LUCE estratti LUCE 325 _Calatroni_Pietro Palladino | Page 8

Salone dorato del Poldi Pezzoli, Milano. Per
la casa museo sono stati realizzati dei lampadari
di dimensioni estese ma estremamente leggeri,
sospesi in ogni sala espositiva. Ogni braccio
presenta un sistema di Led con canali regolabili,
che consente un tuning fine per valorizzare la
palette di colori di ciascuna opera illuminata /
Golden Hall of the Poldi Pezzoli, Milan. For the
house-museum, chandeliers of large dimensions,
but extremely light, have been created and
suspended in each exhibition hall. Each arm is
equipped with a LED system with adjustable
channels, which allows a fine-tuning to enhance
the colour palette of each illuminated artwork
a relationship between man and environment
through the definition of scenes made of light
and shadow. Being able to communicate moods,
feelings and emotions: to make this possible,
the designer has to model a physical agent and
he does it using a language that can be traced
back to his thought and his culture. There are
exploratory spheres that induce a designer to
consider light as a building material: it is the
right approach to characterize non-places,
to make them unique and unmistakable.
The Malpensa airport is an excellent example of
how lighting – even in a simple restyling – can
give added value to architecture. The problem is
that the lighting project of stations and airports is
not always assigned to a specialized professional:
it is a common practice to include lighting
between technological systems and approach it
exclusively from the quantitative point of view.
In a recent interview on LUCE, a young lighting
designer stated that “drawing light is fun”.
What do you think about it?
Yes, it is a nice profession. And it is an art, but it
is only through an articulated knowledge process
that considerable results can be achieved. Light
is a complex thing, and good lighting is the result
of meticulous attention to detail. It is like a
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gourmet meal: seemingly simple, everyone can
potentially taste and appreciate its peculiarities,
but only a great cook knows how to prepare it
that way, mixing ingredients, professionalism
and creativity. In an era of ever changing, where
more and more specialization appears to be
a crucial element for achieving excellence,
the lighting professional is still a figure neither
so much widespread nor required.
Between universities and industry associations,
what relationship should there be? In your
opinion, what could we build together?
A lot could be done, but the logic of the sector
is currently frozen: in most cases a direct
relationship is established between the seller
and the client. It becomes hard to create a value
chain that involves the systematic presence of
a professional. At present, neither universities
nor industry associations have sufficient strength
to change the laws of the market. Things will
improve, of course, but it will not be a short-term
process.
At the last National Congress of AIDI, at the MAXXI
in Rome, you took part in the round table on the
future of lighting and the new frontiers that
technological evolution has opened up. Would
you like to tell us something about this topic?
I’ll borrow a phrase from Bertrand Russell: “One
of the troubles of our age is that habits of thought
cannot change as quickly as techniques, with the
result that as skill increases, wisdom fades.” The
cultural lag plays negatively in two ways: on the
one hand it restricts the capacity and the
possibility to access innovation in an intelligent
way, on the other, it opens up spaces for
technological consumerism, which, besides being
expensive, eventually ends up being harmful.
And that is what is happening. Solid-state light
is a real technological revolution, but we are
unready. The LED technology is currently used in
a rough way, and in some cases the new facilities
offer lower performance than the previous ones.
The technological evolution in the lighting sector
has created the potential to change radically, but
the way of thinking has not changed. We are still
firmly anchored to out-dated concepts and this
produces mediocre results. The glare, the colour
shifts, and the flickering: sometimes you really
get to curse the LED light. And then the
electronics: the technological consumerism offers
us components and devices at a low price, but
of low reliability. At the point where we are,
it is not easy for a designer to find the quality
he looks for in the market.
Mostra dei Pollaiolo al museo Poldi Pezzoli.
Per la prima volta nella storia le dame dipinte
da Antonio e Piero del Pollaiolo sono riunte
all’interno di un’unica esposizione.
Gli apparecchi di illuminazione sono stati
progettati per essere utilizzati per mostre
temporanee, ciascuno dotato di tre Led
controllati da lenti terziarie /
The Pollaiolo Exhibition at the Poldi Pezzoli
Museum. For the first time in history, the Ladies
painted by Antonio and Piero del Pollaiolo were
brought together in a single exhibition.
The lighting fixtures were designed for
temporary exhibitions, each equipped with
three LEDs controlled by tertiary lenses
LUCE 325 / LIGHTING DESIGNERS