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LEARNING TO WORK with the medium of light is a privilege; it reveals so much more than is first seen.
Opinion Daniel
Blaker, Nulty
At a microscopic level, light is both a particle and a wave – an unparalleled constant that travels within a vacuum at nearly 300 million metres a second. On a macroscopic scale, light reveals itself to us through our eyes, minds and bodies. Its intrinsic beauty realises the world around us. Lighting designers use these combined ‘magical’ properties to express architectural form, enhance materials, inform well-being and make spaces come alive through storytelling and emotional engagement.
Te complexity of light lies in its spectral richness – something that we are only beginning to really understand. It influences everything around us, from the exquisite tapestry of the natural world to the clockwork rhythms of our daily lives. Tis knowledge has expanded our horizons and shifted the focus to how we achieve quality of light by considering the full gamut of influences. Lighting designers are still expected
to make spaces look and feel beautiful, but we are also being asked to address a growing list of priorities that includes sustainability, biodiversity, biophilia, well- being and neurodiversity.
Designing with creative freedom is a delicate tightrope between the poetic, the psychological and the physiological facets of light. Clients look to us for originality and artistry, but also require us to help them achieve metrics and meet the criteria for standards. If we are not careful, we can become too focused on these variables. Our scope for creativity is impeded because we are busy trying to tick these boxes. So how do we preserve our capacity for creativity? Te answer begins with play.
Designers need to be given freedom to play with ideas – space to let go of the norms and explore the unknown. Without this freedom, we naturally default to modification, which is much more familiar and involves adapting a previously seen approach and shining a new light on it.
Although the notion of play might imply light-heartedness, it is not frivolous. Play is a fundamental part of the lighting design process, where fluid and unique ideas are allowed to emerge and express themselves. Creativity lives within all of us, but learning to listen and encourage it to manifest is a skill. We need to give ourselves permission to play and not devalue its importance. No two projects are the same. Every scheme is a new creative proposition shaped by its client, location, context, culture and
Below Creating a sense of arrival, a series of miniaturised fittings
concealed in the architecture by Nulty produce an ethereal effect at ESPA Life Spa, the Waldorf Astoria, Doha
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