Flying Disc at Hotel Unique by Ingo Maurer

THE DESIGNER

Ingo Maurer, born in 1932, forayed into the world of light and lighting in 1966. Founding his namesake company, he started to design exceptional lighting and lighting systems, which were produced and distributed worldwide. He continues to extend his passion to date and works with his team to develop lighting concepts and spectacular one-offs for private and public buildings. Bulb (1966), the low-voltage halogen system; YaYaHo (1984), and Lucellino (1992), a winged light bulb, are among his best-known designs.

Ingo Maurer GmbH today is based in Munich, Germany, with a large showroom next to the studio and offices. An older, but smaller showroom run directly by Maurer is located in Soho, New York. Over the last four working decades, the team has grown to more than 60 people. They have now set shop in a new location for production and shipping, established on the outskirts of Munich.

“Our project department has steadily evolved, from the design of exhibitions at trade fairs, festivities and special installations of the lighting system YaYaHo,” says Maurer.

The designer takes on commissions for lighting as well as interior light-planning. In addition to the sale of regular products, the projects are now gaining emphasis. The challenges they pose have often been invigorating and inspiring, both through the people involved and the spaces that are to be designed. And thus, the projects permit Maurer to realise his ideas for artistic installation or lighting objects, providing at the same time, intriguing and pleasant spaces for those who will live or work in them.

THE LIGHT

For the bar and the lobby of Hotel Unique in Sao Paulo, Maurer and his team worked on the arrangement which puts emphasis on the lightness of Ringelpiez Suspension, while interacting with the existing space in an ideal way. The layout guides the eyes of the visitors from the seating area in the centre of the lobby to the bar at the end of the space, creating curiosity and the wish to explore. With the fully glare-free light, guests at the bar or in the seating area relax and enjoy the stunning architecture.

During installation, Maurer was present at Hotel Unique and directed the placement of the five light objects himself. Ringelpiez Suspension is an extremely lightweight object for indirect lighting. Suspended from only three wires, it is installed at a certain angle, to add dynamics to the space, and thus seems to hover below the ceiling. The thin white disc is lit by a ring of high-quality LEDs, diffusing the light. A long slender black rod made of carbon fibre holds the LED ring below the disc. Both, the length of the rod and the angle of the ring, are adjustable so that it is possible to light up the diffuser disc asymmetrically. All three parts, the disc, the rod and the ring, visually merge to create an intriguing graphical object.

THE NUANCES

White fibreglass discs, black carbon fibre rods, suspension wires.

LED light source - 25 W, 3600 lumen, 3000K, CRI 95.

(The article was first published in Issue #13 of mondo*arc india journal – an initiative by STIR.)