LIGHTWALLdesigned by: Mark Anderson

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CONCEPT_a product that incoporates architecture, furniture and lighting

The basic idea is fairly straightforward: combine wall panels and lighting.This is a technique that is usedoften but mostly where the light is used as a highlight or accent. The intension of this project is to make a functional fusion between a decorative wall panel and lamp. In this project, the wall panels actually become illumination in a way that there is a true fusion between two distinct typologies. The difference is subtle but significant.

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A series of configurable panels and modules. The project proposes a series of varying size panels of different depths (layers) that can be placed together. There is a maximum of 3 or 4 different modules that can be used together in different quantities and orientation to create unique compositions. The aesthetics are driven by a strong materiality of the surfaces and a flexible compositional method. The visual solutions can becharacterized by an approach that can range from overlaying and collage to rational and rigorous. The principal quality of the system is a blurred reading of theobject typology; is it lighting or wall paneling. The strength of this system is difficult to identify preciselyin character: it is a lamp or a coating?

The varying compositions activate and build the space. It’s a new way of thinking about and using a pieceof furniture. For instance you can create a composition on the wall of a room that can also extend tothe ceiling and then be interrupted and resumed in another part of the space. The objects, the system become an element unifying the interior. Part of the design project consists suggesting a certain amount of possible compositions to test and communicate the potential of the system. The actual application of the product system will be configured each time by the customer or their designer. This system lends itself to both domestic and contract applications(hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, theaters, public spaces ...) because of its flexibility and strong materiality.

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Mark Anderson has recently partnered with Laurameroni designing the Elements Collection exhibited at the Salone del Mobile 2013. He is an architect and designer educated in the U.S. who relocated to Milan in 1991. After having collaborated with architecture and design offices (designing furniture, lighting and high-end interiors) as well as with various Italian manufacturing companies as a consultant, heestablished his own interdisciplinary studio.

The activities of the studio are wide-ranging, mostly reference the disciplines of architecture, interiors and product design but also include graphics and art direction. Many of the chooses of the studio’s projects and Anderson’s approach to the profession can be traced back to his own formation; fromearly experience as an apprentice making Shaker furniture, to studying architecture at an art school,consolidated with a Master’s degree combined with significant and important contact with the Italiandesign system. He integrates the activities of the studio with teaching and research in an open approach where synergies between academia, the arts and design, and industry/ business are often explored in a non-exclusive process. Much of Anderson’s advanced academic work is research-oriented and often in collaboration with private companies such as Laurameroni and various institutions.

The studio’s projects have included interiors for hotels, showrooms and private residences, furniture and lighting. Anderson has also collaborated with fashion designers on products and graphics, anddeveloped concepts for product graphics for a major appliance manufacturer. Anderson actively collaborates with several design schools in Milan and has been appointed to leadspecial university courses in Sardinia.

“It’s a unique collection of lamps which falls outside the usual parameters of an industrial product in terms of its conception and materials. While each object has its own particular identity, the collection was designed so that each lamp can be included into a larger interior scenario. The forms are simple and bold—minimal—offset by a strong materiality, revealing their unique character.” – the architect Mark Anderson speaking about the new Elements Collection, a series of lamps designed for Laurameroni.