How is light important to a building?
Light is the medium that we see through. It’s the medium in which we experience the space in which we’re in. It’s the mood, the ambiance of the space and the most immediate sense of the person within their environment.
Why do people neglect it?
You only notice lighting when it’s bad or doesn’t work. When you’ve had a good evening in a restaurant you’ll remember how good your partner looked, the relaxed atmosphere, the calm environment. When you’ve had a bad experience you’ll remember not being able to read the menu, or feeling the heat of a bright glaring lamp pointing straight at you. So when people notice lighting it’s usually when it’s bad and in architecture that’s too late as it’s installed.
What inspired you to get into this business? When did your passion for light first begin?
As an architect I was always interested in the occupant and how any of the architecture that we were designing was being conveyed and received.
Where your first project?
I worked with Eva Jiricna on the first Joseph Fashion Stores in London, this attracted a lot of attention and through this I met a lot of other designers. After a lot of interest was created it is from this interest that a business can be started; not the other way round.
What are the first impressions of an Isometrix building?
The sense of quality and the warmth of the interior; a sense of pleasance that you don’t necessarily see as coming from ‘The Lighting’.
Is there a project that you are most proud of among all of the others?
The Felix Restaurant in Hong Kong and St Martin’s Hotel in London were both with Philippe Starck and was a real watershed for us. Philippe had given us a primary role in determining the lit aesthetic especially where lighting is such a dramatic element, but always fully integrated with no visible fittings. From both of those projects we’ve drawn quite a unique portfolio.
Since then, our recent projects like Puerto America in Madrid and The Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha are equally as strong projects in terms of lighting but not for its dramatic, theatrical aspect. These projects are using lighting in a very subtle, unconscious manner that manipulates the moods of the space. Madrid with its 14 world designers involved and Doha with the world’s largest collection of Islamic artefacts in a pure architecture that is the best collaboration of architects: Pei and Wilmotte, since The Louvre in Paris.
Do you have a favourite type of business to design for? In other words, if so, would it be hotels, museums, bars, restaurants, residences?
You’ll think I’m dodging the question but genuinely, each of these project types has their strengths, joys and difficulties. Contemplating an artefact in a museum or enjoying a meal with good company can both be intense personal moments. A new residence is one of the most intense changes in a person’s life, a spa or holiday retreat can also be a very memorable time. Each of these aspects requires a high degree of comfort and this experience of the individual is where the lighting remains relevant in all of these cases.
What do you think has made Isometrix so successful?
We do not have a ‘style’ that is our own. We very strongly believe that a lighting scheme by us is one that quietly makes the interior space or architectural form legible and beautiful. It is not the lighting that you see. It is on that basis that our clients, each having a strong design identity, do not feel that they have been conflicted with and that their ideas have been legibly realised. When they see the results they come back to us. Plus we enjoy working with difficult yet discerning people.
What are you trying to achieve? What are the next steps for the future?
If lighting can be recognised as a final insurance fundamental to any design project then we’d know that we’ve come a long way over the years.
It’s important that lighting is seen as adding massive value at relatively low cost that should this not be invested correctly, the other investments into finishes and spaces could also be lost or seriously decremented.
CONTACT
Isometrix
8 Glasshouse Yard
Barbican, London
EC1A 4JN
London
+44 (0) 20 7253 2888
HYPERLINK "mailto:LTG@isometrix.co.uk" LTG@isometrix.co.uk
Isometrix
Ateiler 1 Bâtiment A
30 Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière
75010 Paris
France
+331 4824 2328
