“When I’m in the country, looking up at the sky, I feel myself. Being in the country can teach us to see what is essential for human beings. And much of this has to do with light. Here in Europe, we experience light differently than people living on the equator. I like dusk and dawn, which is very long and differentiated in the North and has nuances of white sky and the warmish, reddish orange sunset. But the steel blue of the sky can also be very beautiful. You don’t get this at the equator: there it’s light on, light off. Light gives me the feeling of being alive.”

Did you train as a lighting designer?

“I studied industrial design, and during my studies I had to develop a luminaire. I discovered I was much more interested in the light that came out of it than in the fixture itself. I was more interested in what the light did to the room around it than in how the object looked. I was offered a job with a lighting manufacturer, but I felt I needed the freedom to work on my own, so I started my own office. That was quite brave for somebody without any experience. I knew something about architecture, because my father was an architect; I knew something about light, because my mother is a photographer and I did light studies with her to help with her photos. But I knew nothing about the process of lighting design, nor about the whole planning process for buildings. I had to learn a lot. It was a very intense way to learn. Sometimes I had the feeling that I was inventing my profession myself. It was very empowering.”

How would you describe your approach to lighting?

“For me, comfort is the key thing.”

Even in exterior lighting?

“Most certainly. You know, in China and Russia you still have this idea of a building as a monument. A monument that should impress you, that makes people small.

You can make a monument stand out by having much more subtle lighting, as well as dynamic changes in a very soft way. “I was faced with something like this when I was asked to light the town hall in Hamburg. The city
started producing a lighting concept, and the idea was that the town hall would be the brightest building in the city. It’s a public building, the centre of power, of democratic politics in the city, so it should stand out. Unfortunately, you can’t legislate for that. And anyway, Hamburg could be a city that embraces energy saving, and embraces, in a way, subtle, smooth light. After all, we also have dark spaces that are beautiful. I try to make the contrasts between light and shadow not too strong. For that reason, for the town hall, I used a second layer of light. It can be highly effective to combine two different principles of light: to light up the whole building
as well as to accentuate details. If you only were to have shadows it would look very dramatic. I don’t think architecture is theatre.”

But you also use theatrical effects in your lighting schemes?

“I sometimes work with a light artist. That’s not quite the same thing. I worked with Moniek Toebosch, who does installations of light and sound. We collaborated on the lighting for IJsei bus station of Stationseiland Amsterdam, designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects. It is a wonderful location, with lots of people coming to
catch their trains. Monique’s installation has birds or angels and they fade in and somehow change into something else – clouds for example. When you see them moving, there is only a tiny moment when they are in a really sharp silhouette, even though it can be soft with blurred edges. So it’s really abstract. It is fantastic, poetic and sometimes even slightly irritating, but also very soft, with slow movements. “I think the whole place is a centre of movement. Lots of commuters come here, many of them stressed, in a rush to catch their train. Sometimes they also have to wait, perhaps they have missed their bus. They can be nervous, anxious to get home, and the gentle movement can relax them. It all has to do with movement again. Movement happens in nature, only slower. It can be fascinating and beautiful. Not everything has to have a function.”

Where do you find your inspiration?

“For Amsterdam, it was the sky and the daylight. The daylight in Amsterdam is very special, because you have a flat landscape. I took a photograph from the post office tower of the station. There was a very dramatic sky and the reflections on the water. And this really made me think of what is above the station – the dynamics of daylight and the changes of clouds. So my first idea was of clouds, and Monique added the birds and the angels.

But each project is in its own way unique. And so the inspiration is also unique. When we did the lighting for a wellness centre in Moscow, our inspiration was the woods. Outside, there is a forest of needle woods and birches. The birches have pale trunks, the needle wood is very dark green. So the contrast of light is already very beautiful. So we created an area inside with spots of light. We used controlled downlights with a very narrow angle, and they change, very softly and very slowly.

The other area was all about water. Light and water – that works all the time and is also something that is dynamic and fascinating. But what makes this special is that we wanted to create a relationship to the outside. The reflections of the water back on the ceiling can be seen when you are in the outside area – in the forest.

I think this sort of spa in Moscow should look different to a spa in London or Tokyo or wherever and has to relate to its surroundings. That was the idea.”

How influenced are you by daylight?

“I always relate my work to daylight, but daylight is not static. The sun moves and you have shadows from different sides. Candles also move. But with electricity, light became static. And that is, in a way, very unnatural. Today, we can change lighting situations. In offices, people sometimes say we don’t need all this light – but regulations stipulate what is required. I like to create the possibility of switching off the general light, so that people can sit in a little island of light: they find it comforting, relaxing. It may not be ergonomic for the day, but it gives people the opportunity to become, perhaps, more human. Because, ultimately, everything we design is for human beings.”