Our urban nocturnal environment can be
compared to an unfinished pointillist
painting, because there are so many bright
glary dots of lights in our field of vision. My
methodology considers avoiding those
dots and tries to create a balanced picture
throughout our visual frame. I am especially
fond of working on lighting designs in land-
scape where light is not so easily controlled
as it is in architecture. Yet at the same time,
you can achieve the most romantic, theatrical
stage designs. I love these scenographic
approaches. Objects you illuminate are
already set for you; the scene already exists
in its original, natural form.
DL
What is your starting point when
you begin to design?
DS
One of the oldest living lighting
designers, Howard Brandston, once said that
those who could not visualize the lighting of a
space with their eyes closed, were simply not
qualified to deal with light. That is, my light
and my visualization process, indeed, arise
from closing my eyes, imagining the space in
the dark, and experiencing the form of light;
the way it reveals the form of the object it
illuminates, what happens with the shadow
arising from this interaction. I understand
that light lives
in five forms. Light is invisible, but has form.
The first form of light is in the source, the
second is the invisible form of light itself,
the third is the form of the object revealed
by light before it touches it, the fourth is the
form of the shadow and the fifth is the form
of the consequence that comprises all the
previous four forms, as well as the way we
feel and experience the space considering the
four forms.
DL
Besides the personal relationships,
doesyour approach and choices
differ from one continent to the
other? For example, how big is the
role of climate, culture and other
local elements in your design?
DS
The phrase integration with inspi-
ration also applies not only for the building
itself but naturally for the environment and
cultural tradition so the form of the light
should follow the form of the object and it
should be unobtrusive to the viewer. That
means that the deep thought of light is wi-
thout boundaries. It flows and it should flow
globally regardless of cultural difference. But
also living in an area where four seasons are
clearly changing our daily perception of light,
shadow and colour, probably has some in-
fluence on my understanding or “learning to
see” the light.
DL
Do you agree that the outdoor
lighting design at first needs to be
utilitarian?
DS
Light should be always designed
beyond utilitarian, otherwise it’s not de-
signed. Name one project where you feel
that architecture, landscape and exterior
lighting merge perfectly. The technology
nowadays permits us to create dynamic
public lighting and maybe a very good
example would be the illumination of town
of Motovun. A project which is in the con-
cept phase but it implements all necessary
elements of a human centric lighting design.
On a microlevel we achieved this goals in
our recently realized project Verudela Art
Park in our town of Pula.
DL
What inspires you?
DS
In Greek mythology inspiration as
an unconscious burst of creativity that comes
from the muses.
I would agree with that but also add that
it’s a question of the site-specific relations
between the investor, architects and partners
in project. For me it happens mostly when
the spirit of a place, the Genius loci, brings to
me the decisive moment of inspiration. The
site usually evokes clear mental pictures in
my mind, of what I see on that specific scene
during the night, and this applies mostly to all
the lighting projects that I’ve done so far.
118
OUTDOOR
DELTA LIGHT
