For our fifth year celebrating Salone del Mobile, the world’s largest design fair in Milan, we have partnered with Sou Fujimoto Architects to create a unique installation and multisensory experience, Forest of Light. Inspired by nature and the experience of a forest at twilight, the installation presents light and sound in a new architectural context.
Taking inspiration from the COS collection, the Forest of Light installation explores ideas of interaction and perspective; the darkened space is illuminated by towering cones of light that are designed to respond to visitors’ movements.
With fog and specially-composed sounds creating an immersive environment, mirrored walls imagine an infinite landscape where the conical spotlights become abstracted trees, joining together to form a shifting forest of light.
“People meander through this forest, as if lured by the charm of the light. Light and people interact with one another, its existence defining the transition of the other”. Sou Fujimoto
Built in the 1930s by Italian architect Mario Cereghini, this year’s installation is located in Cinema Arti in Milan’s San Babila district. A former theatre, the now derelict venue has inspired the key aspects of Sou Fujimoto’s design and provides an expansive backdrop to the installation.
“Once, this place was a cinema and adopting the use of spotlight is an idea of homage. The spotlight becomes an interface, which connects fashion, space and forest as a form of architecture.” Sou Fujimoto
