Light Canada Expo + Conference 2008

2008 Light Canada Expo + Conference The Official Guide to Light Canada Expo + Conference at IIDEX/NeoCon Canada

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LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! LIGHT CANADA EXPO AND CONFERENCE EXPANDS

Light Canada Expo is Canada’s largest lighting exposition and conference, and hosts over 100 exhibitors from across North America and Europe.

IIDEX/NeoCon Canada in partnership with the Illuminating Engineering Society, Toronto Section (IES) will showcase the latest in interior, exterior, commercial and architectural lighting products plus lamps and lighting controls in 15,000 square feet of exposition space. With over 100 new Canadian and international exhibitors, Light Canada will deliver not only cutting-edge design, but will also showcase the monumental advances in sustainable lighting, LED technology, new materials and advances in lighting design. An added feature is the hands-on learning initiative which is delivered via 30-minute learning labs on the show floor featuring the latest news about lighting products and trends in the industry.

Highlights include an innovative multimedia lighting keynote address by award-winning Abhay Wadhwa of AWA Lighting Designers in New York on Thursday, September 25th from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. Attendees will also

LIGHTING SEMINARS Wednesday, September 24

W02 Daylighting And Artificial Lighting Technologies For Buildings (RAIC) W03 LightShift—LED Solutions Mean Business Thursday, September 25

T04 Healthcare Lighting That Saves Lives T15 LED City Lighting: Case Study Of The Palace Pier T18 Modern Lighting Design: The Computer As The Lighting Tool, Not The Master T20 Urban Lighting: Exterior Case Study Of Royal Ontario Museum T26 Custom Lighting: Pushing The Limits T35 The White Light Story: Is It Possible To Do More With Less?

enjoy a 400-square-foot lighting feature display focusing on the integration of sustainable lighting design into the built environment, after which they can unwind in the Experiential Light Café located adjacent to Light Canada.

A special CEU-accredited seminar stream developed by industry experts will cover all aspects of lighting design, applications, technology and special case studies to ensure seminar attendees are up to date on the latest education on lighting design engineering and technology. New for this year is the “ARIDO Intern Challenge: In a Different Light,” which is a design competition for ARIDO intern members who have been faced with the challenge of repurposing a familiar item into a lighting fixture. While this competition began in the summer, all of the entries will be featured throughout the IIDEX show so be on the lookout for these new and innovative lighting projects. The event wraps up with the IES Toronto Section Gala on Saturday, September 27th at the Royal York Hotel.

Friday, September 26

F01 The Myths And Reality Of LED Lighting F12 Maintaining Visual Quality In An Age Of Shrinking Energy Budgets F23 Colour Temperature, Chromaticity & LEDs F28 Museum Lighting At The Smithsonian Institute F37 Evoking Emotions With Lighting Of Large Structures (IALD) LIGHTING LEARNING LABS

Make sure to stop by these exciting hands-on learning sessions on the show floor.

TLL09 Lighting Design Using Basic Optical Principles TLL10 Site Lighting: Optical System Design For Site, Roadway & Architecture Friday, September 26

FLL08 Sustainable Lighting Design FLL09 It’s Not Disneyland! The Art Of Landscape Lighting FLL12 New Technologies In Lamps & Ballast FLL10 Integration Of Furniture & Lighting Systems FLL11 LEED—An Introduction And Strategies For Success

Thursday, September 25

TLL08 LEDs For General Lighting: What Applications Make Sense Today?

TLL11 The Perfect Source For The Perfect Design

For more information, please visit www.iidexneocon. com/2008/index.php/highlights/light_canada/

LIGHTING SHOW GUIDE 2008 CANADIAN ARCHITECT/CANADIAN INTERIORS

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SOFT CELL AN AMBITIOUS VANCOUVER DESIGN FIRM HAS GONE GLOBAL WITH AN INVENTIVE APPROACH TO LIGHTING AND PRODUCTS. MOLO SOFT PRODUCT LINE FORSYTHE + MACALLEN DESIGN TEXT IAN CHODIKOFF PHOTOS TODD MACALLEN, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED PROJECT

DESIGN TEAM

Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen have been tirelessly building their multidisciplinary design practice since they both graduated from Dalhousie University with Master of Architecture degrees in 2000. Picking up numerous design awards and recognition for their work over the past eight years, the Vancouver design team continues to impress the global design community with their series of ingenious product designs.

The work of Forsythe + MacAllen Design has already appeared in several books such as: Young Designers Americas; Great Spaces: Flexible Homes, a publication featuring their softwall and softhousing concepts amongst a

collection of flexible space designs by various designers; and the popular Phaidon publication 10x10_2, a book featuring the work of 100 young architects selected by a group of respected architecture critics, practitioners and curators. In between busily working on their competition-winning entry for a 200-unit development in the northern Japanese city of Aomori and promoting themselves around the world, Forsythe and MacAllen have continued to achieve tremendous success with their experiments in the design and manufacture of glassware, modular walls, seating and lighting, all commercially available and all of which have received considerable acclaim. Through their

ABOVE MOLO’S EAST VANCOUVER STUDIO GLOWS WITH THEIR URCHIN LIGHT FIXTURES PROMINENTLY ON DISPLAY.

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TOM VACK

TOM VACK

commitment to craft, the two designers believe in understanding every stage of the manufacturing process.

Apart from the continued operation of their architectural design office, it is the couple’s separate product design arm and manufacturing company known as molo that has garnered the majority of the design duo’s success. molo emerged in 2003 when Forsythe and MacAllen partnered with long-time friend Robert Pasut. Working with factories and learning about the entire product development and manufacturing process

has taught Forsythe and MacAllen about the pragmatics of good business while helping them to understand prefabricated construction techniques and efficient building systems that waste less energy and materials. molo’s first successful venture was float, a line of thermally resistant glassware made of borosilicate glass.

The suspended bowl design of each piece creates a lens through which light can pass, projecting the colour of whatever liquid is in the receptacle onto the tabletop, creating a shimmering effect.

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AN ARRAY OF SOFTLIGHTS. ABOVE, LEFT TO AT THE MOLO INSTALLATION AT THE SPAZIO KRIZIA IN MILAN, THE ZUFALL LIGHT FIXTURE AND TABLE DESIGNED BY INGO MAURER IS INSTALLED IN FRONT OF MOLO’S SOFTWALL; A DETAIL OF HAND-CUTTING THE SOFTWALL TEXTILE. TOP

RIGHT

After the success of float, molo introduced its softwall product line, which allows for a flexible use of space through the innovative application of an expandable wall system. Comprised of a

TOM VACK

honeycomb structural system that uses 400 layers of white or black fire retardant-coated paper bound by natural wool felt ends, the cellular structure of softwall expands to widths that vary from 12 to 18 inches (depending on the model) and range in height from one to eight feet. The walls can also be made of a fire retardant-treated polyethylene non-woven textile that is tear-, UV- and water-resistant, and 100 percent recyclable. softwall is a lightweight, easily bendable, freestanding, flexible wall system that can be arranged into almost any shape. It can be compressed down to a couple of inches to be stored away when not needed—and as an added bonus to people with sensitive ears, the system dampens sound due to its air-filled cellular structure. The white walls have a soft translucent glow, whereas the black walls are opaque and absorb light. The black softwall creates an interesting optical effect—Forsythe describes this as “vertical fins that catch light with a sheen that shifts as you move along the wall, somewhat reminiscent of a blackened charcoal log.”

The limits of softwall are boundless. Using similar technology to softwall, softroom is an expandable room designed to create a private, fully enclosed space. Thinking on an even larger scale, softhousing seeks to address the issue of homelessness in a novel way. A non-profit project currently under development, the first instance of softhousing—entitled the First Step Softhouse—was conceived for installation in a former lodging house in New York City’s Bowery, and consists of several expandable singleoccupancy rooms located within the shell of an existing building. Here also, the walls can be squeezed back to create an enlarged common area when not in use. Both softwall and softseating, a circular seating system, are held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Belonging to molo’s larger family of cellular structures is their dramatic and recently launched softlight collection, a series of sculptural lamps made from flexible honeycomb paper.

These lights can be adjusted in a variety of shapes by stretching, pushing or pulling their elastic honeycomb structure. molo’s urchins—ranging in size from 11 to 21 inches—are the first generation of molo’s light prototypes and were first displayed in molo’s studio in Vancouver. In the studio, Forsythe and MacAllen removed the existing building’s dilapidated contents to expose its raw interior space, then painted it completely white to showcase the wares against a neutral backdrop.

Only the most essential elements were added back in: lights, water, storage, and work surfaces.

The newest line of lights are larger than the MAURER’S ZUFALL LIGHT FIXTURE IN FRONT OF MOLO’S SOFTWALL. RIGHT THE CUTTING AWAY OF SOFTWALL WITH A PAIR OF SCISSORS GIVES A WONDERFUL LAYERED EFFECT. TOP RIGHT

LIGHTING SHOW GUIDE 2008 CANADIAN ARCHITECT/CANADIAN INTERIORS

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original urchin models. Entitled tom-tom and bomba, the largest of these lamps measures 37 x 33.5 inches.

Throughout 2008, Forsythe and MacAllen took their paper and textile inventions and participated in exhibitions across Europe, in cities such as London, Paris, Milan, and the Spanish city of Burgos. In Milan, the duo installed a series of softwalls which they began to artfully cut with scissors on site. Entitled Delicate Erosion: A Study in Light and Ephemeral Space, the temporary installation was on display at the Spazio Krizia during the month of April. Sometimes the process of deconstructing a design can provide new insights for a designer. molo, who have been installing their products in a variety of light conditions and environmental situations, recently exhibited their inventions alongside light fixtures and furniture

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ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT BLACK KRAFT PAPER SOFTBLOCKS ARE STACKED TO CREATE A SCULPTURAL WALL; THE SUBTLE ORGANIC SHAPES OF MOLO’S LINE OF SOFTLIGHTS ARE CONTRASTED AGAINST A BLACK BACKGROUND. BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT MOLO’S KRAFT PAPER FANNING LOUNGER AND FANNING STOOLS—PART OF THEIR SOFTSEATING PRODUCT LINE— ARE TESTED IN A VARIETY OF ENVIRONMENTS.

by designer par excellence Ingo Maurer, and these experiments have generated subtle yet incredibly rich results. We can only wait and see what molo will come up with next. In the meantime, we should applaud their efforts in experimenting with flexible systems that convey a variety of light and spatial qualities.

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Please visit us at IIDEX, booth # L307.

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A GLOWING REPORT

A YOUNG TORONTO LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE FIRM WINS A COMPETITION IN CLEVELAND, ALLOWING ITS MEMBERS TO EXPERIMENT WITH IDEAS WHILE REVITALIZING AN IMPORTANT CITY PARK. THE VERDANT WALK, CLEVELAND, OHIO LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS NORTH DESIGN OFFICE TEXT IAN CHODIKOFF PHOTOS PETE NORTH PROJECT

It often takes grassroots support to facilitate a city’s turnaround. Even the smallest of initiatives can have a positive impact, engendering a sense of pride in place while enriching the imaginations of decision-makers. Such local initiative has already taken root in Cleveland, a city with a new strategic plan and sustainable design agenda. Once a major urban centre, the decline of Cleveland’s heavy manufacturing industries left the city with the challenge of diversifying itself into a service economy that includes financial, insurance, and health-care sectors. At one time, Cleveland was the fifth-largest city in the US, but its population continued to decline, becoming the 40th-largest city with a population of around 450,000 in 2001.

Including its larger metropolitan area, Cleveland is home to around 2.5 million inhabitants.

To help envision a new future for the city, the staff of Cleveland Public Art, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life through site-specific installations and creative urban design, held an invited design competition in May 2007 to improve public life in and around the Cleveland Mall. Sponsored by the Cleveland Mall Plaza Beautification Fund and managed by Cleveland Public Art, the $130,000 installation opened in September.

The design competition was won by partners in life and work—Pete and

ABOVE ILLUMINATED BY SOLAR-POWERED LED LIGHTS, THE TENT-LIKE ORBS OF VERDANT WALK HELP ANIMATE THE HISTORIC CLEVELAND MALL.

Alissa North—who established North Design Office in 2005. The Toronto landscape architecture firm has been hard at work ever since, managing clients, entering design competitions and teaching at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

As landscape architects who straddle theory and practice, they have recently been engaging in site-specific art installations that question the role of landscape and which provide opportunities for research and development in technology, materials and design.

Their winning project, entitled Verdant Walk, is situated on Mall B of the Cleveland Mall. Conceived as part of the 1903 Group Plan by the great urban planner Daniel Burnham, the Cleveland Mall is divided into three sections, Malls A, B and C. This vast “public room,” considered one of the finest examples of the City Beautiful movement in the US, is flanked by civic and governmental buildings, all built in the Neoclassical style. Verdant Walk acknowledges the city’s industrial heritage and its newly adopted green agenda. Comprised of aluminum frames, a reference to the city’s relationship with manufacturing and industry, the installation’s sphere-like forms are covered with a fabric which integrates flexible solar panels. Using custom-made LED lighting, the orbs are illuminated from within and capture changing light conditions which depend upon the presence of sun, rain, shade, and the movement of newly planted native grasses. And just as a tree loses its leaves, the fabric is removed during the winter months, the aluminum frames of the orbs casting long shadows on the snow. Alluding to moving water and responding to wind and weather, the Norths installed planting strips composed of a diverse mixture of native Ohio grasses that LIGHTING SHOW GUIDE 2008 CANADIAN ARCHITECT/CANADIAN INTERIORS

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THE TRANSLUCENT QUALITY OF THE ORBS CHANGE THROUGHOUT THE DAY; SOLAR-POWERED COLLECTORS ARE STITCHED INTO THE STRUCTURES’ FABRIC CASING, ENABLING THE ORBS TO GLOW AT NIGHT; THE FLUID DESIGN OF THE STRUCTURE’S ALUMINUM FRAME.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP

celebrate Cleveland’s connection to its natural landscape—the Cuyahoga River and the adjacent Lake Erie waterfront.

The lighting strategy for Verdant Walk incorporates state-of-the-art technologies associated

with solar power and outdoor LED floodlighting into a collection of tent-like pods that draw increased numbers of visitors to the Mall at night, when the outdoor public space is typically devoid of any activity. In developing their glow-

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in-the-dark pods, the logical first step was to make the pods solar-powered but there were no affordable or appropriate lighting applications available. Quickly determining that solar panels produce DC power while most incandescent bulbs use AC power, the couple realized that a considerable amount of energy would be lost through the inverter’s conversion process, so the light source would thus require a DC power source. Using storage batteries and LED outdoor floodlights, the flexible solar panels were stitched into the fabric covering the pods, forming an integral part of the sculpture. Several solar power and lighting experts were consulted, only to offer conflicting advice. Faced with no other option, the Norths assembled, tested and installed the components themselves.

Cleveland is currently working on a long-term replacement for an outdated convention centre that has been moved underneath Malls B and C. There is also talk of extending the Mall, thereby completing Burnham’s original vision. If such a redesign were to happen, the classical landscaping would be replaced with a more contemporary design, complete with footpaths across the lawns and skylights for the underground exhibition halls. Verdant Walk represents a first step in increasing the public’s appreciation of this important and historic civic landscape.

RADIANT DARK AN EXHIBITION FOCUSED ON THEMES OF DARK AND LIGHT SHOWCASES THE WORK OF TALENTED CANADIAN DESIGNERS WHO MARRY INNOVATIVE LIGHTING STRATEGIES WITH IMAGINATIVE FORMS.

TEXT

LESLIE JEN ANDREW ROBERTSON

PHOTOS

TOP TAMARA RUSHLOW’S JAGGED CHANDELIER EMPLOYS LASER-CUT STRANDS OF POWDER-COATED STEEL. ABOVE SHADOW BOX, DESIGNED

BY CONNIE CHISHOLM, TAKES THE FORM OF A WALNUT CURIO CABINET ILLUMINATED BY LED LIGHTING.

A provocative exhibition assembling an array of industrial designs dealing with lightness and darkness, Radiant Dark: 29 Designs on Darkness and Luxury surveys the Canadian zeitgeist with new works from artists, architects, industrial designers and craftspeople. Themes of darkness and luxury are examined through the lenses of decoration, historical reference, social issues and material investigations. The resulting objects express the designers’ desire to place value on acquiring experience and deeper meaning over wealth, exclusivity or temporal beauty. Ultimately, Radiant Dark is a melding of thoughtful expression and modern Canadian design practice.

The show made its Toronto debut earlier this year in February, during the same weekend as the popular Interior Design Show and the Gladstone Hotel’s alternative “Come Up To My Room” event. Radiant Dark is enjoying another run at the Cambridge Galleries, Design at Riverside in Cambridge, Ontario until October 19, 2008.

Curatorial duties were undertaken by Shaun Moore and Julie Nicholson, the founders of MADE, a modern Canadian design product retailer located on Toronto’s Dundas Street West. Moore and Nicholson’s combined backgrounds in showroom management, furniture design and manufacture, display and curatorial experience led them to form their collaborative design partnership in 2005, followed by the launch of their retail enterprise a year later.

As one might expect from the title of the exhibition, lighting enjoys the primary focus in Radiant Dark. Only a few of the designers are profiled here, and they represent just a handful of the many, many talented individuals involved in the show.

Industrial designer Tamara Rushlow engages in rigorous technical and material investigations, and all of her designs are developed with the intent of engaging the user to interact and discover new materials and techniques.

Featured in the show, the deep red Jagged Chandelier employs powdercoated laser-cut steel and measures 19 inches in diameter. The fixture is a modern interpretation of Venini chandeliers from the 1970s, in which long, blown glass pieces were arranged in symmetrical and layered configurations.

Connie Chisholm is a Toronto-based designer whose work is characterized by minimalist forms often augmented with strong sculptural elements.

Her Shadow Box display cabinet is made with walnut, glass and LED lights, and measures 32 inches in height and 12 inches in depth. Since curio cabinets are often made of luxurious materials and are intended to showcase precious objets d’art, Shadow Box references the traditional concept while using shadow and light to partially obscure the collection within, offering a sense of mystery and intrigue.

Mazzie Design and Kelly Palmer’s jointly designed room installation entitled Combo Synchronic forms the backdrop for Jennifer Graham’s Strand Chandelier. The room is a theatrical showcase of dark, lush textures and materials, an appropriate contrast to Graham’s delicately wrought chandelier. Inspired by textiles, Graham often embosses her porcelain works with woven textures or stitched patterns and uses fabric molds for handbuilt ceramic forms. The Strand Chandelier uses the salvaged frame of a decrepit light fixture as the armature for an elegant new porcelain light sculpture. Graduating in size, the highly detailed pendants are laid strand upon strand to create a textured assemblage of light-capturing objects.

Bright colours and captivating geometries in the Sonobe Lights are courtesy of self-taught artist Andrew Ooi. Making hanging and freestanding geometric origami shapes infused with light, his focus on reusable and LIGHTING SHOW GUIDE 2008 CANADIAN ARCHITECT/CANADIAN INTERIORS

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HANGING IN THE COMBO SYNCHRONIC ROOM BY MAZZIE DESIGN AND KELLY PALMER, THE STRAND CHANDELIER BY JENNIFER GRAHAM INCORPORATES TEXTURED PORCELAIN IN ITS DESIGN. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT SONOBE PAPER LIGHTS BY ANDREW OOI DELIGHT WITH THEIR GEOMETRIC ORIGAMI-DERIVED SHAPES; COE & WAITO’S HIDDEN FIRES CHANDELIER QUIETLY SEDUCES WITH ITS LOW-TECH ASSEMBLAGE OF PORCELAIN, OILED MAPLE AND TEA LIGHT CANDLES. LEFT

renewable resources led to his use of recycled and recyclable papers and energy-saving light sources. The Sonobe Lights, made with Fabriano Tiziano Paper and compact fluorescent bulbs, measure eight inches in diameter and are a blending of ancient origami techniques and modern lighting technologies. The clustered, luminous shapes employ a rhythmic geometry, and the simple paper materials radiate their golden layers when lit from within.

Comprised of industrial designers Alissa Coe and Carly Waito, Coe & Waito have contributed their Hidden Fires Chandelier to Radiant Dark.

This piece incorporates the low-tech materials of oiled maple, porcelain and tea light candles to form a quietly elegant source of ambient lighting.

The tips of its branches emit a muted glow that is only visible in a dark space.

It’s clear that through this exhibition, MADE has emerged as a valuable public and design-trade resource with a focus on the promotion of emerging Canadian design. The works in this show are representative of what Moore and Nicholson offer in their shop, and the pair are succeeding in showcasing outstanding but underexposed Canadian design through in-store displays and themed off-site exhibitions such as Radiant Dark.

Radiant Dark: 29 Designs on Darkness and Luxury is on display at Cambridge Galleries, Design at Riverside until October 19, 2008. For more information on MADE, please visit www.madedesign.ca.

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The Official Guide to Light Canada Expo + Conference at IIDEX/NeoCon Canada

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