Shop Talk with TM Light, Designers of 85F's New Arkoslight Space Vol. 15

For this edition of Shop Talk, the interview series where friends and collaborators exchange ideas, discoveries, and sources of inspiration, RBW and the TM Light talk about what it was like to bring the vision of a new Arkoslight experience to life in RBW's historic 85F space in Tribeca. TM brought their multidisciplinary approach to the project, bringing their perspectives across architecture, interior, and lighting design.

We sat down with the TM team to talk about the design thinking behind the Arkoslight space at 85 Franklin.

When was TM Light established, and why?

B. Alex Miller, Partner: TM was established in 2004 as an architectural design practice, but since our founding the studio has always been super divergent in the types of projects we engaged in. We’ve designed everything that we could get our hands on… homes to offices to mobile furniture pieces to large scale artwork to lighting. We’ve always been comfortable starting a studio day with a new challenge; it gets us up in the mornings.

Aoife O'Leary, Studio Director: The fun is in the multi-disciplinary nature of the projects, we get to hop scales a lot and looking at teeny tiny architectural details really helps us when we collaborate with other designers on our larger lighting projects.

When it comes to lighting design, would you choose form or function?

Alex: I think it would be funny here if I just said “form”: We ONLY CARE about how something looks and how it operates is of ZERO concern. I can’t even imagine that! Alas, it’s all one and the same for us. In fact with most lighting; we try to be formless. For most of our collaborations with other designers, if the lighting or the fixtures that produce it become so prominent that they overwhelm their architectural context, then we’ve lost the battle. Even when we collaborate with lighting manufacturers for products in their catalogues, we always start with what is the most ‘non’ thing we can come up with… then slowly develop it based only on pure function.

Aoife: Generally, I think if it is carefully integrated into the form - the functions kind of follows as you’ve already put the thought into details already. I agree with Alex that we tend to shy away from an idea of function that is totally product focused as that can be difficult with all the push and pulls of a typical construction project.

If you had to name a material that you find particularly interesting because of the way it interacts with light, what would it be?

Alex: This is so silly… but i’m still obsessed with old school lay-in chromed out egg crate louvers. They are magical. We’re using them for an entire ceiling plane in a project with Johnston Marklee, and the resultant dance between the presence of light on the floor and the relative quietness of the ceiling plane will forever be compelling to me.

Aoife: I love any kind of cast glass, from Murano to more contemporary examples. They are beautiful objects of course but can also create wonderful plays of lighting and shadows and feeling of something dissolving.

From your point of view, what kind of stories have not yet been told through the use of light in an architectural space?

Alex: We have a lecture that we give academically called “Light as Media Light as Message” where we discuss examples of projects where light actually carries that kind of message or ‘story’. The really good examples are rare in all honesty, and many do NOT come from architecture. Instead, they come from film and art. I think there is a VERY intense conceptual rigor that is required to design a context where the experience of light and space is so profoundly intertwined that you feel it like you do when seeing a Robert Wilson play or a James Turrell installation. I would say that we’re still looking for the opportunity to create that type of space. I recently saw Wilson’s Moby Dick performance in Brooklyn, so I will call the search for that design opportunity our ‘white whale’.

If this space were a narrative, what’s the central theme we’re bringing to life?

Alex: As a showroom for a lighting manufacturer, the narrative is rooted in the poetic unfolding of the experience with the fixtures themselves. In this case, we have continuous fabric surfaces that slowly turn onto each other to create moments of enclosure where each light fixture family can be experienced. At the same time, the spatially continuous and materially transparent quality of the fabric surfaces also assures moments where you are able to feel the presence of the entire line of fixtures all at once.

Aoife: The upper levels of the RBW showroom have a very beautiful bare quality- the idea of discovering this more richly textured and intense world on the lower level was a strong touchstone from the beginning. So, you discover this space when you descend and then continue to uncover the story of the space as you interact with the inidvidual pods. Our drapery installer called them “jelly-beans”.

When guests leave this space, what impression or memory should linger with them?

Alex: We joke internally that we’d like people to want to come back and use the space as an underground speakeasy on the weekend. I think that speaks to desiring the softness, continuity, and transparency of the space to feel very much NOT like a showroom while still telling the story of the Arkos fixtures that are shown there.

Aoife: Yeah, it’s that feeling of discovering something secret/special that they hopefully want to share with others.

How do we want someone to feel the second they step into the space?

Alex: For me, it would be a bit of wonder and a bit of comfortable confusion. There are spaces that are layered so that you can’t perceive the direct entry point to them… so that pause of slowly moving along a surface until you feel a break in it (we hope) will be pretty magical.

Aoife: Mystery; I think it is ok if the visitors feels a bit unsettled after the clarity of the open plan floors above.

What’s your favorite detail about Arkoslight experience at 85 Franklin?

Alex: I’m excited to see the color tones that we’ve composed and how they ‘read’ when looking across the space with the layering of the fabric transparencies.

Aoife: I’m looking forward to seeing the intensity of the tonal layerings; within the pods where we are combining carpet, drapery and furniture of the same color families. Light overlaid on that will be special.

Are there elements of the space that feel particularly connected to Arkoslight’s Spanish roots?

Alex: I’ve been to Spain every year for the last 15 years at least, and I would just hope that this humble showroom lives up even incrementally to an incredible architectural legacy in Valencia.

Aoife: The richness and earthiness of the palette feels appropriate to the brand and its Spanish heritage.

What was unique about this project versus other projects TM Light has taken on for other clients?

Alex: For me, it was the intense speed from design through construction. This type of process lends itself to a conceptual clarity; You have to dramatically lean into the original design diagram to make fast decisions so that it all stays cohesive. You have to hold onto the design ideas with diamond hands to keep it on track!

Aoife: Super speedy- Alex joked that it was like a racehorse that overtook all the projects that had been on the boards much longer.

How did the architecture of the building influence your design of the interior space?

Alex: The RBW display spaces upstairs are more open and daylight-filled while this ARKOS showroom space is below grade with no natural light at all. We leaned into that difference quite a lot designing the ARKOS space as a moody, heavily materialed, subterranean speakeasy.

Aoife: The history of the building - idea of finding this world in the basement of a building that was previously a creative hive, being the home and studio of the sculptor Dennis Oppenheim was a big inspiration.

What was the state of the space when you found it, and what did the ensuing transformation entail?

Alex: The existing space was a typical industrial loft cellar really. Large, open, and free of any walls. The transformation meant adding secondary hovering ceiling planes, suspended track systems, and associated curtain fabric. The idea was that the original ‘box’ of the space recedes to the background while these new surfaces are suspended within it.

What was the collaboration like with multiple parties across two continents?

Alex: It has been such a lovely collaboration! With the RBW team on the ground in NYC with us, it meant that we could quickly get to design decisions even during the construction process. Luckily, designing with other designers always makes for an enlightened result!

Did anything about this project surprise you?

Alex: It takes sooooo long to find the right furniture pieces that fit a budget, that are available very quickly for the install, and that actually match a pre-determined color palette!

Yes, the budget was tight and I was concerned we would lose some of the conceptual rigor. But we landed in a great place.

Why does Arkoslight's aesthetic appeal to you?

Alex: There is a compelling level of design restraint and minimalism that permeates the brand’s offerings. Per our earlier questions about form or function, the fixture line has options that are as invisible as they physically can be and other more decorative options that have just a touch of profile or elegant glow. We never get the sense from any of the fixtures that they’ve been ‘over designed’.