Light and Space
Friday 17 January —
16:00
- 16:45
The Talks
Description
Designer Maison&Objet of the year for this edition, Michael Anastassiades has made light his favorite subject. His luminous objects interact with space in a constant search for movement and balance.
Nos partenaires : MINI
Participants
Michael AnastassiadesDesigner
Marion VignalJournalist
Michael Anastassiades
Designer
After training as a civil engineer and taking a master’s degree in industrial design at the Royal College of Art, the Cypriot designer founded his studio in London in 1994 and his eponymous brand in 2007. Although best known for his lighting, he has designed with the same rigour and clarity in all fields: furniture for the likes of B&B Italia, Herman Miller, Cassina; drinking glasses for Lobmeyr; speakers for Bang & Olufsen; a public project in Mint Street, London; a drinking fountain for the Victoria & Albert Museum. His work can be found in permanent collections at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the MAK in Vienna, the Crafts Council in London and the FRAC Centre in Orleans France. Anastassiades believes that to design a light, one first has to embrace darkness: he sees no need to turn night into day. Lights for him are a source of warmth, and what fascinates him most is the glow. When designing a light, he takes into consideration that a lamp is off 80% of the time, so he takes the time to figure out the relevance of the object when switched off. In his vision, a lamp is never an isolated object because it has to interact with its environment.
Marion Vignal
Journalist