DI CLASSE PHILOSOPHY

Domei Endo (DI CLASSE, designer)

Auro wood pendant lamps by Di Classe have been installed at the five-star Raffles Hotel in Dubai. The lamps inspired by the image of an aurora weave a tapestry of light and shadow that provides a backdrop to moments of leisure and fulfilment. The lighting provided by Di Classe provides this space with its own unique narrative, ushering forth an exquisite harmony within an environment characterised by the intermingling of people and physical objects and the dialogue between light and shadow.

Domei Endo believes that there’s more to lighting
than merely brightening up a spatial environment.
His philosophy might be said to focus
not on lighting devices as such
but rather on the design of light and shadow.
It’s all about lighting that offers
a sense of therapeutic healing.
To refer to his collection merely as
‘lighting equipment’ doesn’t do it justice:
each individually designed item
is quite clearly not just a utilitarian device
and might better be described as a work of art
that expresses Endo’s design inspiration.

Nature as a theme...
The first motif that Endo tackled after launching the Di Classe design company was leaves. He spent between six months and a year working on this motif until the image settled in its current form. There is something therapeutic about the image of birds resting their beautifully coloured wings on the white frame of the lamp shade with its vivid green leaves. When the switch is turned on we see soft orange light and the shadow of the leaves reflected on the white wall like sunlight filtering
through the branches of trees, creating the illusion of being inside a forest.
Were this to be combined with an artificial recreation of the sounds and smells of the forest, one could totally forget the reality of being in the megacity of Tokyo.

By far the greater part of Endo’s work has been based on themes gathered from nature. When he exhibited pieces based on the theme of leaves at Maison et Objet (the world’s foremost interior design trade fair, held in Paris), he was often asked why he used imitation leaves in preference to real leaves. The idea that if nature is employed as the theme the materials should themselves be natural seems quintessentially French, but this was his reply to such questions: ‘I want people to look at the shadow rather than at the design of the lighting and the leaves. I think of myself as a designer involved in the creation of light and shadow rather than of concrete forms.’ The beautiful shadow created by his lighting together with the concepts that underpin the products met with high praise.

The theme of Endo’s work thereafter gradually moved away from leaves to embrace trees, branches and clouds, and he is continuing to express the whole range of natural phenomena. The light and shadow that emanate from his lighting evoke sunlight filtering through trees, the flow of clouds, trees and branches, and auroras that suddenly appear in the night sky. His dialogue with nature is set to continue indefinitely. This is why there’s a narrative underlying Di Classe lighting. One feels like actually touching the walls and tables on which the light is reflected and sharing the experience with intimates. Time flows effortlessly forward and the dialogue into which we enter with an ecstatic smile becomes gently engraved in spirit and memory. Warm light reflects the instant when an ordinary day is transformed into a special day. Surely we all have someone dear to us with whom we’d like to share this experience.

Therapeutic lighting...
Orange goes particularly well with the light emanating from Endo’s works: the colour of the rising and setting sun, the colour of the full moon resplendent in the night sky, the colour of a bonfire with a 1/f fluctuation. The orange visible in nature is the colour instinctively associated with the energy present in our planet and in the earth.
‘It’s through exposure to light that
the brain transmitter known as serotonin is secreted.
Human activity is stimulated by the increase in serotonin,
while physical and mental relaxation is promoted
by secretion of melatonin,
which occurs with decreased exposure to light
with the approach of evening, thereby inducing sound sleep.
The body clock is set to a 25-hour cycle,
and we have to make up for this daily gap of
an hour through exposure to strong morning sunlight.
This is known as circadian rhythm,
and it means that light has to be regulated
so we can get through the day
in good physical and mental health.
And this is why light in the home needs to have
the orange tinge associated with twilight and bonfires.
This is what my idea of “therapeutic lighting” is all about.’
This statement hints not just
at Endo’s inspiration as a designer
but also at the theoretical underpinning
of his approach to light.

As a Japanese...
The primary source of Endo’s inspiration as a designer, however, lies in the Italian city of Florence. The culture shock that he received in Italy on his first overseas trip in his youth has continued to inspire his creative passion. His feelings are translated into form and his creations are passed into the hands of people with whom his ideas strike a sympathetic chord. ‘It’s precisely because I’m Japanese that I became so obsessed with design in the form of lighting. I don’t imagine I’d have worked with light had I been Italian. When I returned to Japan from my trip to Italy, I was astonished at the incredible brightness of lighting in Japanese homes.

The lighting that sells best in Japanese electrical goods stores is always the brightest. The main request that customers have when they purchase a light is that it should be as bright as possible. But lights that shine as brightly as the midday sun can’t provide therapeutic environments. Orange light, the colour of light bulbs, is needed to create therapeutic lighting. The ideal is to be able to regulate the intensity of light in the sense of controlling light between dusk and night, thereby making it possible to incorporate every natural phenomenon into the home environment.’ The feelings and affection that Endo has for all natural phenomena are one of his intrinsically Japanese attributes. Since ancient times Japanese people have tried to incorporate and recreate natural phenomena into their everyday lives. Japanese traditional gardens, tea houses, flower arrangement and bonsai are all manifestations of this approach to nature.

Japanese lifestyles in the modern era have, however, been increasingly affected by Westernisation and futuristic concepts, and modern homes emphasising convenience often acquire an inorganic quality. The points of contact with nature that Japanese people have continued to maintain in their everyday lives are gradually diminishing. Endo’s lighting, based as it is on the theme of nature and involving the design of light and shadow, blends perfectly with radically modern spatial environments and is enhanced by the beauty of nature itself.

‘Understanding and discovering about light gives us the capacity to select light as a backdrop to energetic activity, to dozing off, to relaxation or to any other activity. It’s all about purposeful control of light in accordance with one’s own wishes. People who actually study and are engaged in activities on a therapeutic level tend to be particularly sensitive to soothing spatial environments. I’d like to see us become more aware of light and of being able to create our own original therapeutic environments.’

The lighting that sells best in Japanese electrical goods stores is always the brightest. The main request that customers have when they purchase a light is that it should be as bright as possible. But lights that shine as brightly as the midday sun can’t provide therapeutic environments. Orange light, the colour of light bulbs, is needed to create therapeutic lighting. The ideal is to be able to regulate the intensity of light in the sense of controlling light between dusk and night, thereby making it possible to incorporate every natural phenomenon into the home environment.’ The feelings and affection that Endo has for all natural phenomena are one of his intrinsically Japanese attributes. Since ancient times Japanese people have tried to incorporate and recreate natural phenomena into their everyday lives. Japanese traditional gardens, tea houses, flower arrangement and bonsai are all manifestations of this approach to nature.

Japanese lifestyles in the modern era have,
however, been increasingly affected
by Westernisation and futuristic concepts,
and modern homes emphasising convenience
often acquire an inorganic quality.
The points of contact with nature
that Japanese people have continued to maintain
in their everyday lives are gradually diminishing.
Endo’s lighting, based as it is on the theme of nature and involving the design of light and shadow, blends perfectly with radically modern spatial environments and is enhanced by the beauty of nature itself.

‘Understanding and discovering about light gives us the capacity to select light as a backdrop to energetic activity, to dozing off, to relaxation or to any other activity. It’s all about purposeful control of lightin accordance with one’s own wishes. People who actually study and are engaged in activities on a therapeutic level tend to be particularly sensitive to soothing spatial environments. I’d like to see us become more aware of light and of being able to create our own original therapeutic environments.’