Reports

Lighting

FOSCARINI emotionalizes light. BOCCI makes glass look like candy. SIMON gets smarter. FLOS reflects fairgoers in Milan. Discover what’s driving the business of design.

(Dis)appearing Act

New lighting takes two CONTRASTING APPROACHES, in some cases concealing its sources, in others wearing its technological heart on its sleeve.

Words JANE SZITA

Thanks to digitization, the mechanical components of luminaires – wiring, controls and the light sources themselves – have become smaller and less visible to the human eye. Along with their abbreviated size, they are increasingly easy to use, in some cases without human intervention. The highly automated workings of a light can be effectively camouflaged. ‘There is so much less need today to show technological elements in lighting objects – fewer moving parts, fewer switches, fewer joints et cetera,’ says Leif Huff, executive design director at Ideo Munich. ‘As OLED technology develops, it offers designers and lighting companies opportunities to explore new ideas in lighting surfaces.’ Whether decorative and detailed or atmospheric and ambient, the functional system of a lamp can be hidden to heighten its visual impact. Technological complexity underlies a simple and serene effect, with forms often dictated by nature or geometry.

Every action has a reaction, so it’s not surprising that while some designs strive to make technology invisible, others make it the focal point. This development, too, is facilitated by digitization and technological innovation: for example, the cooler temperatures and low voltages of LEDs encourage interaction and proliferation. Lighting designs based on such advances question the unthinking pursuit of ‘integrated’ technology. With an appreciation for the industrial heritage and elemental power of currents, unveiled designs promise us control and even allow us to understand how they work.

The petals of Linea Light Group’s Diphy are transparent when not in use, thanks to a special texture engraved on their curved PMMA surfaces that allows for a uniform distribution of light.

Seeming to float in midair, Lumina’s minimalist Dot pendant – the work of Foster + Partners – is an illuminated disc with a ring of LEDs and a reflector that magnifies the light.

Generated by complex algorithms, the shade of Frank Tjepkema’s Busk Lamp for Moooi defines the form of the pendant, whose functional structure powers all 96 LEDs.

Lighting designers often strive to hide a lamp’s flex, but Formafantasma puts it centre stage in its WireRing for Flos.

In Filo for Foscarini, Andrea Anastasio celebrates the prosaic parts of a luminaire – light source, decoration and wiring – in one design.

Vantot’s Current Currents, a collection by Esther Jongsma and Sam van Gurp, features LEDs that are safe to touch. Current used as ornament needn’t be tucked away.

Light Moves

As homes shrink and oneperson households multiply, manufacturers meet the need for COMPACTNESS AND FLEXIBILITY with mobile and multifunctional luminaires.

Words JANE SZITA

Living spaces are getting smaller. The average size of a family home in the UK, for example, has decreased by 2 m 2 in the last decade alone, according to a recent survey by financial services firm LV. Meanwhile, the size of the average family is also diminishing: the UN reported this year that no less than 15 per cent of households globally now consist of just one person, with the highest rates of single-person occupancy pushing 40 per cent in Northern European countries and, following close behind at over 30 per cent, Japan, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Smaller living spaces mean that people are making their homes more flexible by using the same areas to accommodate different activities. This factor, combined with the growing trend for outdoor living, has created a market for objects that can adapt easily to all sorts of contexts. Lighting manufacturers, along with furniture makers, are responding with products that are visually versatile and multi-applicable. Possibilities range from a diversity of atmospheres to an array of functional requirements.

Thanks to technologies such as wireless charging, lighting design is increasingly incorporating portability, reflecting the more fluid domestic lifestyles we tend to adopt nowadays. Migrating between indoors and outdoors, or upstairs and downstairs, portable luminaires are as mobile as their owners. And with singleperson households a growing market, the lamp becomes almost as much of a personal accessory as the smartphone.

Lightweight and portable in colourful polycarbonate, Marset’s Bicoca, designed by Christophe Mathieu, has a magnetic base and a tiltable shade that directs the light.

Empatia Mobile, designed by Carlotta de Bevilacqua for Artemide, combines mobility with the high performance of a traditional lamp, thanks to cutting-edge LED technology.

Wall of Sound

ØIVIND ALEXANDER SLAATTO’s modular BeoSound Shape for Bang & Olufsen takes music out of the speaker box.

10 colour options allow for experimentation within a composition

443 speakers form the largest individual setup

8 iterations of the hexagonal prototype preceded the final design

2.3 kg is the combined weight of a speaker tile and its fabric cover