Light meets Design
In dialogue with Marco Marini
As part of the Milan Design Week, the event “white in the city” took place from 4th to 9th March. Numerous prestigious event locations were bathed in white light to demonstrate the effect of white light on the well-being of people. The architect and designer Marco Marini created a light installation with customized luminaires from Barthelme in the former Church San Carpoforo, right in the center of the historical old town of the Italian metropolis. The project was very well received by the more than 160,000 visitors and was voted in 1st place as the most beautiful location.
Barthelme LED Solutions: Mr. Marini, how did you become involved in this project?
Marco Marini: The OIKOS Group planned to present their decorative, completely natural color solutions in San Carpoforo in an engaging and artful way and they invited me to create a suitable light installation for the location.
Barthelme LED Solutions: What did you want to accomplish with your light installation?
Marco Marini: The sensory perceptions of the visitors should vary between real and surreal, dominated by the color white, as they find themselves in an ordinary space but at the same time experience the feeling of being in an ideal and absolutely pure and natural dimension.
Barthelme LED Solutions: How did you manage to implement these goals?
Marco Marini: Together with Studio DAS16.8, who were commissioned with the overall planning and implementation of the project, I reflected how we could achieve this particular sensation of pureness and authenticity with the aid of the medium light. Our research led us to the light systems from Barthelme which we believed were the best instruments to attain these ambitious objectives. For the light source we selected Barthelme LED strips with a high luminous flux and color temperature of 5,000 K. In this way the surrounding surfaces were bathed in an especially white light, without any tinting, which enabled us to achieve the desired “pureness”. Barthelme CHROMOFLEX LED controllers further intensified the sense of well-being. A sense of deep breathing was replicated by a gradual increase and decrease of the light intensity in the entire room. This suggestive ambience was especially prevalent in the central gallery area where veiled movement of the lighting combined with a pleasant background acoustic.
Barthelme LED Solutions: How satisfied are you with the result?
Marco Marini: San Carpoforo was voted in first place as best location so I am naturally elated with the result. Thanks to OIKOS and Barthelme I was able to design a light installation which perfectly fulfilled the desired requirements. Barthelme has a wide range of profiles and LED strips with excellent qualities which can be flexibly combined in to customized luminaires. As a result we could create an individually optimized solution for the project which could be ideally integrated into the existing structures. The overall installation invited the visitors to daydream. An unforgettable feeling for myself and for the thousands of visitors.
Image: The location in the former Church San Carpoforo (left) was selected by the more than 160.000 visitors as best location during the "white in the city" event. A special highlight was the central gallery area (right) where veiled movement of the lighting combined with a pleasant background acoustic. IMAGE SOURCE: OIKOS Group
Image: The interior design was created to give visitors the impression of being in an ordinary space but at the same time experience the feeling of being in an ideal and absolutely pure and natural dimension. This effect was impressively reinforced by Marco Marini’s light installation. IMAGE SOURCE: OIKOS Group