We’ve just experienced the exclusive international trade event for architects and interior designers, ‘ARCHITECT@WORK’ returned to East London’s hip and trendy Truman Brewery (just off brick lane), after two years of absence following the pandemic.
It’s true to say, (as mentioned in my piece on last year’s ‘Design London – d’arc show’), lighting certainly benefits from shows such as these, displayed alongside other product offerings. They tend to attract a broad mixture of creative industries, and ultimately specifiers. This year due to the pandemic the timing in respect to Easter made it slightly less well attended than previous years, but ultimately it was good to see a wide selection of lighting suppliers that had made the effort.
Its format is reminiscent of the d-arc style affair, where exhibitors are presented in uniform box modules, with a multimedia console in the centre. Visitors are automatically led along a route that winds its way past break out space’s, snacks and lots of coffee, after a couple of hours at the show I imagine if you were manning the last stand, you would have been greeted by clients super energised, concentrated but also VERY ANXIOUS! Luckily there are plentiful chill out area’s… relax and just breathe….!
On show from Bega, released only this month and demonstrated for the for first time anywhere in the UK, was the brand new ‘Bug Saver’. Is this a new superhero franchise I hear you ask? Er no you probably have the wrong website page if you are looking for superheroes, it is however something far more interesting and potentially useful to humanity than a made-up bloke or bird flying around in a cape or inappropriate swimwear.
Light as we know is a powerful biological force, and the impact of it on the flora and fauna we share our planet with is becoming ever more problematic as we encroach further into natural habitats. The product on show is a pole top luminaire which ‘combines reliable and flexible light outputs with special environmental protection’. So how and why does it work?
As Bega’s Robert Hall kindly explained the product (shown left) has . . .
“Two integral CCT’ LEDs, a standard full spectrum 80Ra 3000K and a phosphor-converted amber LED at approximately 1800K, with a limited spectral range, of between 585-600nm.
“The luminaire can switch automatically between the two CCT’s in several ways. You can take our modified DALI Power Reducer, which can be included in the Luminaire Pole, switching from 3000K to Amber LED at a predetermined time, (in-line with a virtual midnight calculation), concurrently the amber output is reduced to 70% or it can also be configured with a traditional DALI system. Finally, you have the option of control via BEGA Connect, our new ‘Technology Agnostic’ control device, aimed at removing the complicated commissioning process from traditional DALI systems.“
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The result is a product that uses spectral wavelengths at certain times that are less damaging to insect pupae, a solution that is far better for the planet, and a product that can be very much specified and applauded.
Lodes, an Italian manufacturer from Venice with 70 years of experience in the industry, was showing its canopy systems used in conjunction with its pendants, of which there are twelve, made in glass metal. This is a very useful system as it allows you to make installations such as shown below from standard products, in terms of sustainability they are also making strides to manufacture their products in a more ecological way, with plastic kept to a minimum, one of only a few components that uses silicone is the cap that protects the product from dust whilst in use.
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New for the show was the Volum, designed by the architectural studio SnØhetta in 2022, with a re invention of the globe. Reinvention of a globe, I hear you say? Well, it’s still a globe as far as I can see but has been designed to fill a space with 360 degree illumination, giving a soft glow in all directions.
Perhaps of more interest was their IVY product (Vittorio Massimo,2022). The IVY comes in two versions, IVY 1 and IVY V, (designed with one cable or two respectively), and is quite contemporary in its aesthetic, leaving the designer free to play with the volumes in a space where the ivy climbs within.
IVY by Vittorio Massimo for Lodes
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With the first public viewing in the world (even though it’s been around for a year) Landa, a company based in Lumezzane, Italy, had a product that caught the eye for its uniqueness, a product called ‘nest’.
Nest is an IP65 luminaire constructed of a thin web of hand-woven willow branches, providing its aesthetic, that of a bird’s nest. The metal framework inside supports the lamp, and is available in two sizes, a Ø170mm version or Ø235mm . The LED is an 8W diffuse led and comes with cri of >90 as standard.
I don’t know about you, but for products of this ilk I always want to see an image of it in use, and to be honest the affect looks quite good. Given it has such a close resemblance to a real nest, my first question to the Landa rep was ‘what happens when a bird decides to use this as its home?’ I mean can you imagine how shocked any bird might be the first time the light comes on under his or her posterior? Thankfully the product does come with a ‘debris protection kit’, and its lucky that birds are monogamous.
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Having just read Tanizaki’s ‘In praise of shadows’, I was happy to see a versatile product that also drew upon the Japanese love of depth and shadows that you can find in their artisan paper, not bleached out western paper, but almost a fabric that in some way gives a look of antiquity, that is in keeping with the company’s wish, to only follow designs that are timeless, whose aesthetic improves with age. This is their approach to being more sustainable, to have something that you will always keep.
Tekio is designed by Anthony Dickens for Santa and Cole and, in the words of the company, ‘merges ancient artisan techniques with Warm to Dim LED technology. Available in three different pendant versions, the paper is imported from Japan and coated in bees wax to make it a little more robust.
The Tekio is available in a circular, horizontal or vertical version.
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