BUILDING LIGHT

comes with the clean-lined wooden jewelry counter with geometric elements against the unique hardwood mosaic floor.

The floating checkout counter is “edgy,” the firm says, and “adds to the gradual illusory contour of the space.” To add a more minimalist accent, they carefully selected amber colored chairs to blend with the jewelry displays.

The expert lighting enhances all this space’s unique features, creating a cohesive yet surprising final product that perfectly highlights the Imanoglou sells. “We wanted the lighting design to further refine the space, creating a successful balance while enhancing the beautiful and also functional end result,” they say. “The overall design exudes luxury with touches of linearity.”

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When think ing about inspirational design elements, the globe (or green) artichoke is not usually top on the list of design requests. This spikey variety of the thistle plant, which has been cultivated as food, creates a globeshaped flower bud that we know and love to eat.

The simple globe shape with complex overlapping layered petals creates an opportunity for unique nature-inspired designs. The artichoke as a design element can be seen in drapery finials, as a motif in wallcoverings and textiles, illustrations, photography and lighting. The multiple shades of green seen in an artichoke are currently trending in kitchen cabinetry and the paint industry. The uniform, globe shape of the artichoke can be very useful for artists and designers, especially in the lighting design industry where the layering effect creates a simplistic, visual focal point.

Early Scandinavian designer Poul Henningsen, trained as an architect and later lighting designer for Louis Poulsen, was initially attracted to pure functionalism from the Bauhaus era in