I was recently in Sydney for a client meeting on the Westfield Sydney City project.  Westfield’s office is on Castlereagh Street where many of the international fashion retailers are based.

I noticed that some of the new window displays on Castlereagh use LED lighting in an interesting way.  Gucci have images of bags, shoes and accessories drawn in LED strip.  There is some real product in the window as well but this is somewhat played down in comparison to the LED feature.

At Louis Vuitton, there is no product on display at all, just a very sexy window and of course some LED lights.

This is an interesting development.  Traditionally, the window is the place where the goods for sale are displayed (hopefully) in the most favourable light.  At the top end of town it would seem that the display of brand is starting to take precedence over product.

Louis Vuitton window

Gucci window

An inspirational and compassionate body of work from this Australian artist is well worth a look. Just follow the link.

I came across this wonderful piece by designer and artist, Ayala Serfaty entitled SOMA (Greek for ‘body’, apparently).

Serfaty has worked with thin filaments of glass, woven to produce spatial structures which are ultimately sprayed with a polymer to generate a skin-like layer.  The manual work process is akin to the transformation of an intimate calligraphy drawing into a three dimensional composition of architectural scale. Throughout the course of six years of development, “landscape formations” have crystallized to spawn the current installation, topography of light.

It reminds me of the Roger Hiorns piece that we love, and is very cool.

Soma

The timing of my trip to Berlin for the PLDC conference could be considered unfortunate.  Had I been there a week before I would have caught the Berlin Festival of Lights which, from what I gather, was all about reinterpreting the lit architecture of Berlin.

Had I been there a week later I would have experienced the 20th anniversary of the end of the wall (and a free U2 concert).

Anyway, not to worry; it was wonderful anyway, such a cool city.  I have posted a couple of happy snaps below which don’t do justice to any of the buildings.  The first, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenman, was one of the most moving experiences imaginable.  If you are in Berlin for a short time and only get chance to see one thing go to this.

I also queued for an hour and half to get inside the Reichstag to see Sir Norm’s amazing contemporary intervention into one of Germany’s most historic buildings.  The daylighting design is exemplary – a shade rotates around the conical roof over the current German seat of power.  Mirrors reflect the light deep into the building’s interior.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Foster dome at Reichstag

Mirrors reflect daylight deep into the cone

I’m just back from a whistle-stop visit to Berlin where I attended the Professional Lighting Design Convention (PLDC).

The PLDC comprised a series of presentations from leading designers and firms from around the world. Themes included the physiological and psychological effects of light, case studies of cutting edge projects, professional practice and a strong series of papers on sustainability and daylighting.

While there were many wonderful papers from such legends of the lighting world as Speirs and Major who talked about their designs for St Paul’s Cathedral and the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

One of the highlight of the event was Professor Dr George Brainard (Thomas Jefferson University, USA) who talked about a recent discovery that has caused an upheaval in the understanding of photoreceptive inputs to the circadian and neuroendocrine systems of humans.

Is 460nm blue the new black?

Maybe.

Recent research has shown that the three cone system that mediates photopic vision is not the primary receptor system that transduces light stimuli for acute melatonin suppression.
Several studies have shown that a relatively narrow band in the blue part of the spectrum between 446-477 nm has the most impact on melatonin suppression.
Professor Brainard stated that “ultimately, lighting based on classical design objectives will need to accommodate the relatively recent discoveries about the role that light may play in optimising human health and well being”.

Professor Brainard

In the studio, we have all been digging Roger Hiorns’ entry to this year’s Turner Prize.

Roger’s installation comprises a boarded-up south London council flat filled with 90,000 litres of copper sulphate which has been allowed to dry revealing an absolutely sublime crystalline formation on the internal surfaces.  How the light reacts with these surfaces is quite wonderful.