44|PROTAGONISTA “THE ANGEL”, CEMENTERIO LANDSKYRKOGARDEN, LIGHTS IN ALINGSAS 2013 Año: 2013 / Fotógrafo: Patrik Gunnar / © Alingsas Kommun & Patrik Gunnar How would you define light? Light is a fundamental part of life on Earth. Like oxygen, it surrounds us and only when we are deprived of it, we realize how vital to us it is. Light is immaterial but we can perceive our material surroundings, largely because of it. What a lighting designer does with light is small compared to the power of light, but it is important nonetheless, and it has to be done well. What is the ideal relationship between lighting and architecture? In your first question you talk about “light” and now you talk about “lighting”. I am more interested in the relationship between “light” and “architecture” that in the relationship between “lighting” and “architecture”. An architectural project in which light has been neglected is a project that suffers. And with this I mean solar light, called “natural”, as well as what we call “artificial” light, even though all the photons are natural. Although light is a part of the parameters of comfort (as are thermal and acoustics), it is through it that we see the space. Attention to light has to become part of a project as soon as possible. Unfortunately, lighting designers, just as firemen, are sometimes called too late and urgently and, just as firemen, they go to the rescue but it is a pity that they were not called earlier. What characteristics should a good lighting project have? If I had to summarize it in one word it would be “adequateness”: adequateness to the place, to the users, to the functions, to its history, to the budget, etc. Nevertheless, when I talk about adequateness, I am thinking of something unmeasurable. To me, doing a lighting project is answering to the visual functions inside a space with certain intentions, and a certain spirit. Placing the requested lights in the requested places, and only that, never produced a “good” lighting project. It is here that the “design” part of “lighting design” acquires its full meaning. Of all the lighting projects you have done, which one has been the most complex and why? Complexity in a project can come from two sources: from the topic itself or from the management. By management I mean everything that takes part in a project and has no direct relationship with light. The more important a client or a topic is, the more complex its management. For a lighting designer this is an essential aspect that has to be integrated for the success of the project but for me it is more of an obligation than a challenge. The complexity that gets me going is that of the topic itself, of the place to be illuminated. If we are talking about this kind of complexity then the lighting project of the Puilaurens castle is a good example. It is a magnificent place, not very accessible, located high on a rocky peak. We wanted to preserve the magic of the place by keeping the lighting devices imperceptible. Some months ago, in Barcelona you explained to us that in lighting design less is more too. Why is that? If I find a thread that guides my approach as lighting designer, I think it is the paradoxical goal of creating the impression that “artificial” lighting is “natural”, “evident”. In interior