Erco & Zaha Hadid Architects collaborate at Clerkenwell Design Week
(UK) – Last month, Erco and Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) held a collaborative event during Clerkenwell Design Week. The event ran from 23-25 May as a special exhibition, which featured responsive lighting design with a bespoke material showcase and a series of inspiring talks from leading industry experts.
The event looked to showcase ZHA and Erco’s approach to design within the ZHA Gallery on Goswell Road, which has recently been illuminated by Erco.
Building on their collaboration, ZHA and Erco welcomed guests across the design industry to their exhibition during Clerkenwell Design Week, which showcased lighting as an integral element of ZHA’s architecture.
Part of this was an evening event on Tuesday 23 May entitled Responsive Design for a Sustainable Future. The evening was dedicated to exploring the future of design, sustainability, and human-centric technology, within the workspace. This was a panel discussion with Jim Ashley-Down, Managing Director of Erco UK & Ireland, Ulrich Blum, Senior Associate at Zaha Hadid Architects, Paul Traynor, Head of Light Bureau UK and Imogen Privett, Associate Director and Workplace Innovation at UnWork. The talk explored the future of workplace strategies and the user experience. Each expert brought their knowledge and experience from lighting design, manufacturing, architectural design to workplace innovation.
The panel discussed the important role lighting plays in employee experience to create sustainable and responsive spaces, which provide visual comfort and wellness. This holistic approach moves away from facility centric to people centric design, seeing buildings as experiences and not objects. The discussion evolved to the need for neurodivergent spaces, curating rooms that are easily adaptable and interchangeable, giving the user control over their environment with Bluetooth control for temperature and lighting.
The workplace is evolving and there is a drive to personalise the workspace for occupants to create desirable office environments that promote wellness, productivity, and creativity. Through the discussions, it was deemed imperative to incorporate responsive design and future-proof technology from the very beginning of projects, this approach should be built into the fabric of the design not added on at the end as an afterthought.
Additionally, the two brands hosted a lunchtime talk on Thursday 25 May, Illuminating Desire: Lighting for Retail & Exhibition Design. The talk was chaired by ZHA’s Head of Interior Architecture, Kar Hwa-Ho, alongside Jim Ashley-Down, Gerardo Olvera, Design Director of Light.IQ and Giulio Antonutto, Associate Director at Arup.
The psychology of longing and wanting, attaining and then craving more, is to a greater or lesser extent, the starting point of the conceptual narrative for retail and exhibition design.
In addition to solving the functional requirements in a design brief, the panel discussed the need to address the experiential journey and how lighting can make this better. Drawing on their knowledge and experiences, the panel explained how to tell a story using light; what comes first, the technical or experiential aspect of lighting; and what tools can be used to create a mood and a desirable atmosphere.
Each panellist conveyed a considered approach to illuminating spaces, drawing on the Richard Kelly principles of lighting design, as well as drawing on the similarities between lighting artwork for a gallery and a product in retail. Light draws the gaze to textures, colours and forms in a space and enhances the way we perceive our environment, creating a visual experience.
The collaborative event between Erco and ZHA, was inspiring and educational, championing the need for responsive design and future proofing client strategies.
