ITALIAN LIGHTING had the opportunity to appreciate the design work, during the Milan Design Week, by visiting the VALEXTRA showroom. An event during the event: all this thanks to the design and technology of Prolicht in collaboration with Entity Elettronica, the Italian company from Altavilla Vicentina. Together with Tom Dixon, Filippo Bettinzoli and Stefano Cavaggion we breathed and appreciated together the restart of the city.
PROLICHT with TOM DIXON has been chosen to explore and show the added value coming from technology. Two complementary companies and the choice to install themselves within a technologically innovative project, or the perfect synthesis of technical lighting that is installed in decorative solutions: “We were really obsessed with the idea of designing light on printed circuits (PCBs): so flat, efficient and so very luminous! Our collaboration with Prolicht was born by sharing the idea of creating everything thanks to a minimal track that would attempt to remove the superfluous and reveal the light engine in all its naked glory“. These are the terms with which Tom Dixon comments on the collaboration.
“It was amazing how quickly the connection with Tom and his team started. From the first meeting the sparkle of creativity was there, and we all immediately felt an urge to start something together. For Prolicht CODE is just a beginning: two different backgrounds and complementary skills meeting to create the perfect product”, explained Walter Norz, CEO of Prolicht.
There is an encounter, a true story and above all the ability to make the right choices at the right time. CODE came out from a specific concept about lighting: the exploitation of the potential of track modules. A “minimal design” not to be confused with the user-friendliness of the product as perceived by the customer. Two modules configured by the designer (Circle and Square), and the LED strips: the set to create even complex shapes of great visual impact. In Valextra Flagship Store, the main room, it was possible to admire three light sculptures made by “custom made” modules: a tribute to some of the Milanese design main icons. Unique pieces, merging the design concept, project production and technical know-how, made possible thanks to an aluminium frame. Always the same technology and know-how in order to set BLACK LIGHT as an opportunity to target the limit between light and dark.
Filippo Bettinzoli from Prolicht described the meaning of the work done for the exhibition: “The LED display module configuration and structure was designed by Tom Dixon, who also chose to leave his signature on the LED module circuit, opting for the black colour of the board and to have the components always in view. It is also important to consider that BLACK LIGHT, after the first month in Milan during Design and Fashion Week, is about to become a traveling exhibition to touch other cities. CODE can be interpreted as a kind of morse code, starting from which, we have been able to add multiple variants to the catalog by exploiting the versatility of the same product. The electronic board is the one that Entity Elettronica provided us, DALI standard for the control system. In this specific occasion, at the Valextra showroom, we have chosen to use CASAMBI. Prolicht has also chosen to display standard products available in the catalog: especially the technical ones, for example spots or spotlights of different sizes. ”
The installations are instead a tribute to some Milanese design icons: three unique pieces made around an aluminium frame that will be transported to other locations in the future, the next scheduled will be London.
Filippo Bettinzoli explains to us again: “With Entity we have had the opportunity to collaborate in the past even if this was the first really important project carried out together. It is the result of a first meeting born at the end of 2019, then after the cancellation of Light + Building 2020, for us at PROLICHT and for TOM DIXON the timing had changed, but certainly not the sense of the whole project. An operation that is only apparently simple: now that you see it finished it might seem downright trivial. We have chosen to use the highest quality components, 30 watt DALI controls and carried out a specific study on the contacts to guarantee the final result, in order to follow the designer’s specifications as much as possible. Each light point was decided by Tom Dixon. Behind the shapes of a minimal design, from our point of view, there is a whole know-how that is never accidental. Even for simple LED strips, the connections have been designed ad hoc“. Stefano Cavaggion of Entity Elettronica commented.
CODE DASH, was created thanks to a one-meter long track, equipped with five inserts that always use the same base. Variability and flexibility in all senses to guarantee a unique effect.
Photographs by Allegra Martin.
Lighting design by the D’Alesio & Santoro studio.
John Pawson project.
Thanks to the hospitality granted by Xavier Rougeaux, CEO of Valextra.
