050
DETAILS
Top: The Milky Way, a rare sight in today’s world. Bottom: An astronomical light pollution study by P. Cinzano, F. Falchi (University of Padova), C. D. Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder). Copyright Royal Astronomical Society Colours correspond to ratios between the artificial sky brightness and the natural sky brightness of: <0.01 (black), 0.01-0.11 (dark-grey), 0.11-0.33 (blue), 0.33-1 (green), 1-3 (yellow), 3-9 (orange), 9-27 (red), <27 (white).
HIGHLIGHTS Pic: ESO - Serge Brunier, Frederic Tapissier
Projects that you would like to change: My first project was a memorial, ‘Memoria Mujer’ in Santiago, with a small budget. At the time there were no small, narrow LED IP65 fictures available in Chile so I used LED strips over a ‘salt grain bed’ in a metallic profile that were easy to access and replace. That was in 2005. By late 2006 a linear LED fixture that would have been perfect for the job became available. I would love to go back and do it again!
Projects you admire: Pic: Cinzano-Falci
The Nagasaki Memorial in Japan by Lighting Planners Associates was a project that impressed me for the beauty of the lighting design, landscape and subtle architecture. The project touches emotions and gives a message so powerful that it can make you cry. I had the chance to hear all the technical investigation and processes behind this emotive space explained by Kaoru Mende in one of his Lighting Detectives workshops in Belgrade - my admiration was complete: design, concept, emotion and technical perfection.
darkness in urban lighting design. Villalobos states her aim: “I wanted to do something in Chile to change the fragmen- tation of the different professions involved with Dark Skies: astronomers, heritage experts, urban planners and environmental scientists all care about light pollution but not about the lighting quality for urban areas... most of them don’t even know that we, lighting designers, exist. For lighting designers, many projects looks fabulous but are about over-lighting exteriors. No-one teaches us the other side. Also now, after the discovery of the third receptor in the eye we know that lighting is also about hu- man health. So the best venue to talk about the design for the night skies of the future cities is the place with the best night sky on the planet: Atacama in Chile.” The girl from Salvador certainly packed a lot into her formative years. Having first spent a couple of months in the UK studying English at the age of fifteen (“I liked the sound of James Bond’s accent better than an American superhero movie!”), she ful- filled her wanderlust by traveling the world before receiving a scholarship from the UN to study Urban Management in Nagoya, Japan. It was during her time here that she worked on an architectural project back in Chile where lighting was an integral part of the scheme. Loving the subject but realising she knew nothing about it, she made the huge step of moving to Germany to study Architectural Lighting Design at Wismar University. From here she moved to Sweden to study Light and Design at KTH Royal Insti-
tute of Technology and then on to Finland at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Aalto. Following these courses she moved to Paris to work under the tutelage of Louis Claire before finally moving back to Chile to establish her own lighting design practice, DIAV.
It is conceivable that, coming from such an isolated place but seeing so much of the world, her light (and life) philosophy has taken a different turn to the average light- ing designer.
“Most of my contemporaries are from the northern hemisphere, I’m from the south. Most of them are males, I’m a woman. Most people think I come from a hot desert but the truth is winter could be minus 10°C and summer a maximum of 24°C. I’m used to being different. I embrace it. I instinctively look for the ‘difference’, the uniqueness, of everything or everyone to add to the creative design process.”
So does she ever regret forgoing her career as an architect to become an architectural lighting designer?
“Light is silent and humble, but essential to achieving a happy design. Of all the fields related to our built environment, light is the one that is subtle and abstract. It is hard to be explain but I find it is directly connected to emotional feelings and sensa- tions. You can play around with opposite qualities to create a final result. I love that!”
Noche Zero takes place on October 16th - 18th in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
www.nochezero.org
Projects you dislike:
The so called ‘Light Installations’ for marketing purposes with no design element or respect for neighbours, just a light scream beam with random motion and colour by default. Enormous energy consumption without adding value to the public space.
Lighting Hero:
The people I admire most in lighting are also my friends and colleagues. My real heroes are comic book artists who are able to transport me to a different time and built environment to tell a powerful story with lines and colour. Themo Lobos from Chile, Franciose Schuiten from Belgium, Moebius from France and the British artist Dave McKean all deal with light and architecture in their comics.
Notable projects:
Salon Fundadores, the central reading room of the National Library, Santiago: finalist at the Lamp Awards and winner of the Lumiville inLight Award in Lyon. The Chilean Pavilion for the World Expo Shanghai 2010: won ‘Best Concept Design’ prize and the ‘people’s vote’. Entel Data Centre, Santiago: the first time we could integrate daylighting and control into the artificial lighting scheme.
Most memorable project:
The Cultural Centre for the Quilicura Municipality in Santiago. I was the Architect and with that project I realised I wanted to get involved with architectural lighting design. So it was the first and last building project by myself as an Architect.
Current projects:
We are involved in some restoration projects of historical buildings that suffered a great deal of damage during the earthquake in 2010: the Church of Codegua, the Church of Chanco, the Church El Huique, Intendencia Talca, the Museum of Natural History of Valparaíso and two further museum sites - one in Humberstone, a ghost town UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Atacama dessert and the other, a site to watch condors in the Chilean Central Valley. Awakoya Hotel in the Sky Centre near Santiago; a River Park with a new lagoon in Santiago and some public and private office buildings.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168