for the hotel, decided to partner with Euroka SRL to deliver the lighting for the exterior.

As GVA Lighting’s distribution partner, Euroka SRL recognised that GVA would have the capabilities to deliver the ambitious lighting design. With the fascia’s lighting designed in an inverted ‘U’ shape, GVA Lighting’s Infinity was the ideal solution for this scheme. Offering extremely long lighting circuits, GVA’s Infinity Technology is ideal for skyscrapers and tall structures.

The entire project is powered by just two Infinity power supplies, which allow for extremely long lighting runs with minimal façade penetrations. It also offers reduced installation time and costs.

Using the Infinity solution, 200-metres of GVA Lighting’s Highlighter HL-DL-RGBW luminaires were installed on the hotel’s fascia fed from the top of

the building. Highlighter HL-DL modules are IP66 rated, ensuring they can withstand the changing weather in the European capital.

Installed with GVA’s sleek HL-Niche mounting profile, finished in a custom RAL colour, the luminaires are striking and eye-catching without any visible fixtures. While the design was originally created in single colour white, Euroka SRL demonstrated the benefits of the RGBW solution.

This now allows the hotel to change the lighting for specific days such as national holidays and celebrations, offering a flexible approach to the illuminations. This is enabled through DMX control, supplied by Pharos.

David Stramazzotti, Head of GVA Europe, said: “The Hotel Bruxelles is a stunning building, standing proud on the Brussels skyline. The height of it was quite a challenge when it came to exterior lighting.

GVA Lighting’s Infinity power supplies made it easy to overcome this, delivering striking results with a straightforward installation.”

Damien Lamarche, CEO at Euroka SPRL, added: “The Hotel Bruxelles is well known in the city for its impressive structure and visual appeal. To achieve the lighting required by the architect team, GVA Lighting was the ultimate choice. The brand’s technology and capabilities meant the extremely long lighting run was achievable, while also meeting the design, timescales and budgetary needs of the project.”

The hotel has become a favourite with visitors to the city, rated highly for its prime location, outstanding views, comfort, and customer care. www.gvalighting.com

The First Diamond Certified LED SunLike natural sun spectrum LEDs are the world’s first LEDs to produce light that closely matches the spectrum of natural sunlight, delivering human-centric lighting.

The light sources with SunLike Series LEDs more accu accurately show the color of objects as they would appear in natural sunlight. It is optimized to natural light spectra and color rendition Rating “Diamond” based on IES TM-30-20 Fidelity intent from UL Labs. https://verify.ul.com/verifications/520

It delivers considerable benefits of significant vivid color, detail contrast, and homogeneous quality of light.

www.seoulsemicon.com info.europe@seoulsemicon.com

HOSPITALITY LIGHTING

case study

Images: Studio Jean-Philippe Nuel - Gilles Trillard

Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese Rome, Italy Through Lutron’s myRoom control solution, guests at the Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese hotel can create a tailored, bespoke lighting scheme, whatever their stay requirements.

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The Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese, near Rome’s Piazza di Spagna and Trevi fountain, offers guests beautiful views, unparalleled control and an overall experience that is elevated and luxurious.

This magnificent hotel needed a lighting system that would complement, not detract from, its stunning views, classic interior design, and secondto-none service. According to the hotel’s General Manager, “The goal of the renovation was to exceed the modern-day expectations of our guests.

Updating the lighting in the guestroom was critical to achieving that result”.

The project’s designer, Jean-Philippe Nuel chose Lutron’s myRoom solution to achieve this, complemented by white glass Palladiom keypads, which could be incorporated into the headboards in the guestrooms, without compromising the carefully curated look.

With its wide options of controllability, there were a number of benefits for Nuel in integrating Lutron into his design. Staff can trigger ‘Welcome’ scenes during check-in, so that guests enter a gently-lit room with curtains drawn. Once settled in their room, the control keypads are also easy for guests to use and understand, with buttons that feature large icons that are easy to interpret in any language.

Nuel said: “Like many establishments, Sofitel has been faced with the emergence of new guest expectations. The strength of large groups like Accor lies in being able to mobilise multiple skills to develop an approach that reassures guests and guarantees customer safety, without sacrificing on the luxury experience.

“Hotels, due to their layout, have certain

advantages in adapting to new uses. This flexibility, and act of designing with a range of uses and guests in mind, will surely be found in the hotels of the future. The bedroom will need to act as a living and dining space for guests who remain cautious of public spaces, and outdoor spaces, which have now become synonymous with wellbeing, will be increasingly sought-after.

“In general, the hotel of the future will need to be a place that is open to the city, offering the cultural experiences guests have missed, while offering privacy and control.”

Miguel Aguado, Marketing and Technology Manager at Lutron Europe, added: “Lighting control is integral to making superb guest experiences happen, with technology having long played a role in raising a hotel’s profile. The smart home market has seen incredible growth, boosted by the unfortunate need to stay at home. Now, guests have come to expect the same level of convenience when travelling.

“Technology already plays a key role in offering a touchless hotel experience, while enhancing a guest’s stay. Occupants can wake up to sunlight instead of an alarm using automated lighting and shading solutions and turn all the lights off from a single button at the bedside or with touchless control keys.”

“Personalisation is an increasingly important factor in elevating the guest experience. Mobile apps enable a guest to enjoy bespoke experiences wherever they go – from personalising their wakeup sequence to setting scenes to suit romantic, family or business trips.” www.lutron.com/europe

Typology Forms that inspire, experiences that captivate.

A beacon. A looking glass. An immersive room of light. Architectural lighting that is striking industrial design by day, and by night, enchanting and ethereal pieces of luminescent art. Discover the groundbreaking luminaires from the Typology Collection, designed and engineered in collaboration with Designworks, a BMW Group Company.

Find us at landscapeforms.com or contact us toll free at 800.430.6205.

eye opener

Tower of Light Manchester, UK Located in the heart of Manchester’s city centre, a new 40-metre illuminated tower has been constructed, marking a key milestone in the development of the city’s new heating and electricity network. The striking new landmark, proudly named ‘The Tower of Light’ is a flue tower and façade enclosing the new Vital Energi CHP energy centre, which stands tall in Manchester’s Civic Quarter.

Spearheaded by the city’s ambitious target to transition to zero carbon by 2038, the Manchester Civic Quarter Heat Network (MCQHN) is now supplying low carbon heat to its first customer, the Manchester Central Convention Complex. The groundbreaking £24m project generates low carbon power in an energy centre beneath the railway arches by Manchester Central.

It is then distributed by a 2km network of underground pipes, which will soon serve a whole host of Manchester’s iconic buildings, including Bridgewater Hall, Central Library, Heron House, Manchester Art Gallery and Manchester Town Hall.

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The tower was designed by award-winning architects Tonkin Liu, using a shell lace structural technique created in partnership with Arup. The structure comprises of 3-8mm laser-cut sheets, which are then curved and welded together to create a strong, rigid surface. This ultra-lightweight, vertical, single-surface structure provides a strong support to the chimneys at the base of the energy centre, impressively using only minimal materials to do so.

During the day, the wind moves reflectors to direct sunlight into the tower, filling it with dancing light. At night, The Tower of Light comes to life, showcasing the beauty of its spectacular design. SEAM Design, appointed to create the tower’s lighting scheme, specified Pharos Architectural Controls to help achieve this.

The luminaires were supplied by Tryka; using the Pharos LPC (Lighting Playback Controller) 2, which supports the DMX lighting protocol.

A Pharos TPC (Touch Panel Controller) has also been integrated into the final solution, allowing the tower to benefit from lighting

controls, complete with a smart user-friendly interface.

Mark de Gruyter, Regional Manager EMEA of Pharos, commented: “Manchester’s Tower of Light is an exceptional commitment to tackling climate change, and the design and innovation to deliver this project has been outstanding. We are firm believers in creating a sustainable future, and Pharos is thrilled to have contributed to this remarkable tower. It’s not only a fantastic source of low carbon power, but at the same time demonstrates Manchester’s unique ability to stay ahead of the curve in both function and design.”

The spectacular Manchester landmark is projected to save an initial 1,600 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, contributing towards Manchester’s target to transition to zero carbon by 2038. www.seam-design.com

Photography by Beverley

A Dive into Remanufacturing As the lighting industry begins to understand the importance of the circular economy, Tom Ruddell of EGG Lighting and Simon Fisher of The Regen Initiative break down the role of remanufacturing in reaching circular goals.

GREENLIGHT ALLIANCE TOM RUDDELL & SIMON FISHER

The circular economy is, bit by bit, coming to lighting. But what will it look like? Will it cost more?

Will it be compliant? What about lighting quality?

Will there be trade-offs?

There is a growing consensus in the lighting industry that remanufacturing needs to play a part in the solution. Aligned with circular economy principles, remanufacturing seeks to return used products to an as-new condition. In many cases this costs less than equivalent new products and delivers significant carbon and waste reductions.

Around 40,000 tonnes of commercial lighting equipment is sold per year in the UK, according to figures published by gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/ government/statistical-data-sets/waste-electricaland-electronic-equipment-weee-in-the-uk), but unfortunately only about 7% of the displaced WEEE equipment is properly collected and processed. It’s a wake-up call and an opportunity to do much better.

• We want to see an industry where used luminaires can be collected and treated as assets with residual value, encouraging clients to specify high-quality luminaires that can be remanufactured.

• We want to see new luminaires being designed to be remanufactured.

• We want to help clients upgrade to modern LED technology for less cost and with less waste than buying new luminaires.

What is remanufacture?

Currently, most non-experts see “remanufacture”, “refurbishment”, “reconditioning”, “rebuilding” and to some extent “reuse” as more or less the same thing. Taking inspiration from established remanufacturing operations across the globe, a group of pioneering organisations have looked to standardisation to help build consensus on these terms and processes. Both authors are involved in a BSI (British Standards Institute) committee established in 2020 whose task is to build on the “process of remanufacture” standard (BS 8887-220) to develop an agreed process for the 124 / 125

remanufacture of lighting equipment. We want to ensure that remanufacture is a circular economy process that provides the compliance and commercial guarantees that clients require.

“Remanufacture: return a used product to at least its original performance with a warranty that is equivalent or better than that of the newly manufactured product” – BS 8887-2:2009 In contrast, reconditioned or refurbished products may feature small aesthetic defects and/or come with a partial warranty.

Building Trust

When you buy a new product, you have an expectation and guarantee that the product will be safe, of good and consistent quality and compliant with relevant legislation and standards.

Remanufacture must meet the same expectations and it has been for years in other industries.

You can buy certified remanufactured laptops which have gone through hundreds of tests and inspections before being approved and issued with a warranty. Printers, machinery, phones, brake callipers – the list goes on.

What does this mean for lighting? A customer should expect a remanufactured luminaire to be in as-new (or better) condition and performance - with a full warranty. Remanufactured luminaires should be thoroughly tested and documented to support a declaration of safety and compliance with relevant standards and legislation.

Embodied and operational carbon emissions

Embodied emissions are those that took place in the supply chain to manufacture, transport and install a product and all its components, as well as to dispose of it at the end of life. As businesses are now setting zero carbon targets, quantifying and publishing embodied carbon emissions will become an increasingly important practice.

Operational emissions concern the energy used during a luminaire’s service life. These outweigh embodied emissions by an order of 90% to

Selected remanufacture projects

Efficiency improvement (compared to original product)

16%

Waste Reduction (weight reused per product)

Approximate cost savings, each

Embodied Emissions reduction (KgCO2e)

(compared to equivalent new product, ex. VAT)

(compared to an equivalent new product)

£90

131.1

£58

34.8

£21

4.2

-7.4kg (88%)

41%

-2.2kg (77%)

74%

-1.1kg (76%)

10%. That means we should always strive for efficiency but it doesn’t mean embodied emissions aren’t hugely significant. In fact, by offering cost reductions compared to new luminaires, remanufacture can be a force for accelerating the deployment of latest-efficiency lighting without wasting complete luminaires.

There are different approaches to measuring embodied carbon. It is a major element within complete Life-Cycle Analyses (LCAs), but also simplified methods and tools can be used just focusing on this area.

Why change?

It’s simple. We must curb our consumption of our natural resources. Carbon reduction and carbon avoidance will become a critical yardstick in the coming years. One of the headline outcomes from 2021’s COP26 was major companies publishing their commitment to decarbonisation. Carbon taxation will almost certainly increase.

The lighting industry is making several positive steps to reduce consumption and e-waste. This includes mandating that new product development embraces Ecodesign principles, whereby light sources and drivers can be easily replaced.

In response to this, Egg Lighting and The Regen Initiative are amongst a growing group of companies who are embracing a structured approach to remanufacturing.

Tom Ruddell, Lead Remanufacture Engineer at EGG Lighting, outlines their approach:

I’ve always felt that designing sustainably should be exciting rather than a burden or a ‘nice to have’. I think designing for a zero-emissions society should and will produce imaginative, innovative, and poignant designs. I think reused materials have a special quality; they have a history and story. This is why I think the approach we’re taking at EGG is so exciting. We’re remanufacturing ‘waste’ aligned to this society-wide challenge, meeting or exceeding the needs of our clients at the same time.

There’s meaning in adding to material history rather than erasing it and remanufacture can help connect that to skills development and job creation in the green sector in local communities. Circularity is all about collaboration and we are already seeing remanufacturers working closely with compliance schemes, installers, suppliers, and clients. At EGG we have a dedicated installations team that reduces the number of contractors and means all our team is aligned on sustainability.

Measuring the environmental impact of what we do is essential and at EGG we calculate embodied carbon using a methodology developed by CIBSE called TM65, which we think strikes a sensible balance between detail and effort. We do two calculations using TM65 – the embodied carbon incurred during remanufacture (1); and the embodied carbon of an equivalent but 100% new

GREENLIGHT ALLIANCE

product (2). This means we can report the added embodied emissions (1) and also the comparative embodied emissions (2) – (1). The second indicator of interest is simply waste reductions by weight.

When we remanufactured decorative bulkheads for Aberdeenshire council, we measured significant environmental benefits: 2.2kg (77%) of each luminaire was reused and comparative embodied emissions showed a 20.4 kg CO2e saving compared to a new product. At the same time, using the latest LED technology boosted efficiency by 40% and the clunky on/off sensor relay mode was upgraded to a smooth fade.

The remanufactured option was 25% cheaper than new and provided with a full warranty.

Looking at our remanufacture projects, each one has offered the client a 25-30% cost reduction per product as well as clear embodied carbon reductions compared to new. We always UKCA mark products and provide a full warranty. In each case there has been performance upgrades: new functions, efficiency improvements or better light control. That’s why we think remanufacture is so promising – it makes the circular economy work for clients.

Simon Fisher, Design Collaborator at The Regen Initiative, outlines their approach:

For more information on EGG Lighting and The Regen Initiative, contact: circular@egglighting.com or enquiries@theregeninitiative.com www.greenlight-alliance.com www.egglighting.com www.theregeninitiative.com This series is curated by Roger Sexton of Stoane Lighting, roger@mikestoanelighting.com

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The lighting industry has always contained a niche market for remanufacturing products. Taking existing products and refurbishing them or creating retrofit solutions whereby more efficient lighting components are inserted where once traditional lamp technologies were fitted.

My first full time job in lighting was in a ‘specials’ department and that is pretty much all we did.

From emergency conversions to outright bespoke fixture manufacture, to inserting the latest technologies of the day, like 1-10V dimming drivers into new compact fluorescent lamp fixtures.

Remanufacturing could change the lighting industry altogether in a subtle, yet powerful, way.

Retaining and reusing existing materials are key to

a successful circular economy strategy and this is how The Regen Initiative was conceived.

Delivering solutions with confidence

In partnership with COCO Lighting and Net Zero International, F Mark provides the design and engineering capability for this initiative.

COCO Lighting is an obvious choice to approach with The Regen Initiative, as it has a vision to make spaces safer, healthier and more sustainable with lighting solutions and already delivers remanufacturing projects. They are used to handling and working with OEM products. In-house testing and photometric services capability mean that the validation of remanufactured products and ensuring that they are always fit for purpose.

Both COCO and F Mark are members of the LIA and are proud to be conducting our processes to the highest standards, so it’s a great partnership.

Measuring the impact

Using Net Zero International, we can be sure just how much of a positive impact we’re making. Net Zero International delivers accredited Net-Zero solutions for businesses and will help quantify the capital value and environmental benefit for businesses who employ The Regen Initiative.

Net-Zero International is an approved UN Partner and was formed to help businesses get on the road to Net-Zero, in order to achieve the UN targets of carbon-neutrality by 2050 and halving carbon emissions by 2030.

Why is this important?

The value changes on a project-by-project basis, but we consider it a fair assumption that we can avoid up to 40% carbon emissions but deploying a scheme using remanufactured lighting fixtures over purchasing new.

The ability to offer credible, reliable, and sustainable remanufactured solutions will play a key role in minimising consumption and maintaining circular stability.

Ring of Power

DAVID MORGAN

David Morgan runs David Morgan Associates, a London-based international design consultancy specialising in luminaire design and development and is also MD of Radiant Architectural Lighting.

Email: david@dmadesign.co.uk Web: www.dmadesign.co.uk

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Kingfisher’s new Navar range of modular ring luminaires offer a striking new option for exterior lighting applications.

David Morgan takes a closer look at the new range.

There are many possible starting points for a new lighting company that can define the culture and structure as the company grows. In the case of Kingfisher, the starting point in the late 1980s for founders John and Barbara Harding was the supply of lighting columns and associated brackets. From here, the company has grown and developed into a leading UK manufacturer of exterior lighting equipment for a wide range of technical and amenity lighting applications, including street lighting, high mast, sports, transport, and amenity lighting applications.

Kingfisher provides a full lighting design service in addition to the production and supply of luminaires. The company is also the UK distributor for Italian manufacturers Arcluce and AEC, whose products supplement the Kingfisher product range.

Kingfisher joined the Luceco Group of companies in 2017 and this has accelerated the new product development process and widened its market reach. It now employs 85 colleagues at its headquarters in Nottinghamshire, and a total of 1,650 people are employed worldwide in the Luceco Group.

Early products, in addition to the columns, included the Quarto bulkhead, which was the first dark-sky friendly bulkhead on the market and was introduced in 2010. Originally designed as a CFL luminaire it has been developed into an LED luminaire and is still one of the bestselling Kingfisher products.

The latest product introduction from Kingfisher is the Navar range – a modular exterior ring luminaire. Unfortunately, I was not able to physically test this product for the review but James Miles, Kingfisher’s technical manager, presented the various product features during a video meeting with me.

The in-house Kingfisher development team has added some innovative design features to what can be considered to be a rather generic industry standard luminaire type, and these should allow it to be used in a wide range of projects.

The range includes two rings of different

diameters, the 600mm Urban with an output of up to 18,000lm and the 900mm Pro with an output of up to 56,000lm. Typical mounting heights for the Urban are 4-6 metres and 6-8 metres for the Pro. The rings can be mounted individually or combined as a single high output Urban Pro luminaire with a mounting height of 8-12 metres.

The Navar ring luminaires incorporate a plug together system concealed under removable covers on the top of the luminaire, one on each side, for through wiring. This simplifies installation on site and also allows the two rings to be easily joined together during factory assembly. The design team made efforts to use hidden fasteners wherever possible so that the Navar has a clean, uncluttered and minimal appearance.

Pole options for the Navar range include a central pole, side entry and swan neck cantilever. When the Pro version is supported with the cantilevered arm the control gear is housed within the arm, which allows the luminaire to be a slim and minimal as possible.

It is envisaged that in addition to the pole mounted options the smaller size ring can be used on a catenary support for town centre urban lighting schemes where the trend is to remove as much street furniture as possible. The support and through wiring details built into the luminaire will be particularly useful for this type of application.

The larger diameter Pro luminaire contains 16x4 LED light engines while the smaller Urban product contains 8x4 LED light engines. The Navar optical system can be customised at the Kingfisher factory to meet detail project requirements in a number of ways. The individual light engines can be rotated to optimise the distribution offering asymmetric, one sided or radial distributions. For standard distributions Ledil optics are used, which are available in five distributions. In addition, an inhouse designed, custom optic has been developed within the Luceo group that produces a square distribution with peak intensity at 70-degrees allowing public realm spaces to be lit uniformly with the widest possible luminaire spacing while

still producing very good uniformity.

Light control is an important part of the Navar design and variety of anti-glare shields can be incorporated to reduce spill light and light trespass.

These shields are mounted close to the light source to produce the best cut off and visual comfort.

Kingfisher has ensured that the Navar design is dark-sky friendly with little or no upward light output. The light engines are available with standard 4000K LEDs but also in warm white 2700K LEDs to meet the increasing requirement for bat-friendly and other environmentally sensitive lighting applications.

The Navar range is a useful addition to the Kingfisher range and it will be interesting to see the range of projects that use these luminaires. www.kingfisherlighting.com

Product Launches Berica S L&L Luce&Light Berica S, the new suspended fixture from L&L Luce&Light, is defined by a minimalist design and contemporary style. Thanks to the option of elliptical optics, it’s an ideal choice for retail, offices and hospitality sectors.

Available in three sizes – 620mm, 1180mm and 1740mm – and three different styles of cover – convex, concave and flat – the lamp has a double-beam output, emitting light both downards and upwards, providing a comfortable, uniform illumination. The range uses light sources with a colour temperature of 2700-4000K and a high CRI of >90. www.lucelight.it

Yori IP66 Reggiani The Yori projectors family has widened with the Yori IP66 – the newest system of projects for outdoor lighting. Selected materials, IP66rating and CRI>90 make Yori IP66 a reliable system for outdoor high-end lighting projects.

Available in two different dimensions – Ø45 and Ø60 – and 10 colour finishes, its precision lenses offer quality distribution of light and smooth edge beams in line with standard Yori optics. A wide selection of accessories helps to beautifully integrate the product range into any project, from ground spikes and beam clamps to surface/pendant and wall versions. www.reggiani.net

C1-mini-C Corporate Friends The new C1-mini-C is one of the smallest Casambi Ready spotlights on the market. With its dimensions of only 42x49x17mm reduced to the absolute minimum it is especially suitable for smallest lighting solutions, where the light source must be discrete without limiting its function. The dimming range has 810 steps, from 100% to 0%, with a minimum non-zero value of 0.4%. Fitted on magnetic track (11x7mm) for 9-24V DC connection, it can be positioned freely in any direction. www.corporatefriends.de

LD1094 LightGraphix LD1094 is an IP67-rated, high-power, adjustable downlight, designed for harsh exterior projects and delivering up to 755lm. It promises quick and easy on-site focusing through removal of the bezel, while installed in the mounting surface.

As well as providing the ability to interchange optics, with the help of LightGraphix’s hand tool, the innovative ball joint containing the LED and optics can be rotated 360° and tilted up to 25°. www.lightgraphix.co.uk

Profile Landscape Forms The Profile family of lights creates beautiful and intentional light emanating from a refined, minimalist design. Shadows from Profile’s I-beam channels and modular column design build a light experience like no other, creating poetry between the sculptural form and the play of light upon the object and its surroundings.

One product family composed of an area light, accent light, column light, and trio of bollards. www.landscapeforms.com/lighting

Contour Edge John Cullen Lighting Create clean consistent wall grazing effects with the new Contour Edge from John Cullen Lighting. It combines ultra-low glare with a high 98 CRI to suit your projects whether inside or out. The Contour Edge is available in four sizes – 25, 50, 75 and 100 – which can be easily paired together when a longer illuminated run is required, ensuring that the LED pitch is maintained for a continuous graze. www.johncullenlighting.com

Flexglo F2222 Clear Lighting Accentuate your architectural-grade lighting with enhanced lux levels that complement the aesthetics of your space with a DMX controller that seamlessly transitions from white to RGB. ClearTech TwinFlex and PinBoost ensure the longevity of the product’s robustness and maintenance-free features. A Combination of the silicone body and C-Mask offers protection against UV. The connector can be assembled in the factory or field, paired with InsulFit and DryWire that activate the IP68 to revolutionise a wide range of applications. www.clearlighting.com

Prospex Performance Lucent Lighting A range of high output reflector-style downlights, in fixed and accent versions, which feature locking graduated adjustment to 35 and full 358 lockable rotation.

Available in four sizes – 105, 140, 160 and 195mm diameter – with delivered lumen outputs from 1800lm to 8200lm with minimal trims and a low glare 40 cut-off with semispecular silver reflectors. Typical applications range from residence, offices and retail for the smaller size downlight, through to shopping centres and airports for the largest version. www.lucent-lighting.com

Solex Hacel The latest generation of compact downlighters, designed and manufactured in the UK by Hacel, the Solex range seamlessly combines outstanding photometric performance, with ease of installation. Delivering lumen outputs up to 5342lm and efficacies of 153lm/W. Solex is available in a wide choice of high quality control gear, including Casambi wireless lighting control. Surface and pendant options complete the Solex range. www.hacel.co.uk

seventies 70’s plus contour Mawa Design Creating precise lighting accents in museums: the lenses and slides of Mawa’s seventies 70’s plus contour spotlight focus light on artwork while letting it appear crisply lit from within.

The seamlessly adjustable focussing lens sharply defines the artwork’s frame while the four contour slides determine the shape and size of the lighting surface. The suitability for museum use has been tested and approved by an independent research institute. www.mawa-design.de

sunDial quad Artistic Licence sunDial quad is a trailing-edge mains dimmer, optimised for replacement LED sources. Offering smooth (14-bit resolution) fades to near zero and advanced safety features, this award-winning product ensures venue LED refits meet the standard demanded by lighting professionals.

Control is via DMX512/RDM (or optionally Xicato), with four channels each providing 250W (or up to 500W per pair). Use RDM to select editable dimming curves per channel, or upload your own. www.artisticlicence.com

LED P-Dot Schnick Schnack Systems For special applications like enlightening acrylic rods, or creating hard shadows, there is a need for powerful LEDs. The tiny but powerful LED P-Dot by Schnick Schnack Systems can be comfortably installed with a simple daisy chain wiring system and easily controlled, for example with RGB-video signals. Its four LEDs, red, green, blue and white, have been picked with meticulous discrimination to achieve lighting results of highest quality. www.schnick.schnack.systems

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case study

The Ranch Montauk, USA Art curator Max Levai called on a new lighting and sound solution from KScape to create an immersive experience for The Ranch, a new gallery space in Montauk, New York.

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The combination of audio and lighting can help to elevate the atmosphere in almost any application, especially in art-gallery spaces. For The Ranch in Montauk, New York, finding the right audio and lighting system was a top priority for art curator Max Levai.

Levai purchased the 24.7-acre property in 2020 with the intention of converting it into a unique exhibition space that would draw on today’s technology to enhance the audience’s appreciation of the art on display.

To reach that ambition, Levai worked with K-array and New York-based integrator Global Audio Systems to design and install sophisticated lighting and audio for The Ranch’s 2,500sqft gallery space.

Levai and his architect Greg Tietjen wanted a lighting system that would represent the incredible natural light of Montauk, without being visually obtrusive. The solution also had to be dynamic, to adapt to the changing demands of exhibitions and events using the space, while enhancing the colours of the artwork.

The only natural light available was from the skylight in the middle of the main room, which meant the quality of the light in the corridors had to be of the highest quality, with a precise colour temperature that would work with the various art shows without causing glare. Levai wanted a variety of spots and linear lights highlighting certain objects and filling the room with background light to give as many options as possible.

The solution was a merging of light and sound, utilising the product line of K-array’s new brand, KScape. The Rail system combines lighting and

audio in one visually low-profile design. Each individual Rail unit measures 1.2-metres in length and is equipped with high quality LED lighting; most Rail fixtures installed in The Ranch are also equipped with loudspeakers for sound reinforcement. Each section of Rail is made with 360 Nichia LEDs that provide a CRI >95, which is ideal for art. Glare control is also made easy via the asymmetric linear lighting option at the right height to make it comfortable on the eyes.

For the corridors, the audio and lighting had to be hidden carefully to provide more space for the art in a more compact space. Each corridor is equipped with 12 Rail fixtures, flush-mounted to the ceiling and providing a mix of symmetrical downlight and electric spots.

Max Levai said: “The natural light in Montauk was our inspiration for the lighting system – it is what makes this area so special and what we aspired to capture but, in a traditional barn, the goal was to achieve a solution that was versatile and could be tailored to the needs of the wide variety of artwork we will exhibit. K-array provided us with extreme latitude in adjusting the lights for the changing demands of the lighting conditions each unique body of work requires.

“The lighting is, of course, critical in allowing a work of art to shine and exemplify the small surface details that might be hard to see. One thing I was struck by was the way that the light brought out elements of paintings I’m extremely familiar with but had not seen under other conditions.” www.kscapemergingsenses.com

UNDER Restaurant, Lindesnes, Norway Partner: Luminator AS, www.luminator.no Photo: Tomas Majewski, www.tomaszmajewski.no

UNDERWATER ILLUMINATION ALWAYS AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL WWW.WIBRE.DE

MADE IN GERMANY. SINCE 1919 | WWW.WIBRE.DE WIBRE Elektrogeräte GmbH & Co. KG · Leingarten/Germany · +49(0)7131 9053-0 · info@wibre.de

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PIONEERS IN IP68-LIGHTING U N D E R WAT E R L I G H T I N G | E X T E R I O R L I G H T I N G

18.01.22 08:25

case study

Image: Marcela Schneider Ferreira

Domus Aurea Rome, Italy Erco developed a specially-tailored lighting solution to the restoration of Rome’s Domus Aurea, bringing a sensitive light to the relics of an ancient past.

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Close to the Colosseum, the Domus Aurea has been called the most extravagant construction in the history of Rome. Built by the Emperor Nero in 64AD, the palace was part of his plan to transform the capital into a new city.

Uncompleted, the ancient structures remain buried underground, as they have for centuries. However, following the latest restoration project, a new entrance kiosk and pedestrian walkway by Stefano Boeri Architetti allow unprecedented access to its subterranean rooms, each illuminated by Erco with specially-tailored solutions.

Buried beneath metres of parkland mud, the 2000-year-old palace is continuously attacked by water, corrosive salts and tree roots. It was in this hostile environment that Erco had to realise the robust but sensitive lighting scheme that reveals the scale and beauty of the original art and architecture. The key to the design is the Kona range of IP65 exterior-rated, corrosion-resistant projectors.

The Domus Aurea was rediscovered in the 15th century; the lighting concept aimed to recreate that sense of revelation as individuals bearing only torches or candles explored it for the first time in 1,400 years. For this, and conservation reasons, light levels are kept low, and there is a consistent warm light (2700K) throughout, except where daylight effects are recreated. Although the new scheme has a lower luminance level than the original, the improved light distribution now reaches the ceiling, bringing to light paintings that had not been seen before.

The Kona fittings are adapted according to location. At the entrance, the adjustable fittings

are carefully concealed in customised, floormounted Corten-steel boxes, grazing up the ancient brickwork with glare-free light. Along part of the Criptoporticus, a 130m-long corridor, they sit in 1.8-metre-high, floor-standing Corten steel housings, evoking torcheres. Here, Casambi Bluetooth and tunable white light make the scheme subtly dynamic. As visitors approach, a sensor activates these fittings, which glow into life in succession. They then switch off, giving way to further Kona luminaires concealed in the small, high-level window niches. A cooler 4000K, these give a realistic impression of the daylight that would originally have entered the space.

Bluetooth-controlled tunable lighting is also used in the Nymphaeum of Polyphemus, a small temple that originally featured a fountain cascading into a central basin. As the guide explains this to visitors, the sense of the water is conveyed by very cool light (5000K) where it would have originally flowed.

In the Octagonal Room, originally Nero’s banquet hall, innovative use was made of Lightgap linear fittings, indoor luminaires in special IP68 housings, resolving a shallow recess and providing atmospheric grazing light to the walls. The oculus at the centre, buried three metres below the surface, would originally have allowed in natural light, now simulated by six Kona luminaires behind a diffuser.

To meet the exacting technical and aesthetic standards of the project, Erco worked closely with the client Roma Capitale and the producer Electa, with whom it had previously successfully collaborated for an exhibition on Carravagio. www.erco.com

case study

Passivhaus Devon, UK Discrete lighting fixtures controlled by Rako bring an elegant simplicity and modern flourish to a beautiful Georgian country house.

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An old kitchen garden on a Georgian country house estate near Exeter in Devon has been totally transformed into a beautiful new home that hints to the past while being firmly in the present thanks in no small part to an innovative, contemporary lighting scheme controlled by Rako.

McLean Quinlan architects, based in Winchester, was selected by the homeowners for the design and build of the new property as well as for its interior and lighting design. The company’s design has been influenced by a 200-year-old high brick wall that surrounds the garden and offers a calm and relaxing space for its occupants. From the front of the house, visitors are greeted by a simple brick design that complements the original kitchen garden wall. Behind this, and hidden from the views at the front, is a dark grey rendered building that is visually striking compared to the traditional brick. This is not the end of the hidden treasures.

The house, which was shortlisted for the RIBA House of the Year 2021, is built around a central glass roofed courtyard, which works as a gorgeous all year garden as well as flooding the interior spaces with natural light.

To complement the natural light and stay in keeping with the elegant simplicity of its design, the house features discrete lighting fixtures that can be controlled by Rako lighting control.

“We chose a wired solution as we were having an internet backbone installed in the house and this seemed like the more reliable approach, but we also knew that we could integrate wireless extras later if we wanted,” said Nigel Dutt, the homeowner. “The Rako system could do everything we needed. Rako was also flexible in letting us select which fascia plates we wanted, which was

important for the interior design.”

The Rako set up for this property contains a number of wired RAK8-MB motherboards, which form a centrally located dimming system. The RAK-LINK has also been installed as the interface between the RAK dimmers and the keypads, with a power supply for wired CAT5 products. For the keypads, the homeowner selected the WCM-100 hard wired, 10-button control modules and Rako was able to offer a customised alternative to the homeowner by using its precision tool to punch slots into third party plates so they would perfectly align with the Rako keypads and at the same time match other electrical sockets and accessories at the property. The result is an attractive, contemporary finish perfectly aligned to the elegant interior design.

This project also includes the WM-CUB Twin relay control card module for motorised curtain, screen, blind RAK8 as well as the WTC-Bridge, which will interface with Rako wireless or wired dimmers with ethernet, iPhone, or Android link. The WK-HUB network interface provides a link between wired and wireless networks. It also enables a Rako system to be integrated with third-party cloud services such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Homekit and Sonos integration.

Dutt continued: “Our architects carefully designed the lighting, so it is great to be able to match the scenes exactly to what we want and being able to control things remotely when we are away is also a bonus. We do like the level of control over use and configuration that we get with Rako and we’ve also had great support when we needed it.” www.rakocontrols.com

Possibilities Unlocked

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case study

Munch Museum Oslo, Norway Intra Lighting has provided the lighting solutions for the newly opened Munch Museum, located on Oslo’s waterfront.

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With the world’s largest collection of art by Edvard Munch, the Munch Museum celebrates the life and work of the renowned Norwegian painter.

Opened in October last year and situated on the Oslo waterfront, the museum includes 11 galleries, and offers a range of approaches to Munch’s art and life, as well as works by other Modernists and contemporary artists. Alongside permanent displays intended to give Munch’s work the space that it deserves, the museum also includes a number of temporary exhibitions that will reflect the artistic practices of both well-established names and exciting newcomers. Each winner of the Edvard Munch Art Award will also have a solo exhibition.

Museum directors believe that the new Munch Museum will serve as a meeting place for all types of cultural occasions, and are hopeful that it will broaden the idea of what a museum is, and provide opportunities for completely new experiences and perspectives.

Designed by Estudio Herreros and LPO architects, lighting is synonymous with the architecture of the museum, following its lines, details and materiality while highlighting colours and showing textures.

An intelligent, sustainable, and efficient building, the lighting contributes to this enormously to create a pleasant place to spend time for both visitors and workers.

Lighting for the building was provided by Intra Lighting, which consulted with long-time partner SML Lighting to provide innovative lighting solutions to the museum, both for its interiors and exterior lighting on the façade.

The lighting solutions follow the design narrative of the building, matching the selection of materials, colour, and special details throughout as part of the overriding ambition to support the architecture itself.

Alongside the integrated lighting elements, Intra developed several specially designed luminaire solutions for spaces that were intended to stand out from the general lighting design of the building. These can be found in the VIP meeting room, the library, and the main toilet, where hanging pendants complement the large ceiling luminaires, adding a decorative flourish to the sparse, raw concrete finish.

In the interior spaces, one of the main focuses was for lighting to introduce an increased experience of daylight through specially adapted lighting installations in the rooms. One such example of this is the use of Intra Lighting’s Flott, which was installed in the library space. A specially made plate with a diameter of 1400mm helps to mimic the feeling of a skylight overhead, filling the space with a bright light.

The inner wall of the museum’s ‘Dynamic Zone’ is illuminated with linear luminaires, with optics adapted to the different ceiling heights, from end to end, mounted on top of the upper part of the walls to achieve a greater feeling of space and background for contrast. www.intra-lighting.com

Scale New Heights

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case study

Image: Daniele Cortese

The Hypogeum of Santa Maria in Stelle Verona, Italy The underground labyrinth of the Hypogeum of Santa Maria in Stelle, underneath Verona, has been carefully restored and illuminated with fixtures from L&L Luce&Light.

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The Hypogeum of Santa Maria in Stelle, located below the church of Santa Maria Assunta in the Valpantena valley just east of Verona, is a special archaeological site. In 2020, after many years of restoration work, a new lighting system was designed by Lucearchitettura lighting designers Cinzia Todeschini and Lorella Marconi.

A flight of stairs connects the entrance to the subterranean complex. The entrance way is lit by a profile that creates a wash of indirect light on the vault that blends with daylight to allow visitors to gently adapt to the dark environment. At the foot of the stairs, a statue of Publius Pomponius Cornelius, the location’s creator, is fully illuminated thanks to the 13°x52° elliptical optics of a Ginko 2.0 projector from L&L Luce&Light.

Continuing along the path, visitors enter the space where the former entrance, originally open to the sky, was located at the foot of a staircase that used to lead down from what is now the churchyard. This detail shaped the concept for the lighting in the room, a “rain” of light, achieved with indirect lighting on the barrel vault. Two Ginko 2.0 projectors were installed behind the Corten profile on the ceiling to provide accent lighting. This passage is lit with indirect, diffuse light, creating a contemplative environment to prepare visitors for the frescoed scenes from the Old and New Testament. A single Ginko 1.0 projector shines a grazing light on a precise point on the wall halfway along the route, revealing the first important evidence of the Hypogeum’s transformation from a pagan place to a sacred one.

Continuing along the conduit as you step into the atrium, the lights come up on the magnificently

frescoed vault. Here, as elsewhere, the significant constraints that an archaeological site of this kind brings with it have been overcome thanks to the creation of pedestals designed by Lucearchitettura.

The vault and frescoes are lit by Ginko 2.0 projectors mounted on 900mm Corten-painted stainless steel poles positioned at the four corners of the room.

The southern cell, which contains a Roman altar, is set off with dramatic bilateral lighting using two narrow-beam projectors. Other elements in the south cell are also picked out with light: the sub-chapel to the left of the entrance, the recently discovered Nativity, and the north wall with its frescoed lunette above two figures carrying torches. The lighting fixtures are mounted on a pedestal that holds five Ginko projectors, each with different optics and with a colour temperature of either 3000K or 4000K, so that details can be illuminated with different colours.

To light the works in the north cell, two freestanding pedestals were used, equipped with nine projectors with different light emissions and colour temperatures. The reliability and resistance to oxidation and corrosion of the material used in L&L Luce&Light’s lighting fixtures were the factors that led to the choice of Ginko projectors for this location with its high humidity percentage.

The lighting system was designed to take visitors – a maximum of four at a time to keep CO2 levels under control – on an experiential journey. The lights, activated by the guide with an app, illuminate one scenario at a time, magically revealing the story. www.lucelight.it

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16.02.2022 12:00:15

case study

Image: Andrew Hatfield

Dawlish Coastal Walkway Dawlish, UK When Arup was developing the lighting solution for a new coastal walkway in the seaside town of Dawlish, it called on fixtures from DW Windsor.

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Dawlish is a pleasant seaside resort located on the south coast of Devon, UK. It features an attractive sand and shingle beach flanked by a sea wall that stretches the length of the bay. The town’s Grade II listed railway station sits atop the sea wall, as does the railway line, offering views out to sea; however, its location makes it vulnerable to the extremities of the weather.

In 2014, Dawlish’s coastal railway line suffered severe damage following heavy winter storms. In response, Network Rail introduced several new measures to improve the long-term resilience of the railway connection. This is particularly important as the line is the only rail link from Devon and Cornwall to the rest of Britain.

A key feature of the improvement works was the construction of a new 415-metre-long sea wall. Higher than the previous sea wall, it also incorporates a new high-level promenade at the same elevation as the station platforms.

In addition, users of the promenade are now protected from the waves by a curved parapet wall that stands 1.1-metres tall.

At various points along the walkway, raised areas have been created with benches, allowing visitors to enjoy the sea view. Pedestrian access to the beach has been added, while a footbridge connects the two sections of sea wall. In addition, a new accessible station footbridge has been introduced to the site, complete with lifts.

Contractors Bam Nuttall worked with Arup on the innovative engineering solutions for the project.

To fulfil a crucial lighting element of the project, Arup completed the design with support from

lighting manufacturer DW Windsor, which provided technical information on the individual lighting elements. A 330-metre stretch of the elevated seafront promenade required illumination to improve visibility for walkers. The brief was to create a lighting solution that would withstand the harsh environment while also becoming a feature of the improved walkway.

With its extensive knowledge of the rail sector and a long history of delivering lighting projects set in challenging conditions, DW Windsor was the ideal partner for the Dawlish railway project.

The brief called for a discreet lighting solution, mounted at a low height to avoid any risk of glare for train drivers. DW Windsor’s Special Projects team developed a bespoke solution using a modified version of their surface-mounted linear lighting system, Garda Anti-Climb. In total, 110 custom LED lighting modules were installed along the walkway, set at an angle to wash across the pathway rather than illuminate the space above it.

The fact that Garda Anti-Climb is IP66 rated and has high resistance to water ingress – which was vital given the extreme proximity to the sea – added to its credentials. The luminaire’s patented sloped profile also helps to drain water, which is a considerable benefit as it will undoubtedly get wet on a frequent basis. www.dwwindsor.com

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Advertisers Index ACEVEL

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Advertising enquiries should be made to Jason Pennington. Tel: +44 (0) 161 476 8350 email: j.pennington@mondiale.co.uk 144 / 145

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bucket list curated by

#26

“Design must be the bridge between human needs, culture and the environment.”

Victor Papanek

Artem Masorin CUT What

Live abroad for a while.

Where

Anywhere in the world! Pro-tip: go a bit further than the country bordering yours.

How

Work, study, travel – just live the local way of living with all its cultural features.

When

Whenever you feel you have the energy to do so. Moving to another country even temporarily requires dedication.

Why

Experiencing a different culture and lifestyle helps to expand the understanding of how other people perceive light and strengthens the design skill. I believe we grow as designers when we live someplace else.

Observing and participating, being a part of the local way of living gives us the experience to reflect on through our work thus bringing depth to our designs. www.cut-gruppe.de

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