By Arianna Ghezzi 

My relationship with light and lighting has changed since I took my first step into this career. I first discovered it at university, during my Architecture degree, where I was truly fascinated by the technical aspect of it, especially how it is captured with a more scientific approach. When I started working for a lighting consultancy, I found myself looking at light in a more rounded way and genuinely appreciating how much it can influence a project. Nowadays, after more than 10 years in the lighting world, I’m still always discovering new effects, details and facets, which makes this job a continuous learning opportunity.

Being a lighting designer, means one has the opportunity of working on remarkable projects, having the chance to collaborate with terrifically talented and worldwide known interior designers. It’s incredible to be able to leave our mark on a variety of places from retail and hotels to superyachts. The versatility of the work is fascinating, always working with different styles such as contemporary to classic, marine to land, and private to public. Light gives one the capacity of transforming environments and disclosing both textures and details by capturing attention and placing elements under the spotlight. It has the power to conceal, playing with shadow. The reality is, shadows are so important in our job and they should never be underestimated, seeing as they play such an important role in concealing what is unimportant, creating drama and rhythm.

Light is universally appreciated and considered important all across the globe. It plays an important role for everyone and it’s the designers responsibility to calibrate it accordingly to the projects location, heritage, and narrative. The amount of light might be different for a project in say the UAE from one in the Far North. It is the knowledge of the lighting designer that allows for it to be calibrated accordingly, whilst appreciating and understanding the historical influences of that location and how they have influenced the use of lighting. The magic of lighting is that it is constantly evolving, with progressions being made within the industry, especially on products. The increasing attention to the sustainability and re-use is fantastic, with the life cycle and the reduced power consumption for more sustainable lighting across  projects growing massively.