Spaces

20 STRATEGIES for today’s interiors

‘Inspiring light-switch showroom’ sounds like an oxymoron. But by focusing on what its products can do rather than on how they look, Simon delivers just that.

BARCELONA – Can you control smart home technology with a flick of a switch? If we’re to believe Simon, a leading Spanish manufacturer of light switches, the answer is yes. To showcase a new range of digital Wi-Fienabled switches and interfaces, the company converted its old factory into a futuristic showroom that offers an immersive experience comparable to that of an art installation.

Simon handed the project to Catalan designer Antoni Arola, a man who appreciates the transformative power and potential of light and lighting systems. (Corso, one of Arola’s better-known pieces, is a Rothko-style wall lamp.) The industrial nature of the new showroom, with its scuffed concrete floors and metal rafters shabby with peeling paint, remains intact. It fits right into Barcelona’s El Poblenou neighbourhood, where a swath of small factories includes many that have been converted into creative studios. Arola set up an open-sided auditorium and café with the use of cleverly positioned pine benches and boxes, and contrived a more conventional display area for the company’s product range. Occupying about a third of the overall space is an experiential exhibition formed by freestanding partitions, both curved and angular. ‘The idea was to make something very interactive and surprising,’ says Arola. ‘It was meant to last about six months, but the reaction has been so good they decided to keep it.’ The exhibition is divided into three sections. In each, Simon’s push-button switches mounted on pedestals activate directional floor lighting, doors and special effects. The first area is a curved hallway that engulfs visitors in gradations of varyingly coloured light à la Carlos Cruz Diez’s Chromosaturation (Frame 93, p. 103). The uncomplicated yet transformative atmosphere achieved relies on light hubs placed at floor level inside the gap between two curved partition walls. One wall is made of PVC, which diffuses light and colour to produces a soft warm glow. The second section proposes the idea of a rain shower in an indoor environment, calling to mind Random International’s travelling Rain Room (Frame 90, p. 31). Upon entering a completely blacked-out room with a shallow pool, visitors are handed transparent umbrellas. Switches control the intensity of drops released from a closed sprinkler system that simulates a rain cycle – from a light shower to a downpour – with the help of a strobe light. In area three, a home cinema features a montage of video clips projected onto the walls. Arola selected each piece of cinematic footage for its comment on technology and the evolution of the switch, from Kubrick’s smooth-talking antagonist Hal to Chaplin’s comical run-ins with automation.

‘As you can see,’ says Arola, ‘we didn’t invent anything new. In fact, all the technology used in the installation is really rather simple.’ The designer believes the merit of the space lies in its flexibility. ‘It was created in part to celebrate Simon’s 100 th anniversary. Most companies would have ordered something more fixed and luxurious for such an occasion.’ His project underlines the attraction of a streamlined approach to controlling technology and hints at liberation from the tyranny of the remote control. – SW estudiantoniarola.com

Atelier Tree forges a Chinese jewellery store that reflects the gems within.

BEIJING – Sometimes the obvious solution is the best fit. Taking into consideration that the function of Poppee – a store in Beijing’s Sanlitun area – is the presentation and sale of jewellery handcrafted by various independent makers, the designers at Atelier Tree based their concept on individual boxes that pop out from their surroundings like gemstones on a gold band. The separate display cases are the studio’s way of ‘showing respect to every work of art’. More importantly, however, they unify an array of assorted pieces and, in so doing, ‘strengthen the visual image of the collective store’.

The boxes hover beneath a suspended metal grid that the designers refer to as the ‘golden cloud’. Variations in the grid’s depth alter the passage of light from above, allowing customers to detect fluctuations in illumination and shadow, while catching flashes of light meeting metal – moments that heighten the jewellery metaphor in the modest 32-m 2 space. ‘When visitors walk into the store, they encounter ambiguity in both its volume and its borders, as the cloud continually produces new visual forms,’ says Casen Chiong, founding partner and chief architect of Atelier Tree. ‘Shifts prompted by light and time constantly change the visitor’s experience.’ – TI ateliertree.com

Forty-four courses served over three hours: RCR gives Albert Adrià’s Enigma a worthy setting for a dramatic experience.