Residential visual concept
Residential
Private homes.
Designed for the night.
The best residential lighting is rarely noticed as lighting.
It is experienced in the warmth of a room, the depth of a material, the way artwork emerges from shadow, the view into a garden and the subtle changes that accompany an evening.
Chiaroscuro designs these relationships.
Not simply where light should be placed, but what should be revealed, what should recede and how a home should feel once daylight has gone.
01
Atmosphere before fittings
We begin with the experience of the space rather than a schedule of luminaires.
What should draw the eye? What should remain quiet? Where should darkness be preserved? How should one room lead into another?
Only then do we determine the light required to create it.
02
Light, material and architecture
Stone, timber, plaster, metal, glass and artwork all respond differently to light.
The direction, intensity, colour and softness of light can reveal their character or flatten it completely.
Lighting is therefore developed as part of the architecture and interior rather than applied to it afterwards.
03
Living through the evening
A home does not need one lighting condition.
Cooking, eating, entertaining, reading and the quieter end of an evening each ask something different of the space.
We develop layers of light that allow the house to change naturally as the evening progresses.
04
Scenes, controls and transition
Controls should make a sophisticated lighting scheme feel effortless.
We develop scenes around how the house is actually used, balancing dimming, colour temperature and different layers of light so that complexity disappears behind simple interactions.
05
Inside and outside
After dark, glazing can become a mirror.
Carefully considered exterior lighting extends the visual boundary of the home beyond the glass, revealing selected landscape, structure and planting while preserving darkness elsewhere.
The result is a stronger relationship between interior and landscape throughout the evening.
Residential visual concept
Residential visual concept
Private by nature
Many of the homes we work on are never publicly documented.
For that reason, the residential work shown here represents only part of the practice.
Privacy is treated as part of the commission, not an obstacle to it.
The residential images on this page are visual concepts, not photographs of completed private commissions.
How should your home
feel after dark?
If you are planning a new home, significant renovation or interior transformation, we can become involved from the earliest design stages or work alongside an established architectural and interior team.