SUBTLE, CLASSY ILLUMINATION
German-based lighting-design team finds great success working in the shadows
When it comes to lighting design, invisibility is the true measure of success, says Uli Petzold, founder and CEO of architectural lighting company Apure.
“The most important thing for us is that the light itself completely disappears in the architecture,” says Petzold.
“If you walk into a room, and you see 50 light fixtures in the ceiling, and you have very beautiful architecture and interior design and the attention is drawn away from it because you have all these hot spots on the ceiling, we don’t like that.
“Our fixtures completely disappear in the ceiling, so we’re not stealing anyone’s show.
“We are emphasizing the interior design, the materials and finishes and colours, and volumes in architecture.
“That’s our main goal.” Apure, which is based in Germany but has its headquarters in Miami, is made up of a team of designers, engineers and architects, says Petzold, who started out as an interior architect, designing for the likes of Mercedes-Benz, before specializing in lighting design and manufacturing.
“Our goal was to illuminate the cars without having a lot of hot spots in the finish,” Petzold says.
“Sometimes you go to a dealership, and they have a beautiful car, and you see 20 lighting fixtures in the surface of the car, and we hated it from the beginning. We switched from interior architecture to being lighting designers.”
Apure’s client list is long and impressive: designing and manufacturing lighting solutions for the likes of British architect Norman Foster and New York’s Richard Meier and collaborating with Germany ’s Porsche Design, which has designed some of the shells for some Apure lighting products.
“It’s timeless design. That’s what Porsche is known for,” Petzold says. “Not making any sophisticated designs, which have a life of maybe three to five years and then it disappears, it’s very long lasting, puristic and honest design.”
Lighting design has taken his firm in many different directions, Petzold says.
“One time, we even illuminated a horse barn,” he says.
“By doing that, I learned a lot actually, because we had to study the sensitivity of horses to light, and it’s very, very interesting.
“We were sitting there with vets, and they were explaining where the light should come from and that horses hate glare because then they get nervous.”
Apure lights fit any style of architecture, from modern to classic, and are a combination of the latest lighting technology and lenses, reflectors and electronic fixtures that the company produces “from scratch,” Petzold says.
“We are controlling our LEDs with a micro computer, which is built into every lighting fixture, and that little device is controlling the heat management of the LED so that the LED has an extremely long lifespan of 100,000 hours.
“In terms of the lifespan of a homeowner, it’ll add up to 20 years.”
One of Apure’s lighting collections on show at Avenue Road is called Opus, says Petzold, which has “an extruded aluminum profile” and contains speakers, security cameras, multi- functional senses and AC outlets.
“So instead of having a very busy ceiling with all these different devices in the ceiling, this gives you the ability to create very, very clean esthetic,” says Petzold. “A very high-end esthetic, and clean, clean ceiling, because all the devices go into one of these troughs.”
Another line is called Minus Three, Petzold says, and it demonstrates Apure’s fondness for disappearing into the background and keeping the spotlight on whatever it is they’re illuminating.
“Normally, if you walk into a room and see artwork illuminated, you see these scallops on the wall. This one is able to wash the wall directly from the ceiling, all the way down to the floor in one piece, without any interruption. It looks like you’ve painted the wall a little bit whiter.
“It’s very unusual, and highly esthetic.”