Zumtobel is an international manufacturer of lighting founded in Dornbirn, Austria, in 1950. The company partners with some of the best designers in the world to make beauty an integral part of its culture.
When I first visited Jürg Zumtobel in Austria I was knocked out by two things. First, the futuristic cube of their robotic warehouse, where machines race to select, assemble, and pack products. Second was the seven-story, lightless testing space filled with sensors for measuring the pattern of light for every fixture the company designs. Technicians can create diagrams that show the precise “footprints” of light as two-dimensional shapes so architects will know exactly how the light will behave.
Every year Zumtobel commissions a different artist to create an annual report, which serves not only as a corporate summary but also as a work of beauty in itself. For the report I designed in 2002, I was inspired by the science and art of lighting. I imagined the two-dimensional technical diagrams of lighting footprints as three-dimensional objects, with patterned surfaces lit from within. I then created a virtual gallery of these “light art objects” for the report.
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ZONE’s inaugural double issue examines the physical, political, and perceptual transformations redefining the contemporary city.
These transformations are explored through historical studies of transformations in the urban system, through theoretical essays which map out the evolution of related social and economic structures (such as, the state, the family, and the factory), and through experimental art projects and critical dossiers.
Some of the many contributors to this issue include: Christopher Alexander, John Baldessari, Gilles Deleuze, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, William Labov, Michael Piore, and Paul Virilio.
