Seldom have the art and science of light been so elegantly brought together as in Anna Yudina’s new book “LUMITECTURE: Illuminating Interiors for Designers & Architects” published by Thames & Hudson. The subject is generally tethered to a purely commercial approach, a prescription style manual or even to dense scholarly research. The human impact of light and its transformative potential is so thoughtfully addressed in this book. The opening question exemplifies this in-depth study- “What is light? Not “lighting” or “design”, but light is all its splendor and mystery.”
Disco Disco. Alex Asseily, Haberdashery- Design and production: Alex Asseily, Haberdashery (haberdasherylondon.com) Photo courtesy of Alex Asseily, Haberdashery
Over the course of three sections the physical properties of space, the ethereal qualities of time and the diverse facets of emotion converge into an intelligent answer. One of the most valuable elements of this book is that one can either read it through or randomly open the pages and read about one of the many creative projects that explore different aspects of Light. Yudina has compiled a comprehensive repository of real life projects, installations and products that demonstrate the power of light as a design tool and as a perception manipulation device “releasing unprecedented potential in rethinking the architecture we live in”.
London, UK. Design: Grimshaw Architects (grimshaw-architects.com). Lighting design: Speirs + Major (speirsandmajor.com) Photo: James Newton / Design- Photo courtesy: Bart Lens (objetbart.be). Production: Eden Design (edendesign.be)
Levallois, France. Design: Nicolas Dorval-Bory (nicolasdorvalbory.fr), Raphaël Bétillon (raphaelbetillon.fr) Photo courtesy of Nicolas Dorval-Bory, Raphaël Bétillon / Design and production: Arnout Meijer (arnoutmeijer.nl) Photo: Pim Top
Richly illustrated with work by creators like Paul Cocksedge, Olafur Elisason, Daniel Rybakken, Tokujin Yoshioka and others, “Lumitecture” is both a reference compendium for practitioners as well as an inspirational journey for all designers.
Design and production/Photo courtesy: Davide Groppi (davidegroppi.com) / Design: Albi Serfaty. Production: Aqua Gallery (aquagallery.com) Photo courtesy of Aqua Gallery
Through “Lumitecture”, we wonder and we learn, we explore and we are a part of the experiment. Ultimately we find ourselves better prepared to understand how it can impact our work and our lives. In Anna Yudina’s words- “Between ‘absence’ and ‘thingness’ exists a vast realm of possibilities in transforming space through light”.
Light is Time. Dorell Ghotmeh Tane – Design: Dorell Ghotmeh Tane (dgtarchitects.com) Client: Citizen Photo courtesy of Dorell Ghotmeh Tane
Anna Yudina is co-founder and editor-in-chief of MONITOR magazine, which focuses on innovations in contemporary architecture and design. She is the curator of a number of international architecture and design exhibitions, including shows on Zaha Hadid and Jakob + MacFarlane, and is the author ofFurnitecture, also published by Thames & Hudson
