Client: Kiss Carthage Architects

Overview

NYC Department of Parks and Recreation commissioned Kiss Cathcart Architects to design the 13,000 sq ft DPR building and Community Center and grounds on the Brooklyn-Greenpoint riverfront. CP Lighting was called in to design and construct two large chandeliers that would reflect the green program of the building. www.cplighting.com

Goals

The building is quite spare and minimal inside with a green roof that functions as public space and looks out over the park's playing fields and then the river. The sculptural light fixtures that we produced are intended to reference tree roots coming through the ceiling from the plantings above. We were given the reflected ceiling plan and a design brief from the architects with this intent. The maximum dimensional parameters of the fixtures were decided upon and then Christopher Poehlmann, the designer/head fabricator/owner of CP Lighting sculpted the two fixtures each measuring 6' OAH with various branch spans between 6' to 14'.

Process

Like all CP Lighting collaborations, the project began with the client's appreciation of our body of work and how it could be successfully integrated into their project. Our version of Organic Modernism, which we call our newGROWTH series, is well suited for adaptation to a wide variety of interior and styles. The Bushwick project needed a strong design focal point for the spare interior and Kiss Cathcart determined that we fit the bill. Our collaborations with architects and designers is a simple process of assessing the needs of the site and designing an organic fixture to suit from post-consumer aluminum. The design is based upon the overall dimension and general configuration that is determined in the collaborative phase of development, There are no shop drawings involved. Then the construction takes place following those parameters but keeping the fabrication process organic and open to interpretation by the artist. The thought process is to design and construct as if a tree were predetermined to grow into a functional light fixture. The same process is involved for a 14' diameter fixture such as the Bushwick pieces or a 2'x4' chandelier for a residential commission.

Additional Information

web site: www.cplighting.com