Among the projects of lighting designer Piero Castiglioni is the Hotel Nhow in Milan, in collaboration with architect Matteo Thun. Lighting design only deals with the outdoor lighting part. Integrating light and architecture therefore in this case also means working with shadows, with darkness, sometimes creating a lot of contrast: an emotional use of light becomes important here, as does a correct selection of what to illuminate, which architectural details and which materials to enhance. The lighting of the façades makes the buildings visible in the urban space and creates orientation. This hotel is designed with the vocation of the gallery hotel in mind. The Tortona industrial area in Milan, has become a fashion and design district, maintaining its original character with disused factories renovated into showrooms, workshops, creative studios and lofts for living. The General Electric factory has been renovated. Inside it has been converted into a hotel, multifunctional exhibition spaces for shows, fashion shows, events, exhibitions. On the outside, it has maintained the original volumes, the shed roof, the grey plaster of the external walls has been lightened by the large glass surfaces of the windows, the protagonists of the architectural outdoor lighting. The design of building lights external façades and courtyards has been entrusted solely to the windows outlined by a blue light beam provided by luminaires with LEDs of the same colour, with controlled “fan-shaped” light emission.
Project:
Lighting Design Piero Castiglioni
Collaborations:
Matteo Thun & Partners
Photo courtesy:
iGuzzini Lighting
Year:
2006
Other Projects
Orsay Museum where architecture became a big lighting device, the reflections of light bulbs with walls and ceilings create a uniform light without shadows. Groups of projectors in Grassi Palace recall a small football field. Here was born a new type of lighting device. Reflector lamps and articulated support gives life at the "Cestello". Spasa na Krovi is a perfection of Mantova project. Light beams aggregation allow the device size reduction and the dispersion light control.
