Bespoke Beauty

BESPOKE BEAUTY

How FINNE Architects Designed A Custom Fixture to Elevate an LA House

By STEF SCHWALB

Remember the old adage, "If you want something done right, do it yourself?" When it comes to lighting design, Seattle-based FINNE Architects is a perfect example. Not satisfied with fixtures available on the market, founder Nils Finne, AIA, opted to design custom lighting himself for a Los Angeles–based house located in the area’s Venice neighborhood. The “Venice House” project, which was completed in August 2019, features a stunning 10-foot-long custom steel kitchen pendant that Finne designed, which was fabricated by Landbridge Lighting, a fabrication shop also based in Seattle.

Photo Credit: Tom Bonner

“I have been designing light fixtures for many years, and when you search for pendant fixtures, there are thousands. I find that for whatever reason, I am never quite happy with any of them—nor are my clients,” says Finne. “It’s kind of like TV channels—there are 500 of them, but nothing to watch. I guess on one level what’s out there isn’t that exciting, and on another level, I am a huge adherent of what I call crafted modernism, which is the idea that modern architecture and modern design have in many cases lacked detail, craft, and the kind of attention that the human hand brings to materials that everyone responds to.” In fact, this is one of the reasons Finne thinks modern design has a sterility problem, and many people find it a bit cold. “I have a very strong interest in bringing craft with a high level of design to my projects,” he adds, “which ties in with the idea of actually custom-making light fixtures and furniture.”

Photo Credit: Tom Bonner

Photo Credit: Tom Bonner

For his design process, once Finne generates ideas and drawings for fixtures, he turns to the lighting experts at Landbridge to bring them to life—as was the case for the Venice House. “They make custom fixtures for all kinds of designers, and they really bring craftsmanship and expertise with wiring and troubleshooting to make sure everything works,” he says. “I actually have a custom fixture that they made for me hanging in my own office, so it’s kind of an advertisement for the whole process.” Finne adds that when he starts talking to clients, they will look up and say, ‘Oh, that’s beautiful. So yes, let’s do one of those.’ “Landbridge Lighting is key, and I’ve been working with them for probably 15 years or more. The two guys who run it—Stephen and Jesse—are just fantastic, and it’s like with any craftsmen: You walk on a construction site, they are there, and you listen to what they have to say. Craftsmen are working with their hands, and as a designer, if you’re kind, cooperative, considerate, and listen, they end up making you look very good. If you don’t listen, they can make you look very bad.”

Photo Credit: Tom Bonner

When it comes to inspiration for design in his work, Finne reveals that he can’t say enough about light as a continual source of inspiration and that a strong interest of his is using a light fixture to create lines within a space. “I think light is simultaneously tangible and intangible. It’s present, and yet it’s not present. You can’t touch it, and yet you feel it. It shapes space. I will confess that I love the idea of drawing with light and creating lines in space that are formed by light,” he explains. “In the Venice House, we have these two parallel, very thin steel plates that have the MR 11 LED lights tucked up into them. They’re slightly offset, which actually mimics or reflects the design of the kitchen island. Then there’s a cast glass plane, which forms a breakfast table, that’s also offset from the shape of the island itself. So, starting from the bottom you have this stone piece with this offset plane of glass, and then you go up to the light fixture and there are these two offset bands of steel that have these lines of light in them.”

“I love the idea of drawing with light and creating lines in space that are formed by light.”

― Nils Finne

While the idea of drawing with light is certainly strong for Finne, he also thinks that when you’re designing a light fixture, it’s important to try and make the fixture in such a way that the fixture and the light are dovetailed together and complementary—rather than one thing being dominant, and the other one being secondary. “I could give you an example of a number of light fixtures I’ve seen where the shape of the light fixture is dominant and the way the light works out of the fixture is secondary, and I find that to be disappointing,” notes Finne. “You feel like the designer made a piece of sculpture and then threw a light in at the end because they had to have a light fixture. I’m not so interested in that. I’m interested in the shape of the fixture and the way the light emits out of the fixture as being as integral as humanly possible, so you can’t separate the shape of the fixture from the way the light emits—nor can you separate the way the light emits from the shape of the fixture.”

As for other lighting in Venice House, the 5,604-square-foot abode features Bruck LED accent lights and HALO LED downlights, and the importance of LED lighting—as well as its evolution—is a topic Finne is happy to expand upon. “LED lighting over the last 10-plus years has revolutionized lighting. I was certainly one of the early devotees, and they have made such enormous strides in the last few years,” he says. “I look forward to every new year because the LED technology just keeps on improving, and the energy consumption is startling. All of our projects are 100% LED and the amount of energy demand on the house and the structure drops dramatically.” Finne also thinks the color rendition that LEDs are able to do is fantastic today compared to when he first starting using them about eight to ten years ago. “Back then the color was horrible,” he admits. “In those days, we ended up using LEDs in what I call ‘lesser spaces’—certainly not in a main living space— because the client would say, ‘I look like a ghost in here.’”

Photo Credit: Tom Bonner

While praising LEDs, Finne does have at least one caveat that he was willing to share. “My only complaint about LEDs at the moment is that a lot of times we will use a halogen fixture and put in an LED bulb rather than use a 100% LED fixture because, unfortunately, the 100% LED fixtures are still running significantly higher in cost right now than a halogen lamp,” he says. “Soraa makes fantastic MR-16 replacement lamps. You just plug an LED into a halogen, and you have the same performance as an all LED fixture—but you’ve saved about 15% cost.”

In terms of what he’s working on right now, Finne is taking his steel fixtures in a different direction and also has a new fixture in the works called Puls Fixture Pools. Earlier on in his career, Finne also designed a number of fixtures using blown glass. “I have a very strong interest in glass design as well. I have not been working that realm currently, but I think the opportunity there is enormous,” he concludes. “Seattle is a glass art mecca. Dale Chihuly lives here, and there’s always been a huge glass community in the city. The symbiotic relationship between blown glass and light fixtures is something that I’ve always been really fascinated by.” ■