We are always thinking about how the light will fall and how the surfaces will affect it. Is it a dramatic shard that will activate a space or is it a soft, warm glow that will relax and slow you down? We consider where the light is coming from, where it washes over the facade and how it behaves on the interior. Every orientation of light reacts differently and with each project there’s a new outcome, a new tweak that allows you to experience that space differently.
Beyond the basic need to illuminate space, lighting can help sculpt rooms into their functions. Feature lighting not only provides functional illumination but helps define the hierarchy of each space. Lights become beautiful objects that add personality. A contemporary light fixture in a traditional entrance tells us that there’s something interesting going on here.
Light can also be an interesting way of linking the old with the new. Heritage homes are often dark and internal, and opening them up with skylights and glass atriums can help reveal their beautiful decorative features.
To illuminate Lizzy Art House, a once-dark Victorian home we added a wall of glass bricks, beautifully cast in Venice using traditional methods. The eight-metre curtain wall rises through two levels, wrapping the eastern elevation of the building like a translucent veil and transforming it into a lively home. Holding the bricks off the floor and ceiling accentuates the verticality of the new light source, which playfully bounces illuminated patterns deep inside the space. The intervention is kinetic and expressive, connecting old and new through a dynamic dance between light and shadow. It’s a decorative gesture, but one that is loaded with purpose.
Even during the day, pendant lights, lamps and articulated wall lights help define the character of each space through form and gesture. We spend a lot of time searching for just the right lights, which will communicate a room’s nature and convey a clear sense of purpose and spatial delineation. In Toorak 2 House a pendant with three connected vertical elements tapers downward, as if literally pointing toward the dining table, quietly signalling that this is where the action is. In contrast, a classic Serge Mouille articulated wall light animates a living room with its dynamic, asymmetrical arms, each appearing to dart off in their own direction while still tethered to a single point.
In Australia, everyone looks for northern light, but light from the south can illuminate and wash over an interior in the most beautiful ways. The key is to embrace all the aspects of light with control. For Merricks House, we introduced a skylight with extra-deep reveals so shards of light and shadow can pierce the space, grounding the room and animating the heart of the home. We used the depth of overhanging eaves to temper light from the west and direct it from the north, moving light across textured rammed earth walls like a shifting melody throughout the day. This allows shadows to soften, sharpen, stretch and retreat, turning surfaces into a musical score, each ridge and facet catching light differently, composing a song in real time.