Designing light today means working on experiences ... - Design@large

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Lots of Euroluce visitors stopped in front of Mesh, the LED lamp by Francisco ... own very presence – the shape of the
Designing light today means working on experiences rather than objects. Ever since light sources have become electronic this is in fact the direction in which the majority of avant-guard companies are moving. Yet this year, some clearer directions have emerged for the first time, to illustrate the path that they are following... Luceplan and light as you want it Lots of Euroluce visitors stopped in front of Mesh, the LED lamp by Francisco Gomez Paz for Luceplan. There was, indeed, something magical about this chandelier made up of 132 LEDs on a 24 steel cables net: its function was regulated by an electronic interface positioned on the wall that allowed the user to select which LEDs to switch on or off, or to activate the lamp following pre-recorded patterns of lighting. Well beyond the pure entertainment, Mesh is a product that shows where Luceplan is heading with Gomez Paz's research. In 2012, the Argentinian designer had already come up with Nothing, a lamp that was actually a printed-circuit board with LEDs on it. Now, he has turned this tiny dots from technical elements into ethereal light sources that determine themselves – by their own very presence – the shape of the hosting object, as well as the experience of the light itself... FontanaArte: when technology is gentle Since Giorgio Biscaro has been the Creative Director of FontanaArte, the company has managed to achieve a unique objective: find renewal through design (hence following its own tradition) while at the same time embracing a new high tech culture (that it nonetheless translated into functions conceived to support new lifestyles rather than to boost knowhow). This design thinking was clear in one of the project presented at this Euroluce edition, Volée by Odo Fioravanti, a desk lamp filled up with high tech solutions packaged in a very essential look. Formal simplicity was achieved through technical developments (the integrated spring, the balance mechanisms provided through steel pulls covered with a coloured polymer). While the high tech interface is invisible yet it allows the user to carry out unexpected functions: like turning the light on by waving your hand under the head, or dimming /changing the quality of the light through a touch UI, or the automatic switch off after 8 hours of use... It's the soft domotic that we all dream of... Artemide and biological light I found the Spectral Light by Philippe Rahm fascinating. This “chandelier” is composed of a glass structure surrounded by rays that de-compose the light spectrum in various wave lengths. The result is a light designed to make us “feel good” (or to serve the wellbeing of plants or animals, as we like), a light that it is possible to design in the exact way we need to answer our personal biological and physiological needs (there, indeed, a light spectrum that can help us relax, sleep, energise etc). A sort of living room “chromotherapy” inserted in an object that – almost magically – emits a white light in its bottom part while at the top it conveys various colours... Flos and light as art The Flos' booth was splendid. Designed by Ron Gilad like an art gallery, it forced people to come in and follow a set path, hence providing a gentle, progressive immersion into a different universe – a white, large and seemlessly void space in which a few elements were set on displays, in a clear “visual conversation” with

each other. These were obviously the products, the new, stunning lamps by Michael Anastassiades, Antonio Citterio, the Bouroullec brothers, Jasper Morrison, Philippe Starck, Patricia Urquiola and Tokujin Yoshioka. The way in which design objects were set within this surprising background was beautiful. And indeed it made each one of them look like an art piece. Maybe the only problem with such set was the difficulty to illustrate the innovative technological qualities of the lamps. The visitor was sort of stunned by the beauty and would leave without asking questions. The new Chinese light vision The debate that took place at the Circolo Filologico Milanese “China Meets Italy” has also been one of the highlights of the Fuorisalone. Here, a delegation from Guzhen conversed with designers Stefano Giovannoni and Valerio Cometti, with University professor Arturo Dell'Acqua Bellavitis, with sociologist Francesco Morace and with architect Alberto Cannetta (the conversation was moderated by Silvia Robertazzi). The topic was the very delicate relationship between Italy and China with regards to design. «We are done with copying, we are now geared against issues related to the breaching of intellectual property» said the Guzhen mayor, knowing very well what the most painful issue is, when talking about the relationship between our country and his. But the Chinese have also had enough – he suggested – with being the world's workshop and factory, the place where things are made rather than created. «Our ambition is to collaborate with Italy in the development of a new, quality focused lighting design made in China», continued the mayor of Guzhen. Which is – for those who don't know it – not only a very large city but also the “city of light”, the place in which 70% of all Chinese lamps are manufactured. It is thus only natural to expect that there will be concrete actions following the statements that were made (by the authorities but also by the representatives of the Lighting Design Center, organizer of the event)... they naturally hold the future of the city in their hands in terms of lighting design...The message of the event was thus clear: the doors are opened in Guzhen for Italian designers and the desire to innovate in this city is exceedingly strong. Guzhen's challenge is two-folds: on one hand to win in an increasingly aggressive market; on the other, to do so while showing the capacity of Chinese company to perform while respecting and valuing creativity and new thinking.