Lighting designer Dean Skira, founder of the Skira studio, is coming to Moscow at the invitation of Delta Light and on September 28 will give a lecture “Concrete, Steel, Light and Emotions” at the Digital October site. You can register here.
Dean Skira has been involved in architectural lighting for almost 30 years: graduating from the New York Fashion Institute of Technology, he founded his first studio back in 1990. Since then, he has managed to implement lighting projects of various types, from museum halls to roundabouts. Over the years, Skira has developed his own creative philosophy. Among its key provisions is attention to a person. This also applies to projects in general, including interior and private: the designer starts from the needs of the "user", architecture still takes second place in comparison with people.
This approach also applies to cities: it is there that more than half of the world's population lives, therefore, how cities look at night should be perceived comprehensively, not only as lighting public spaces, but as a scheme for all structures and territories - state, municipal, private … Specifically for urban spaces, Dean Skira created the Polesano lighting concept commissioned by Delta Light: a single formal solution allows, nevertheless, to fine-tune it depending on the characteristics of a particular place - by combining different lamps and other elements. Polesano will be expanded in the future to include CCTV cameras, speakers, Wi-Fi hotspots, etc.
Skira pays great attention to the context of her projects, comparing buildings and the spaces between them with pauses, while lighting is music that is impossible without silence. Also important to him is the tension filled with potential energy that exists between the utilitarian and the poetic and gives life to his projects, as well as the spirit of the place. A striking example of the designer's genius loci-related work is the lighting scheme for harbor cranes in his hometown of Pula, called "Lighting Giants": this is a useful example of the humanization of industrial zones, their post-industrial development with meager means: according to Skira, the lighting designer works mostly with intangible forms however, let us add, the effect of his labor is felt more than clearly.
Also among his projects for the urban environment are the Eurasia tunnel under the Bosphorus in Istanbul, embankments and squares of Croatian cities, roundabouts, for example, in the Shiyana district in Pula. Skira is also involved in lighting parks: the territory of the Otradnoye equestrian club near Moscow, the botanical garden in Lucca, Italy, and many others.
Among the public and cultural objects that Dean Skira worked with with his studio - the Shimon Peres Peace Center in Tel Aviv, the ancient Roman Cardo street in Jerusalem, the archaeological and historical museums in Pula, works at the Venice Biennale, the Mercato del Duomo market in Milan. The designer is also involved in commercial projects, including hotels, stadiums, office buildings (Evolution Tower in Moscow City), shopping centers (TSUM in Kiev).
For Skira, educational activities are also important: through lectures, publications, etc. he talks about the social and cultural significance of lighting design, because today, according to him, it often seems that he and his team value the project more than his client.
