46|PROTAGONISTA Luminaria Bib Luz, diseñada por Oscar Tusquets como una prolongación de la propia librería para evitar los deslumbramientos. / Bib Luz lamp, designed from Oscar Tusquets as an extension of the library to prevent the glares. You were in charge of the subway stations that have two exits, to Toledo Street and to “Monte Calvario” square in Naples. How should the lighting be in a public facility when the space is in total darkness by nature? It’s one that has two exits far apart from each other, at a distance of 20 mts. “Monte Calvari” is a square in the middle of the “Quartieri Spagnoli” which are the most dangerous neighborhoods of downtown Naples. Politically, it was considered that two entrances far apart from each other would be interesting. Louis Khan, who was the last architect to say interesting things, use to say that a space devoid of natural light is not an architectural space. I believe this is too radical because it would imply that most opera theaters or movie theaters are not architectural spaces. It still is a phrase that is food for thought. Evidently, anyone doing a subway station can count on having very little natural light. Even though I made great efforts by projecting a 40 meters high crater to allow some natural light in from the Street, all the way in to almost the level of the rails, it was a very poetic light, not very functional. The Toledo station was very unsettling to illuminate. At the end, practically all that was installed were indirect lights, reflected on the ceiling and walls, always avoiding glare. The most economical way of lighting an escalator is to hang some fluorescent luminaries on top of the steps but I wanted to be able to see the ceiling because, on this station, it is very interesting. So we did some research on how to illuminate the escalator from the translucid balustrade on the sides of each escalator. This was a huge battle with the technicians that had never done anything like it. They assured us there wouldn’t be enough light and they were sure we would not meet the luces for the place. Now, when you see the effect, it is, without a doubt, one of the attractions of the space, as you can see in the photographs. On this case, for the artificial light, the professionals, Salazar and Navarro, it natural or artificial; and so are shadows. The Arab culture in Spain gave great importance to shadow and taught us to control the sun and domesticate it. At least in our latitude, it is important to know how to create shadow which is something that contemporary architecture knows little about and it is one of its poetic functions. You have designed furniture and luminaries. What is most important when creating a luminary? Mostly light, it should not glare, create discomfort. I have a good example to illustrate this: a luminary I designed for a library. When a luminary is positioned on a shelf, the light obscures the spine of the books. It occurred to me to shine a light from a book using a bend metal alloy and projecting the light directly on the bibliographic titles. The luminary in itself is very simple but what is important to me is the effect: how to illuminate a bookshelf from the bookshelf. Ingo Maurer, a good friend whose work I love, copied my idea by doing a similar luminary, which he called Oskar. I thought about creating a luminary inspired on his work and call it “Ingo” instead of suing him (laughs). In short, a luminary should be pretty turned on and turned off, except when it disappears when turned off. The design of the shade is of significance, although this premise is not fashionable today.