Materials, News
“Enlightening” solutions for a sustainable design
The Bioadaptive Lighting Revolution and 'Double Dynamic Lighting' in Workspaces
Lighting plays a key role in working environments, influencing employees’ well-being, productivity and satisfaction. In recent years, LED technology has revolutionised lighting design for offices, offering many benefits over traditional lighting systems. An even more recent and innovative approach is to optimize lighting solutions through a controlled combination of natural and artificial light. All this is an offshoot of the ‘biophilic’ design concept, which allows the environment of everyday life to be combined with natural elements, integrating their principles into spaces and architecture.
An example is Austrian Zumtobel Lighting GmbH, a leading international manufacturer of professional indoor and outdoor lighting solutions. Back in May 2017, this major company commissioned Vera Pichardo, Consultant Marketing & Branding at the Nymphenburg Consult AG Group, to carry out a study on the topic: “How a bioadaptive lighting solution in the working environment improves employees’ wellbeing”. This study, carried out under real working conditions and using a combination of different neuroscientific methods, enabled the measurement of emotional and cognitive responses to a new ‘human-centered’ lighting system specifically designed to support the biorhythms of employees in their office environment. Another significant experience is the 2020 joint project involving partners in the technology and lighting sectors, such as Zumtobel, Fagerhult, iGuzzini and Tridonic, who worked together with Aalborg University on a study entitled: “Double Dynamic Lighting — Bringing Qualities of Natural Light into the Office”. The team, led by Prof. Ellen Katharine Hansen, showed that it is possible to define solutions responding to the dynamics of natural light through a combination of direct and diffuse lighting. The atmosphere provided by Double Dynamic Lighting was perceived more pleasantly by users. The findings of this experiment strongly contributed to the understanding of the qualities of integrating the dynamics of daylight and electric lighting, referring to the human sensation of unpredictability, naturalness, light flow, and light-zone modelling effects.
Another major aspect to take into account in contemporary lighting projects is sustainability, understood in the broadest sense of the term. This is also where the Zumtobel Group proved its forward-looking vision at the Workshop: “Cyrcular Economy in sustainable lighting solution “, held in Venice in October 2022. On this occasion, some key concepts for modern design were defined:
Buildings are not consumption goods, but valuable ecosystems. A building is sustainable not only if it consumes less energy during use, but also if people enjoy their time in it for decades;
- Lighting solutions provide well-built environments that focus on people’s needs. Workers have the facility to access and control light, improving their comfort and well-being.
This has a range of practical applications such as the replacement of fluorescent lamps with special conversion kits; the assessment of energy efficiency in renovations, with dedicated software to help gauge the project specific life-cycle costs of lighting solutions; the reuse and renovation through future-proof, flexible and long-lasting solutions using plug-and-play devices that can be modified according to the space requirements.
Such studies and researches have been put ‘on the ground’ thanks to a series of products in Zumtobel’s catalogue specifically designed for the latest generation of workplaces. An excellent example of this is AMBITUS, where indirect diffuse lighting meets accurate direct lighting, with powerful light that suits different settings and favors social interaction, creates a focused working atmosphere or enhances the brand image. CIELUMA, lastly, is a design solution that makes it possible to create a luminous ceiling by simulating daylight under the open sky according to the Double Dynamic Lighting concept, bringing a stimulating as well as sound-absorbing light effect into the room.
News
workspace color inspiration
Etoile – development & research
At Etolie, we know the importance of choosing the palettes to be used to achieve comfortable and functional workspaces.
We know how colours affect states of mind, mood and interpersonal interactions.
No colour option has a neutral effect, each combination is able to affect and canalise the perception of reality of those operating within a given location.
Some colours are known to be relaxing, and some to be exciting or energising. Others may alter the state of concentration, be distracting or even disturbing.
Therefore, whatever the effect being pursued, a good design cannot disregard an accurate study of this dimension as well, too often confined to the mere domain of aesthetics.
It is precisely in this direction that Etoile has prepared a series of highly customisable solutions to create ‘tailor-made’ settings that are perfectly functional for any customer’s needs.
In the ‘inspirational’ pinboard that follows, we offer some free suggestions for the readers’ convenience.
These projects have been delivered in recent years by a London-based partner company specialised in creating premium workplaces, real hubs for business people from all fields.
The common thread running through all these workspaces is a skilful and balanced use of colour combined with the use of our fora style® walls in synergy with our solid metrica®.
These pictures show an elegant old building in Greencoat Place, equipped with contemporary and sustainable design elements.
Straight away, the widespread application of green, the colour most found in nature, is evident, promoting feelings of balance and enhancing the creative performance of people at work.
In the 1930’s former textile warehouse in Wells Mews, warm and bright colours prevail in partitions and furnishings. Yellow is used to stimulate creativity and feelings of optimism. Blue, in its many shades, induces a perception of stability and security.
In this space created at Arnold House, a space naturally flooded with light is well combined with a generous use of white in the partitions, a vitalising and regenerating basic colour. At the same time, the very prominent brown grids counteract the feeling of monotony and convey feelings of solidity, durability and stability.
A minute’s walk from the charming district of Shoreditch, the new Montacute Yards venue finds its natural setting in seven floors of workspaces, located above restaurants, shops, cafés and a characteristic street food market. Large spaces of daylight, amplified by the use of natural blond wood, make furnishings and accessories stand out in vivid colours that stimulate creative thinking and perceptive intelligence.
News
Colours in design
The chromatic influence on human behaviour has been a subject of study for hundreds of years
Our ongoing search for the best well-being solutions in workspaces certainly cannot ignore such an important factor as the choice of colours, especially the way they are able to affect the comfort of interiors and the mood of people.
Without resorting to chromotherapy or other alternative medicine practices, we know that the influence of colours in determining human moods and behaviour has long been known.
The first scientific approach to the study of colour was that of the Englishman Isaac Newton (1642-1727). It was one of his articles, which later became famous, that publicised the results of experiments conducted with the refraction of light through glass prisms, by which he managed to define the seven primary colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and indigo. He theorised that luminous bodies emitted immaterial corpuscles, a sort of ‘light atoms’ that, travelling in a straight line and at hyperbolic speed, produced the rays. For Newton, the ‘white light’ was a mixture of as many species of corpuscles as there were different colours. The so-called corpuscular theory has dominated physics for almost a century.
It was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who in besides being a great man of letters was also a painter and a scientist, who in his essay ‘Zur Farbenlehre’ dated 1810, emphasised the complexity of the chromatic phenomenon and the non-negligible interference that the organ of sight has in light perception and its transliteration into colour. He was first to advance an aesthetic and artistic vision, contrasting it with Newton’s strictly scientific one: “It has been well proven that each colour produces a particular impression on the human being, manifesting its nature to both eyes and soul. This means that colour can be used for specific sensitive, moral and aesthetic purposes”. For Goethe, colours are indeed something living and human, and find their complete phenomenological justification in that physical machine that is the human eye and in the mechanism of vision, but also and foremost in the spectator’ spirituality and soul”.
In a similar spirit, while investigating intimate and profound dimensions, Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) established a very close connection between the work of art and the spiritual dimension, stating that they influence each other.
In his philosophical work ‘The Spiritual in Art’ (1909) he wrote: “In general, colour is a means to directly influence one’s soul. The colour is the key. The eye is the gavel. The soul is a piano with multiple strings. The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, makes the soul vibrate. It is clear that the harmony of colours is based on just one principle: the powerful contact with the soul. This foundation can be called the principle of inner necessity”.
For Kandinsky, red is, for example, a warm and pervasive colour that acts in the inside in a very vital, lively, restless way. It shows immense, almost conscious energy.
It generates turmoil and introverted fervour. Red is corporeal, reminiscent of the cello. Light Warm Red (Saturn) triggers feelings of strength, energy, determination, tension, joy, triumph. It echoes the sound of fanfares and tuba. Medium red (cinnabar) has the stability of a deep feeling, it is like a passion that burns without shaking, a confident force that can only be extinguished in blue. It sounds like a tuba or a loud drum roll. Gray has a totally different impact, that he describes as “desolate immobility”. It is neither coloured, nor light, nor dark. Grey is the nothingness of everything, its peculiarity is complete neutrality. Blue, Kandinsky suggests, is the element of stillness and the deeper it is the more strongly it will draw the individual towards the infinite. These are just some of the Russian artist suggestions associated with colours, whose path was ideally taken up in the early decades of the 20th century by Max Lüscher, a Swiss psychotherapist, sociologist and philosopher.
A path in which the distinction between science, art and spirit is very subtle and has given rise to ever-changing trends according to different historical periods. Aesthetic preferences and sensibilities are mutable factors over time and follow changing and contingent inspirations. What remains constant in every visual architecture is the search for a chromatic perception that can arouse well-defined feelings and emotions. Which in the case of interior design applied to workspaces, takes on a particularly articulated value. The latter has the task of communicating values, identity and authority, just as a corporate logo and payoff would do; at the same time, it must be reassuring and functional to the psychophysical well-being of those who work in the offices on a daily basis. It is now widely agreed that a smart and harmonious choice of colours can decrease work discomfort and reduce the risk of accidents. Furthermore, the rational use of certain shades or colour combinations has been proven to stimulate creativity and productivity. It is therefore clear how much the choice of colours contributes to the successful design of a comfortable and functional workspace, as well as other important factors such as sound absorption, air-to-light ratios and the materials to be used.
News
acoustics, design and environmental comfort
Proper sound insulation in work spaces can reduce stress levels by 27% and increase concentration by 48%
According to recent studies, it appears that noise within an open space can lead to a 15% drop in workers’ productivity, causing greater difficulty in concentration.
This would result in a loss of time of up to 20 minutes per day.
On the other hand, in case of confined spaces noise manages to spread by crossing partitions and seeping through the ceiling, reducing productivity by up to 7 %.
Finally, a better acoustic environment in work spaces has proven to reduce stress levels by 27%, and increase attention levels by 48%.
Obviously, as is always the case in this kind of research, these are statistical evidences and not truths carved in stone, however, these are figures that should give us pause when it comes to designing an office or a workspace. While attention to acoustics used to be restricted to theaters, auditoriums or rooms intended for listening to music, today its applications range in all areas of architectural design, from domestic to professional environments.
Actually, in order to ensure an adequate level of comfort, concepts such as sound insulation, sound absorption, soundproofing, and reverberation are not limited to structures alone but apply to interior design and to the very furnishings of spaces.
Proper attention to environmental comfort rightly includes building acoustics among the parameters to be defined at the design stage along with air-to-light ratios, safety, fire and all other legal requirements.
Obviously a good knowledge of the specific characteristics of the materials to be used in defining work environments, particularly when using modular partition elements, is a fundamental requirement underlying any good design.
Most especially if you want to combine functionality, aesthetics, and employee well-being.
This is why architects, designers, and specialized companies have been directing their efforts for years to find the right balance in the design of modular spaces, using specific products and solutions intended for acoustic correction, which can reduce the level of distraction and the negative effects of noise, while creating discreet, privacy-friendly, engaging and dynamic environments.
Especially since the trend of coworking spaces where many people share a single workplace, is widespread.
In fact, the need increasingly represented by the market is to offer workspace solutions suitable to rapid conversions of organizations’ needs, without these reconfigurations to compromise in any way the abovementioned comfortable features, thus to maintain the best working conditions in every situation.
News
british style design
BRITISH STYLE DESIGN
Harmony of space and time
BRITISH STYLE DESIGN
Among recent design trends, it is worth investigating a timeless classic, albeit revisited in a contemporary key, which is particularly suitable for setting up elegant and refined workspaces.
We are talking about the British style or English style, a traditional and versatile taste that has crossed the time offering different declinations ranging from Victorian to country-chic, up to industrial urban. An interior design with a new classic flavor, which fits well in the creation of harmonious and refined environments, while maintaining a relatively austere, though never compassionate, mood.
The use of high-quality natural materials is the main standout feature. Wood and glass are the leading elements in the definition of spaces and in the outfitted boiserie.
The partitions in working rooms recall the style of United Kingdom’s old traditions, in which glazed surfaces and bow windows were characterized by a framework that divided the windows into geometric panes. Bricks or rough stone with a rustic effect, as well as wallpapers or fabrics with delicate floral motifs and trompe-l’oeil are ideal for claddings. Exposed beams are either welcome, where the structure makes it possible. As for the color palette, it usually consists of a few pastel or neutral tones making the room cozy and attractive. White is certainly the prevalent color, but Brits also love soft red. When creating more contemporary atmospheres, it is surely possible to experiment with warmer and more intense variants such as cream, salmon, light brown and light blue, while maintaining a rigorous balance in the combination of furnishing elements.
Floors vary from a moderate light-shade parquet covered with classic carpets in burgundy and sugar paper tones, to resin if the aim is to give a more industrial-chic effect. Brass and wrought iron are the materials used for accessories such as handles and hinges. As for furniture, it ranges from the natural color of solid wood to light shades, including shabby chic, with an exquisitely Nordic effect. Definitely well contextualized an iconic Chesterfield sofa, possibly authentic vintage, dressed in dark-chocolate leather.
The walls are often richly adorned with paintings, prints, ceramics and books of various kinds and from different periods, but without ever exceeding the measure, as is characteristic of the British trait. Interiors usually have soft, diffuse lighting. Therefore, rather than a main light source dropping from the ceiling, the finest solution is using wall elements, table lamps and floor lamps, radiating a warm and soft light.
News
Lighting design
PROGETTARE LA LUCE
Designing a comfortable and people-friendly environment, especially if it is a space for professional use, involves the analysis and study of some really remarkable variables.
A central element among these is undoubtedly lighting design.
Light, in fact, is one of the elements that most have an influence on our daily activities, able to influence our daily actions, from our mood to our concentration and productivity at work.
Without going into too much technical detail, it’s interesting to try to understand how a light designer goes about creating an accurate and effective design.
Especially when, as is almost always the case, it is necessary to intervene with artificial lighting and resort to the lighting design of the various environments.
Any light source, such as the sun, emits an infinite amount of radiation.
The phenomenon of simultaneous straight-line propagation of an electric field is called electromagnetic radiation
Depending on the wavelength, the type of light perception by the eye/brain system changes.
Each light source, whether natural or artificial, emits radiation of different wavelengths that give rise to a specific spectral distribution and a color of different shades.
The magnitudes of photometry, fundamental to lighting design are:
- Light flow. It is the amount of light emitted by a certain source or lighting device in the unit of time. The unit of measurement is the lumen (lm).
- Light intensity. It is the amount of light emitted by a punctiform source in a given direction. The unit of measurement is the candle (cd).
- It is the amount of light flow that hits a surface and is inversely proportional to the distance between the light source and the surface itself.
It is measured in lux (lx).
- The only photometric quantity perceived by the eyes, is the luminous intensity emitted by the surface of an object referred to a surface and is given by the ratio between the luminous intensity emitted by the object in one direction and the area of a surface perpendicular to that direction. It is measured (in cd/m2).
Lighting design also identifies the most correct system in terms of light distribution, which can be: Direct, semi-direct, mixed, semi-indirect or indirect lighting. In the latter, more than 90% of the luminous flow is directed upwards and it is the one that is most used in interior design.
Lastly, another parameter to consider is the color temperature, which is expressed in kelvin degrees and varies from warm to cold white:
- Warm (2700-3000K) tending towards yellow/orange.
- Natural (4000K) merely white color gradients.
- Cold (5500-7000K) tending towards blue/purple, makes the white more brilliant.
In the quest for the maximum functionality of a workspace, as well as considering the type of partitions, wall finishings, ceilings, flooring materials and furnishings, a detailed study should also be dedicated to the management of light in each area, according to the needs that people have at different times of the day.
News
The new Etoile showroom
A SPACE IN CONSTANT EVOLUTION
There is a magical place within our company.
It is a space that is never the same, constantly changing. Just like our ideas.
It’s where we like to shape emptiness and light, transforming them into ever-new settings.
Here is where we focus our experience of many years in designing and implementing work spaces, interpreting the taste, the needs and the style of Etoile’s customers.
A symphony written by multiple authors, a collective work that takes shape and evolves thanks to the continuous contribution of all our clients, designers and collaborators.
Our goal is to always create open, relational and inclusive milieus, which as partitions’ producers might seem like nonsense.
Though our concept of workspace aims to go beyond the limit, to cross the boundary of thought’s perimeters, by putting forwards continuous connections among people.
A contemporary vision of surfaces that can be functionally delimited, but never limited in its search for encountering and wellbeing.
It is a constant tension to the detail, to that characteristic that distinguishes our search for beauty even in human relationships.
All this and much more is what we would like you to experience with our invitation to visit our new showroom, always displaying the best of Etoile’s projects and solutions.
Allow time for your space.
It is precious.
News
Paths of style and love for details
ETOILE PRESENT THE NEW BLOG, AN INTERIOR JOURNEY THROUGH DESIGN.
Indeed, an inner journey? Granted that we are baptizing a new Blog dedicated to Interior Design and that for some Architecture embodies better than other arts the “spirit” of the times, but to even bother the dimension of the soul seems a bit excessive.
Do you think so? Maybe. But for us at Etoile, this new adventure is a bit of a journey of self-discovery. It’s a way to reacquaint ourselves with our history, our values, the goals we’ve hit and the projects we have in the works. It is our “nosce te ipsum”, a self-invitation to the continuous research, always pushing us to cross new limits, to explore unfounded grounds, to experiment original paths and styles.
These web pages will be even the tool to share with you, step by step, the small or big achievements of our company.
Whether it is innovative techniques, unusual materials or the creative flair of our designs, we want to share with you the narrative of our everyday life that is never the same.
For Etoile is first and foremost the story of a passion that has lasted for thirty years and is nourished, day after day, by the “know-how” of workers trained in the love of detail, typical of our Region, Le Marche.
Ours is a sartorial type of care in the management of works, a tailor-made process that perfectly fits on our clients, whether they are designers, general contractors, or more simply private customers looking for quality solutions.
Our blog will not be the usual, cold, scheduled operation of storytelling, which is now so trendy but has so little to do with the soul.
Rather, it will be our way of trying to empathize with those who feel they share our same sensibilities, creating a community of style and taste.
An opportunity to meet common passions from which something wonderfully unpredictable can arise.
It is an invitation to a journey that will take us to many destinations still unknown. All that matters though is travelling together.
