Delight

Industry experts outline the key challenges currently facing the Italian lighting industry.

White lights, coloured lights, table lamps, floor lamps, glass and aluminium fittings; whatever the combination, it is little secret that effective lighting can transform a space.

Today more than ever, with the mass arrival of new malls, hotels and mixed-use projects, developers are recognising the value that good lighting can add to their projects.

But lighting for lighting's sake offers few benefits; ultimately, the design of a fixture must complement a space, whether in a commercial or residential application.

Italian lighting designers have proven particularly adept at combining creativity and hand-crafted knowledge in order to produce imaginative lighting solutions, explained Sergio Padula, light planning manager at iGuzzini, a specialist in technical and architectural lighting.

"One of the simplest successes of Italian design is the ability to reach utopia; what I mean by this is that the simplest everyday objects are recreated with new form, making the basic function a better experience for the user.

Varying the source, texture and colour of light, and even the appearance of lighting equipment, can all help in the sculpting of an interesting environment.

Sparkle, provided by low wattage accent light on gleaming materials or carefully controlled exposed sources, for example, can add a sense of cheeriness to an environment.

As a result, lighting designers are starting to get involved in a project at its very earliest stages. "We support architects, lighting designers and landscape designers to help them better explain their concept.

We stay in contact right from the beginning of the project to the end of installation, and help them through each specific stage from lighting calculations, to renderings and photo simulations," said Padula.

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