Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.\u201cWe\u2019re on 60 latitude north; there\u2019s probably no one in the world that owns darkness like us,\u201d says H\u00e5kan L\u00e5ngstedt, chief executive of Helsinki-based architectural lighting studio Saas Instruments. The company mantra is \u201cProtecting Darkness\u201d: a crusade against over-illumination. In practice, it\u2019s an ethos wielded as restrained, \u201cchiaroscuro\u201d style lighting in homes, hotels and lakeside private saunas, and soon in the eagerly awaited extension of the National Museum of Finland. \u201cYou can easily destroy things with light,\u201d L\u00e5ngstedt says. \u201cInstead, we think of comfortable contrast: how light fades into darkness. You want a transition.\u201dIn a country where the sun lays low on the horizon for several winter months, the Finns\u2019 defining relationship with light has suffused into their design history, from the ambitious 20th-century masters to a new generation that is continually rewiring the landscape. The throughline is often a more subtle understanding of the power of light.In 1929, Alvar Aalto, an architect and designer who saw his work as part of a holistic enterprise, received his career-establishing commission for the Paimio Sanatorium when he himself was hospitalised with illness. Recalling the miserable glare of a bare bulb hanging above his sickbed, the Finnish designer later wrote: \u201cMy eyes turned towards the electric light, and there was no inner balance, no real peace in the room.\u201d Alvar and first wife Aino\u2019s design for the sanatorium \u2014 a purpose-built tuberculosis facility in western Finland completed in 1933 \u2014 is significant particularly for its lighting design: from the orientation of patient rooms to capitalise on full morning sunlight, to the placement of overhead lamps behind patients\u2019 heads, to minimise glare. It laid the foundation for the Aaltos\u2019 radically more humane Modernism, and for wider future innovation in Finland.Four decades on, Aalto would unite his thinking in a late-career masterpiece: Helsinki\u2019s Finlandia Hall. Earlier this year, the concert venue resurfaced from a three-year renovation, illuminated by Aalto\u2019s signature blend of skylights with polished brass, as well as some 2,000 light fixtures that have been cleaned and restored. Designer Mikko K\u00e4rkk\u00e4inen of Tunto lighting, responsible for more than 700 of these newly modified fittings, sees his work in continuum with the Aaltos\u2019 \u201cbalanced and boldly dynamic\u201d practice.\u00a0Many of Aalto\u2019s contemporaries also forged luminous careers in lighting design. Yrj\u00f6 Kukkapuro (1933-1925), the furniture designer who died earlier this year, is known for his Luminaires Series YK100 (now available from Swedish lighting brand Blond), a 1960s design solution for his radical home-atelier. Paavo Tynell (1890-1973) is often remembered as \u201cthe man who illuminated Finland\u201d for his strikingly sculptural brass fittings, including the famous Snowflake pendant. And Lisa Johansson-Pape (1907-1989), a multidisciplinary designer and co-founder of the Illuminating Engineering Society of Finland, is credited with functional, technical pieces using enamelled metal, acrylic and glass, as well as for transforming many of Helsinki\u2019s public hospitals and churches.For the emerging generation, inspiration comes not only from this formidable design heritage, but also from a profound connection to seasonal rhythms of light and dark. \u201cWhen spring comes to the north, you can feel the energy levels rise,\u201d says prominent Finnish designer Joanna Laajisto. \u201cIt is a very powerful experience.\u201d Her approach is to balance architectural lighting with decorative fittings, often tending towards warmer tones of light, compared with southern Europe. For the studio\u2019s recent NoA House project, a Helsinki workplace, Laajisto incorporated her Ihana lighting collection (designed for Marset), featuring opal blown glass diffusers. \u201cThe effect is quite similar to a candle or even a fireplace; they create a soft ambience,\u201d she says.\u00a0New design talent is also energised around craft-focused and materials-savvy experimentation. Hong Kong-born, Helsinki-based Didi NG Wing Yin\u2019s Wood Shaving Lamp is, he says, a bid for \u201cnaturalness\u201d; its meticulously carved lattice of ultra-thin semi-transparent wood shavings and rice glue are set atop a magenta Indian ink-dyed stem, polished to reveal the grain. At Secto Design, Seppo Koho\u2019s most recent form-bent birchwood pendant lamp is named Kumulo \u2014 taking its shape from midsummer cumulus clouds and snow-swathed Lapland winter forest.Hungarian-born Imola Balogh, whose grandmother practised architecture in Finland in the late 1960s, recently began to experiment with a wood-based foam, an innovative biomaterial developed by Finnish packaging manufacturer Woamy. Early prototypes of her award-winning \u201cWoodfoam lamp\u201d leaned into the organic imperfections of the industrial process \u2014\u00a0the \u201cbeautifully flawed\u201d porous filtering of light, as Balogh describes. \u201cExploring ways to intentionally standardise these effects could open up new possibilities for future production.\u201d\u00a0Chasing the new while respecting the past is an innate facet of Finnish culture; in part, a philosophy proffered by nature\u2019s cycles. \u201cWe are constantly anticipating the pleasant sunlight of summer,\u201d says Ng. \u201cThe contrast tells me to be patient.\u201d Perhaps this appreciation for the everyday goes hand in hand with Finnish contentment, despite the odds of climate and latitude. \u201cI love the temperature of the light when it comes through the woods,\u201d says L\u00e5ngstedt. \u201cThere is a promise in that light, a promise of something good.\u201dFind out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.\u201cWe\u2019re on 60 latitude north; there\u2019s probably no one in the world that owns darkness like us,\u201d says H\u00e5kan L\u00e5ngstedt, chief executive of Helsinki-based architectural lighting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":248494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-248493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248495,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248493\/revisions\/248495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}