Skip To Main Content
Issue 59 - The Life Outside Issue

Issue 59

The Life Outside Issue

Introducing the Life Outside issue of Habitus magazine. With life increasingly being absorbed into a digital space, there is never a more important moment to hold something tangible. In this context, the power of nature to have a physiological impact on our sense of wellbeing has never been more important. So how can we cultivate the benefits of the our natural environment in the most intimate of places – our homes? This was the question that helped to bring this issue of Habitus to life.

A Product of

Cos x Sou Fujimoto Collaboration for Salone del Mobile 2016
OtherEditorial Team

Cos x Sou Fujimoto Collaboration for Salone del Mobile 2016

Other

“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,” says Sou Fujimoto of Sou Fujimoto Architects, designer of the Cos x Sou Fujimoto ‘Forest of Light’ Salon del Mobile 2016 Installation.


Milan’s Cinema Arti was built in the 1930s by architect Mario Cereghini and has since become a nostalgic ghost of its former theatre hosting self. Swedish fashion label Cos, and Sou Fujimoto Architects, have adopted the space for their multisensory ‘Forest of Light’ installation in celebration of Cos’ fifth year at Milan’s Salone del Mobile, the world’s largest design fair.

Drawing on the Cinema Arti’s previous life as a cinema, the ‘Forest of Light’ installation is an homage to the idea of theatre and nature, becoming a space for observation, escapism, and experience. With walls lined in mirrors, and dappled lighting provided by a series of alternating spotlights, the sparsely spaced stools scattered inside the venue give visitors an opportunity to submerse themselves within the installation.

The ‘Forest of Light’s’ dancing spotlights and auditory background evoke the sensory impression of theatre by reinterpreting the cinema experiential environment of darkness, minimal illumination, and surround sound. It simultaneously adopts a more literal echo of a cinema and the Golden Age of theatre, with the spotlights recalling outmoded cinema equipment.

Fujimoto muses that, “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.”

Cos x Sou Fujimoto - Salone del Mobile 2016 | Habitus Living

The installation’s conical spotlights become an interactive element of the installation, as the movements of visitors cast reflections into the mirrors and distort shadows. These refractions of light create abstract trees that seem to move throughout the space, and imitate the setting of a forest at twilight. This creates a beautiful installation that examines the idea of escapism and experience, blending the contemporary manmade experience of theatre with the natural escapist experience of the expansive forest.

Cos x Sou Fujimoto’s ‘Forest of Light’ Installation can be visited during Salone del Mobile 2016, at the Cinema Arti in Milan’s San Babila district.

The design hunt continues in Milan here.

Cos x Sou Fujimoto
cosstores.com/cosxsoufujimoto

Cos x Sou Fujimoto - Salone del Mobile 2016 | Habitus Living
Cos x Sou Fujimoto - Salone del Mobile 2016 | Habitus Living

 

 


About the Author

Editorial Team

Tags

cosinstallationmilanindesign2016salone del mobile 2016sou fujimoto


Related Projects
Issue 59 - The Life Outside Issue

Issue 59

The Life Outside Issue

Introducing the Life Outside issue of Habitus magazine. With life increasingly being absorbed into a digital space, there is never a more important moment to hold something tangible. In this context, the power of nature to have a physiological impact on our sense of wellbeing has never been more important. So how can we cultivate the benefits of the our natural environment in the most intimate of places – our homes? This was the question that helped to bring this issue of Habitus to life.

Order Issue