Ohla Boutique Hotels, Barcelona, Spain, 2016
Photo © Álvaro Valdecantos role in this. Secondly, it is very important to study the materials and the finishing chosen for the interior design, and the interior decoration elements which have been chosen to exhibit the products that are on sale. In a lighting design project dedicated to retail merchandising, we usually work with three levels of lighting: ambient lighting which is the basic background element, lighting to highlight the product, and“ corporate” lighting, that characterizes the brand, that creates the atmosphere that differentiates a showroom or a shop from the others. Without having to describe trivial aspects such as the chromatic quality of the light sources, what is really important for ambient lighting is the colour temperature that is closely tied to the image and the message that the client wants to convey. Every brand works with different contrasts and different levels of lighting and luminance. Then there are the lighting units and how these are integrated in the space. Are they visible? Decorative? Hidden? Easily recognizable? Completely integrated? All these elements are always tailored in order to reach a single result. There is no recipe for a good lighting project. The profession of the lighting designer can be compared to that of a tailor who makes custom fit clothing.
Do you collaborate with architects and interior designers from the very first stages, or do you intervene at a later time? We believe that it is very important to work in close collaboration with the architects and other consultants during all the phases of a project, starting from the concept design to the final testing phase. This collaboration process that develops during all the design and construction phases enables us to create new ways of perceiving and experimenting architectural and urban spaces. If we are an active part of a project team from the very first phases, the lighting design project can be of
a high quality, and will bear in mind aspects such as energy saving, interaction with natural light and integration of the light units in the architecture. However we are not always called to participate in the project design from the very first phases. At times we are called to intervene in the advanced phases of the project.
How does the approach to work differ in these two cases? Intervening in an advanced phase of a project can be limiting, but it can also be stimulating. You need to find alternative solutions. It is like working on a building of historical interest: creating an attractive functional and appropriate light distribution, taking into account the limits related to the architectural structure, installation, lighting power and electric power distribution, is a challenge.
Among your more recent projects, there is the Loewe flagship store in Madrid. How did you work for this space, and what particular attention is required when lighting a fashion showroom? The client gave us a precise brief: the atmosphere they wanted was like in Julianne Moore’ s home in Tom Ford’ s movie, A Single Man. They wanted a refined, welcoming space, a high-class domestic interior, without many contrasts, and a very open feeling of light, with delicate accents on objects and works of art. In fact, the Loewe flagship store in Madrid is not only a store, it is also an art gallery. An exhibition of products with precisely planned positions, where we were able to show everything in the greatest splendour, where the spaces were characterized by diffused light that created an open spacious atmosphere, with very subtle accents on the works of art and highlighting the items on sale. Here too there are the three levels of lighting that we mentioned before.
What are the best ways to highlight the colours, the texture and materials of the exhibited products? Here too there is no precise recipe. It depends on the client’ s requirements. Some large scale consumer brands, for example, tend to heavily saturate light so that the colours stand out and the poor quality of the materials which have been utilized is not so visible. Certainly, in general, it is fundamental to use lighting units with sources that have an excellent quality of light and an excellent chromatic yield.
Does every single category of goods require a specific study? Every brand decides to illuminate the items it sells according to its own company image. Every project deserves a specific study, and inspiration may come from any source. In the project for the Roca Gallery in Barcelona, for example, we based everything on the importance that the ancient Romans gave to water – sources of water were brought to the city by means of aqueducts and impurities were taken away from the city by means of sewers. For a company that produces bathroom fixtures we thought of using water as the basic element of communication. Water is not physically present, but a play of light on the façade makes it appear like magic. A totally different inspiration marked the lighting design of the showroom for Lagares, another company producing bathroom fixtures. In this case, the nature of the space, a large doubleheight open space in cement, and the type of display, where the elements were suspended and floated in space, made us think of a Japanese zen garden in which a rock is surrounded by a green area and immersed in a neutral space with concentric lines. In the case of the showroom for Lagares, the bathroom fixtures are the rock, and with the light and shadow they cast on the ground, they create a zen garden.
INTERVIEWS / LUCE 320 29