MICHAEL MORRIS AND YOSHIKO SATO, PRINCIPALS | MORRIS SATO STUDIO, LIGHTSHOWERS & ICFF DUPONT CORIAN BOOTH
LightShowers is an independent (self generated) work that has evolved our thoughts and projects over many years. Since its inception, the project has taken on a life of its own, with many serendipities. It has been uncanny and with a great deal of trust, support and goodwill from many people.
Not quite a year old, LightShowers has been invited to be shown for the fourth time this fall in Korea at the Gwangju Design Biennale 2007 as part of this years theme on LIght. Originally the invitation from the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington to “remake their galleries in any way we chose” was the formal impetus and freedom for us to realize the idea.
We drew our inspiration for LightShowers from conversations (Yoshiko Sato) had with several leading physicians and complimentary care givers at New York City’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, who have been researching and developing biofeedback techniques as a means to assist in the recovery and preventative care of their patients.
Recognizing the groundbreaking aspect of their research, we immediately saw greater potential as to how we as architects and designers can potentially contribute something meaningful and useful to people’s well-being. Rather than having their patient sit with virtual reality thimbles and gloves on their hands in front of a computer screen, we immediately conceived of a meditative environment from which patient could receive the same benefits and in a more generous and comprehensive way.
We had also had been working with video projections of nature in our previous work and installation projects and for this reason we were introduced to Paul Ryan and his video art a few months prior to our Delaware invitation and we knew immediately we wanted to collaborate. Thanks to the generosity of DuPont’s and SGF Associates underwriting of the construction and LED lighting respectively, we were able to realize the project in the ideal material and surface of Corian with exacting detailing. Gaining a momentum of its own after the project was presented at Lucas Schoormans Gallery Chelsea, DuPont in turn asked us to design a booth in which to present LightShowers and represent their new products, fabrication techniques, and lighting at this year’s ICFF to celebrate 40 years of Corian product. The extended theme of observing patterns in nature, water and ice, served as the inspiration for our booth design which in turn garnered us the Editors Award for the Best Booth and now this honor from ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING!
With a few offers of private and public commissions and after a few more international venues for LightShowers on the horizon beyond Gwangju who knows what it may eventually morph into next. We do sincerely hope that it will one day find its final resting place full circle as an idea in either a hospital or wellness center in which we were originally inspired or at least in some public space, an airport or corporate lobby, if not in a private living room or collection gallery where it can be of use and enjoyed.
SUZAN TILLOTSON, PRINCIPAL | TILLOTSON DESIGN ASSOCIATES, ALESSI FLAGSHIP STORE
I start the design process by first thinking very hard about the challenges and problems as I see them. It is scary—each time I worry I may not be able to rise to the challenge. I then meet in house with the project team and we have a verbal design charrette exchanging many thoughts and ideas. I call this “cracking the nut,” where we try to get our heads around the problem and come up with something that sparks our interest, that reveals something unique, or is strong and spatially clarifying—most importantly we need to be excited about it. For me this is harder than starting. We look for inspiration everywhere, and most of the time we have very little time. We try to strike a balance between what the architecture needs, what the architect wants, and what the client is expecting. It is during this charrette that we decide which ideas are worthy of further exploration. Then we test them all!
BRIAN STACY, SENIOR ASSOCIATE | ARUP LIGHTING
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART; CONDÉ NAST CAFETERIA; THE MORGAN LIBRARY
How do we start the design process: It will vary a lot depending on the project and the process that the team is going through. Our involvement can vary anywhere from the time the building is taking shape, to in the middle of Design Development (DD). We recently were brought on after the completion of 50 percent DD and had our scope finish at 100 percent DD for two city blocks of work. I thought there was a strong idea for the lighting; as it turns out we ended up completely redesigning the interiors to have more of a response to the design and needs of the lighting.