Artificial lighting plays an essential role in spatial quality. Badly thought-out lights can disrupt an architecture project and even bring harmful effects to occupants' health; while a well-balanced luminotechnic project can highlight positive aspects of the surroundings and make it much more enjoyable. Generally, however, projects tend to be too rigid and not in-tune with the flexibility of contemporary spaces. In addition, a badly made lighting decision can be complex and expensive to rectify. For example, electrical points in slabs, linings or walls are not easily modified if the distribution of a space is changed. At most, when this is resolved with hanging or free-standing lamps, we end up having to deal with bothersome electrical wires throughout the space.
Vibia has developed an innovative and highly flexible lighting system that can be adapted to fit each individual user's vision, needs and experiments, called Plusminus. Designed by Stefan Diez, the entire system is structured around a conductive textile belt that curves into any shape, allowing the user to pair it with other lamps at any point along its length. It is a simple click-and-connect system that offers total freedom of creation. “The conductive belt can dip into soft curves to allow for pendant lamps; trace geometric track lighting; or else cut across a space to produce dramatic lighting installations.”
