Since our foundation many of ADesignStudio’s clients have engaged us to create unique custom lighting designs for their residential, commercial and hospitality projects. Through our experience in lighting consulting, we have an expert understanding of the functional requirements of lighting for different sites and settings. This understanding of functionality is enhanced through our beautiful and unique fittings and shades that provide scope for the customisation of form, colour, texture, scale and lighting effect.
We are proud to support the Australian design and manufacturing industry by producing our lighting locally. This local production provides us with greater flexibility and control over design, logistics and unforeseen issues – all of which are essential when approaching a custom design project – while local transport reduces breakage potential and makes some designs possible.
Custom lighting projects can originate in a number of ways, sometimes it’s a simple case of modifying a standard product in our range, as was the case with our collaboration with artist Dina Broadhurst, where we customised the Basel F1 Floor Lamp. We can also be called on to conceive a brand-new lighting installation or idea; or assist a client to realise their vision.
A particular benefit of our handblown glass shades is that they allow for a great deal of customisation in form, colour, effect and ambience. Tinted and textured effects, such crackle, frosting and ripples, not only change the aesthetics of the shade, but offer the opportunity to create striking sculptural installations.
At the Flying Fish restaurant, hundreds of organic-shaped hand-blown glass orbs float over the dining tables in clusters, with the different shapes, sizes and finishes referencing fish roe. The clear and milky finishes create subtle variation, while the crackle finish projects a dappled light.
Working with glass provides modularity in design, whether it’s variations on a theme, as in Flying Fish, or repetition of one form, as in BarLume at 1 Denison. Electrolight and Bates Smart had a clear visual and functional brief for their installation: 90 pendants with faded, frosted glass diffusers and a 3-metre drop from the ceiling. We made multiple iterations and two prototypes to refine and simplify the fitting. There are inherently variations when working by hand and with glass, but numbering every fitting ensured there were only ever-so-slight variations in the fade, making the installation look unified as a whole.
Every custom design also factors in installation and maintenance, so that the fittings are user-friendly for everyone who touches, installs and maintains them. For BarLume, the lights are in three pieces to allow for staged installation to fit with the building schedule. The numbered system made it quick and easy for electricians to install them, and each glass sphere was protected in a bag to eliminate fingerprints and dust, saving the client time and money on installation and cleaning. The 3-metre drop for the lighting at BarLume was only possible because of local manufacturing as a product that length is susceptible to damage in transport.
Like at BarLume, custom designs offer a site-specific solution, which allows us to design the perfect light fitting or installation for the parameters of the environment and building. For Mittagong Residence we developed a brand-new light fitting in collaboration with Judy Milne Interiors and the homeowner. Positioned in a double-height foyer and stairwell, the three suspended ring lights add intrigue to the viewpoints from above and below while generating plenty of light.
Interested in exploring how a custom lighting design can elevate your next project? Please get in touch with us on +61 (02) 9311 2712 or by email at studio@adesignstudio.com.au.
