Interpreting light

Francesco Iannone and Serena Tellini are recognised as two of the most active and proactive lighting designers internationally. As founders of Studio Consuline, specialised in research for innovation in the form and application of light, they are responsible for the conception and application development in the world of the Monza Method, which sees the integration of lighting engineering and neuroscience. In their long careers, they have designed the lighting of exhibitions and museums, churches and human spaces all over the world. These include the Formula 1 Circuit in Shanghai, the Lighting Master Plan for the Beijing Olympic Games, the National Grand Theatre in Beijing, the Galleria Carracci Palazzo Farnese in Rome, the LAC in Lugano, and the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. They also illuminated major exhibitions such as 'Giovanni Bellini, Lorenzo Lotto and Titian' at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome, but also contemporary art exhibitions such as Tony Cragg in Lucca, Richard Avedon in Milan, Egon Schiele and Arnaldo Pomodoro in Lugano. In Monza, they illuminated the Museum of the Cathedral Treasury and the Zavattari Chapel, where the Monza Method was created and fine-tuned . They are also the authors of lighting bodies and entire collections for some of the leading brands in the sector including Artemide, Targetti, Siteco, Osram, Fos Nova, Fivep, Ghidini, Performance in Light, OYLight, Luceplan, L&L, Lam32. We asked Francesco Iannone and Serena Tellini for some thoughts on the subject of light.

We often tend to use the term lighting engineering to refer to all matters relating to the lighting of an interior space, a particular object such as a building or even a square and landscape. However, this approach, which starts from properly quantitative reasons even though it refers to different contexts, does not always consider the implications that light determines on a perceptive and subjective level on the part of the user. And it is precisely on this particular relationship that you have directed your research over the years. Can you explain in more detail the reasons, approach and aims of your studies and realisations?

“When artificial lighting became commonplace in society in the early 20th century, the most obvious advantage lay in being able to use the hours of darkness to continue human activities during the day. When technology made different lighting sources available to the market, the question arose as to whether the quantities of light could influence the human 'way of doing things': lighting engineering was born, the quantities of light were defined a priori with respect to areas and types of intervention: this was around the 1960s. Today we are faced with sources that allow us to dose quantity, spectrum and therefore colour of light, exposure time, and thus we have light with a priori precise colour dominants and above all we have the 'time' factor coming into play. This is dynamic light produced by LEDs, a revolution. The question then arises: what is the best use of this opportunity? In recent years, all our efforts have been dedicated to understanding and proving how light can change the conditions of living if it is designed and dosed ad hoc: no longer lighting calculation as an end in itself, but rather the predispositions of those conditions that preside over vision but also over human subliminal perception. Let us say that we have been dealing with the 'feeling of light' with the eyes, with the skin, with the psyche, for over twenty years now. The sciences and neuroscience today give us help and reason. In 2017, a Nobel Prize was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young to whom we owe their studies of light as the basis of the molecular mechanisms that regulate life. Basically, the discovery of how it is the amount, inclination and spectrum of light that trigger the hormonal functions (flowering, growth, hunger, thirst, sleep, etc.) in the world of living beings.”

Consuline, the name of your studio that carries out projects and installations all over the world, is often associated with a specific methodology that you developed some ten years ago at the Museo del Duomo in Monza. What is this methodology?

“A journalist, Achim Ritter, defined our design procedure in this field as the 'Monza Method', and this amusing nickname has remained and still serves to explain a design method. It involves illuminating spaces or places or objects (in particular, it all started with the illumination of works of art) where the light triggers a particular attentiveness in the user. This heightened ‘attentionality’ is provoked by the present mode of light, which is now often dynamic and subliminal, prompting people to keenly observe or consider their surroundings in such a way as to be confronted with directional choices for example. Or, again, in a way that induces relaxation and relaxation in people. The Monza Method started in a museum and was created to make it easier for people to understand works of art. Today it has landed in workspaces to operate better and we are also applying it in a school, we have applied it in a centre for the treatment of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. In short, this is another way of designing light that is better suited to contemporary knowledge.”

One of the special aspects of your way of designing is the relationship with those who produce and develop luminaire technologies. In recent years we have witnessed a real revolution from this point of view: the transition from traditional sources to the universe of LEDs, the multiplication of types of luminaires and their management by means of microprocessors and specially dedicated digital systems. What is your point of view and how does a designer orient himself in the context of the technical options and their multiple applications?

“Our method exists because LEDs exist and control electronics exist. Today, a fantastic era is opening up where it is not only possible to dose the generic colour of light, but it is also possible to change this colour and the intensity of the light that the luminaires emit at predefined times. Neuroscience and medical science tell us that the Human Circadian System can be intercepted through light emission, and therefore it would be disastrous if architects were to disregard the lighting of human places by circumventing this approach. It is no longer permissible, with today's knowledge, that people still choose lights just because they look good or just because they are cheap. Any manufacturer is called upon to implement luminaires with functions suitable for living beings. This is a turning point. There are no appliances dedicated to pets, there are no appliances specifically for presenting food, there are no appliances suitable for study time at home, there are no appliances dedicated to the home life of the elderly, there are no appliances dedicated to listening to music at home, there are no appliances that make us fall asleep and wake up in hotels. The technologies are there, so what are we waiting for? Finding luminaires on the market that are capable of performing specific tasks would help architects and designers to choose the right luminaires for at least the most common tasks, since the profession of lighting designer is basically present in large jobs and it would often be useful to find luminaires capable of performing specific tasks in those as well. It would be very nice if a trade fair like ARCHITECT@WORK, which has always had innovation at its core, were to become even more of a place to find these lighting innovations.”

You have recently realised several projects in the museum and architectural sphere through which you have further developed new methods with surprising results. Can you tell us about these new experiences?

“Our way of designing is trivially at the service of and in synchrony with people, and we always have to deal with complex design development because, precisely, there is nothing prepared or already done on the market. To give an example, we designed the lighting for a series of offices for Edison in Milan, where the light changes every 20 minutes for relaxed working; and again we designed the offices for Sedus in Dogern, Germany, all in dynamic light so as not to interrupt and facilitate the Human Circadian Cycle during working time. The light moves and self-adjusts in relation to the exposure to natural light. Changing lighting scenes and scenarios. These are not merely aesthetic 'dimensions' but facilitated human perception during working hours. The benefit translates into well-being for the people inside. This system works to such an extent that we pushed the experimentation even further, to the point of designing the lighting for an exhibition stand for Orgatec in Cologne in 2022 for Sedus - one of the largest manufacturers of designer office furniture. This was not just any stand, but a 1,000 square metre space where light, through a subliminal process, invites the public to ‘stand’.”

“Is this possible? Yes, it is possible, so much so that the project was awarded the 'Nominee by FRAME and IBA award for trade-fair stand with the Best Use of Light'. In January 2023, we switched again to lighting dedicated to the understanding of artistic phenomena by illuminating the great Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto in the exhibition 'The Colours of Faith in Venice'. The designed, dynamic and subliminally moving light 'compels' the visitor to observe the details of the work, which gradually fade away, allowing new details to emerge in a continuum in which iconographic meanings are revealed and become apparent. Today, in the time of 'devices' with images always in motion, we desire the same language to understand and learn, to know and appreciate. This project represented the first time of a dynamic illumination for the understanding of the pictorial artistic phenomenon and we were allowed to experiment with it on works by great authors.”

“Again for art, in 2023, the very recent Liberty exhibition in Turin, another challenge: is it possible in an exhibition to really immerse oneself in the atmospheres of this movement that changed the 20th century? Is it also possible to understand Art Nouveau through a lighting situation? Technology has made it possible to reproduce the first light bulbs designed by Alessandro Cruto, an obscure and unknown Italian, born in Turin, who first invented the incandescent light bulb. It is a tribute to him in the general lighting that takes the visitor back to those years, but also an opportunity to present the stages of the relationship between natural and artificial light in the early 20th century in a bow window. A wrought-iron chandelier by Mazzuccotelli plays its part by playing with the luminous rides of the Art Nouveau windows. Today, in order to recreate plays of light, we have to affect synchronisms built into the electrical system. By the way, when will electronics and industry make smart chandeliers easy and applicable on the market? Architects thank you!”