Drawing Board

La Lanterna di Ponti Sweden

“La Lanterna di Ponti” is a new site-specific intervention at Stockholm’s Italian Cultural Institute, promoted by the C.M. Lerici Foundation. Designed to become permanent, the new, luminous narrative meets and completes the architecture, designed by Gio Ponti in the Embassy district of Stockholm at the end of the 1950s, giving new life to a design that spans over half a century of history. The Institute represents the complete expression of Ponti’s design philosophy, which favours floors over volumes, wisely exploiting light. A ‘consequent’ architecture, in which the façade, as well as in other buildings built in the same period, is considered as a two-dimensional surface to be modeled. For example, for the contemporary and equally famous Villa Planchart, built in Caracas in 1957, Ponti intervened by illuminating the entire structure, which almost seems to hover and fluctuate, and cadencing the interior spaces in a rhythm of succession and fusion. The Caracas building and the Stockholm building have many points in common. Thinking about the exteriors of the Institute, in fact, Ponti had designed lighting in many ways similar to that designed and built for Villa Planchart. This element, however, was never included in the final design of the Stockholm Institute, most likely due to the technical limitations of the time. “La Lanterna di Ponti” therefore takes up that reflection already imagined by Ponti, concentrating on that rational, important and definitive light that puts the volumes of an architecture in tension, that “simulates shapes, cancels certain perceptions of dimensions and distances because it has no depth, splits certain units into two, creating illusive aspects, cancels and transforms weights, substance, volumes,

modifies proportions… “as Gio Ponti himself writes in one of the passages of “Love Architecture - Architecture Is A Crystal”. Chiara Carucci of Okidoki Arkitekter now hopes to take that “luminous” suggestion proposed by Ponti in the initial design phase of the Institute and, in particular, reinterpret the idea of the light beam housed inside the corner niche of the building, which would have marked its entire height, running from the ground to the roof. A philological reinterpretation both from an architectural and cultural point of view, the new lighting proposal has been designed with sustainability in mind, both in terms of the environment and visual impact. The intervention will be finished off with the new lighting of the national and European flags, placed at the entrance to indicate the Italian territoriality of the area, and with a new lamp post designed to intersperse the wide outdoor area of the Institute with light beams. By leaving intact the magic of the large furnished window, with its texture of shelves and horizontal and vertical lines, passers-by will be able to glimpse, as in a theatrical dimension, the life that flows inside the building. www.okidokiarkitekter.se

Fairmont Windsor Park UK

Fairmont Windsor Park is the latest project from Arora hotels, and, like most of their other properties, sits just west of London. The sizeable property represents a major investment for the group; the hotel sits in enclosed private land, with a lake and woodland on the approach to the house. The building itself includes two grand ballrooms, a large spa split over three levels, several F+B units and many other spaces. Elektra Lighting has been tasked with creating a lighting solution for the new property. The design brief was to create a scheme appropriate to the Fairmont brand, one of Accor’s top luxury brands. The space projects a grandeur and an elegance, in keeping with its impressive, traditional architecture. At the same time however, Arora Group demand value for money at all points of the supply chain. The lighting concept is built around creating a space fitting and in keeping with the architecture, which is very traditional – think Georgian, moulded ceilings, coffers and marble flooring. Lighting therefore needs to accentuate these features. As such Elektra have used a lot of hidden lighting – for example there are no downlights in some areas, just concealed lights and low level decorative pieces. Lighting is also minimal where it can be, with limited quantities of pieces. For example, the footpaths through the woodland are lit minimally, with lighting only at focal points and changes of level – you can always see where you are going and see that its safe, but you are walking in darkness for much of the way. This has the benefit of creating a sense of anticipation and amazement when you finally break out of the woods and see the hotel in front of you. Much of the decorative lighting is custom-made as befits the grand, luxurious feel of this space. Using a lot of traditional materials (brass, wood) this was designed to blend seamlessly with the architectural lighting by use of coherent colour temperature strategy and high value CRI. Additional lighting is also included in the designs to create the correct ambience – accenting in particular to the key elements, and focal points using discrete hidden sources. A lighting control system (Mode) is currently being installed with full scene setting in all areas and Elektra is looking forward to a long programming session at completion. www.elektralighting.co.uk