According to your experience, which is
the right light for a commercial space?
Each space has its very own dynamics,
and each brand has different values and
messages. Likewise, each store, depending
on the country or city, deals with customers
with different behaviours and inspirations.
There are so many variables; endless,
I would say. I think the best way to illuminate
a retail space starts from visitor emotions
and brand values. Light is a means
of communication that wraps up people,
and puts them in direct contact with the
objects and the world that a brand wants
to communicate. You can use different types
of lighting, and create a more intimate
and collected situation, or an energetic
and dynamic one. The project for
the Aoyama’s Dolce & Gabbana store
in Tokyo is quite a recent example – LUCE
talked about it in issue no. 318, in an article
by Francesca Tagliabue, ed. In this case,
in collaboration with the Curiosity office,
we took inspiration from the social media
world, and the way in which people choose,
get inspired and live fashion through
Instagram pop-up images.
A complex lighting system highlights
and darkens the objects on display, creating
a continual alternation of proposals.
Guests are greeted in a dynamic space that
constantly offers different stimuli, creating
endless compositions and looks. Two projects
for Jimmy Choo showrooms in London
and Tokyo show how the city context and
the characteristics of each space lead to
different solutions. For the London store,
we chose a more traditional solution with
recessed lights. In Tokyo flagship store
in Omotesando, located in a contemporary
building, we chose external spotlights
suspended on rail, for practicality and
for visually connect the exposed ceilings.
1
2
1 | Jimmy Choo showroom,
Sloane Street, Londra
2 | Jimmy Choo showroom,
Omotesando, Tokyo
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LUCE 320 / LIGHTING DESIGNERS
Your relationship with Arnaldo Pomodoro is a
proper artistic partnership. Is lighting such
complex and multifaceted sculptures
challenging? What kind of relationship do you
have with the master?
We got to work with Arnaldo Pomodoro on
several occasions, including the lighting of the
Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro in Milan and his
Carapace, a winery-sculpture nestled among
Umbria vineyards. Our collaboration has been
close and professional, delicate and
experiential. Pomodoro works with the concrete
matter; my job was to model an abstract one,
the light, in full respect of the artist’s
inspiration. “My works must sing with light,”
he once told me. In both projects, we gave
great importance to shadows and rhythm.
What advice would you give to young
lighting designers facing the profession?
A lighting designer creates lighting projects.
This is just the tip of an iceberg, a single
aspect of a much more stimulating profession.
Besides the technical part, lighting a space
requires a sensitivity aimed at the creation
of experiences and emotions. Furthermore,
there is also the study and a long process
of preparation and preliminary research.
My advice, a very practical one, is to not
become lighting technicians in non-specialized
architecture offices, but to look for those
who experiment and research and develop
in this field. This is the only way they
can discover the human facet and the most
challenging aspects of this profession.
What would you like to light up and turn off?
I really enjoy experimenting, using the
technology – even the most advanced ones
– to achieve the utmost of poetry. I like to
create harmonious contrasts, counterposing
natural lights and artificial ones. I find much
inspiration in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon.
In this movie, the master used the most
advanced recording technology to capture
the poetry of natural daylight, while night
sequences were only lit by candle lights.