This site specific installation by the London based design studio, Troika, was on exhibit last month in Kortrijk, Belgium for the international biennial – Interieur 2012.

“Arcades” employs a medium for which Troika is quickly becoming a master – light. Here Troika has inscribed one architectural space within another. The first space is an old stable defined by strong brick walls, a pitched roof and exposed wooden beams. The second space (the ‘Arcade’) takes form from a series of 14 pillars of light met by fresnel lenses, which serve to refract the light as it travels through each lens’ focal point. Each lens is specifically angled to interact with each light beam in a way that does not simply change the light’s direction but rather bends it hyperbolically to form the arced peaks of a Gothic arch. Two architectures, two definitions of space… one of solid brick and wood and the other of something far less tangible, yet no less powerful and real.

As Troika eloquently puts it, “The illusion doesn’t usurp but rather re-enforces the experience of a space. Here, in the spirit of stain-glass, of ‘Lux Nova’, in which spirituality is invoked through light, science invokes the sublime.”

I hope this serves as inspiration for all my architecture and design friends… don’t forget the light! If you missed the DPAGES feature on Troika back in March, I recommend a peek.
Photos courtesy of Troika.