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Spacial Magazine

Shadow Players

By: Eva Slunečková Photo: Marie Tomanová
#Leaders
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The sun‘s rays burst uncom­pro­mis­ing­ly among the white walls of New York‘s Yabu Pushel­berg stu­dio, as we talk to its founders, George Yabu and Glenn Pushel­berg, about their love for light, shad­ow, and diverse ways to cul­ti­vate them.

What do you recall when some­one says bohemi­an glass?
Glenn Pushel­berg: The first time I vis­it­ed Prague was 30 years ago. I remem­ber to this day the thing I was most fas­ci­nat­ed by was the tra­di­tion­al hand cut glass­ware. George and I remained fas­ci­nat­ed by the country’s abil­i­ty to cut glass. It was a time­less, tra­di­tion­al craft we nev­er thought we‘d use, but we were fas­ci­nat­ed by it. Now we’ve come full circle.

Orig­i­nal­ly we were talk­ing about design­ing a col­lec­tion of glass­ware acces­sories for Lasvit – at the end we‘ve cre­at­ed not only a glass­ware col­lec­tion, but main­ly a more exten­sive col­lec­tion. You‘re pret­ty good at convincing!
George Yabu: I remem­ber the Cipher col­lec­tion actu­al­ly start­ed with our dis­like for tra­di­tion­al chan­de­liers (laugh­ing). The faceted glass has always been too gem­like for our lik­ing. Refrac­tion of light was some­thing we thought about, and we want­ed to get it pierc­ing­ly straight, refined as such a tight line. We were fas­ci­nat­ed by that and the tech­nol­o­gy of laser light because of how sharp and pre­cise those lines are. In explor­ing Otto, our inau­gur­al col­lec­tion with Lasvit, we want­ed to mar­ry this notion of refrac­tion pre­ci­sion with the her­itage of crys­tal craftsmanship.

Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
Find­ing new path in design is usu­al­ly a ques­tion of exp­per­i­ments, which require patience and luck. Such as when George found the defin­ing prin­ci­pal for Otto glass­ware. The solu­tion was wait­ing there, it was enough to look at the glass from a dif­fer­ent angle — through a stream of light.

How long have you been design­ing them both?
George: The desire was always there to cre­ate some­thing with pre­cise, clean lines. It was the unique and excep­tion­al crafts­man­ship behind the com­pa­ny that allowed us to trans­form our dream into reality.

The sur­faces for the Cipher col­lec­tion were inspired by explo­ration of light. Can you describe exact­ly what you want­ed to catch by the decor?
George: We had ini­tial­ly con­ceived of five dif­fer­ent con­cepts for our first light­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion. There were plays between unstruc­tured blown glass, sus­pend­ed molten glass orbs, del­i­cate met­al frame­works, stack­ing, tex­tured glass… with Lasvit’s exper­tise on our side, we knew that, togeth­er, we could cre­ate some­thing tru­ly new. So we explored a range of pos­si­bil­i­ties. The Cipher that we know today didn’t take shape until we were in Prague review­ing pro­to­types. We had an aha moment. Dur­ing that vis­it, the pro­to­types were excep­tion­al to behold, but weren’t quite meet­ing the vision and essence we aimed to cap­ture when design­ing the col­lec­tion in our stu­dio. The aha moment occurred when I took an Otto glass and placed it over a light gen­er­a­tor. The res­o­nance was imme­di­ate — it was exact­ly what we were hop­ing to achieve. Sharp lines shot out, cast­ing pre­cise lines and shad­ows on the wall. It was a hap­py accident.

Your orig­i­nal spe­cial­ty is inte­ri­or design. Did this back­ground help you design such a mul­ti­pur­pose light­ing col­lec­tion? It‘s often said, that design­ers cre­ate things that solve their own problems.
George: The change felt more like a nat­ur­al evo­lu­tion rather than a stark new era. For years, we’d been work­ing with our inte­ri­or design­ers to bring new objects to life, how­ev­er they were miss­ing the key com­po­nent of indus­tri­al design rig­or. We had our feet in the water and then nat­u­ral­ly began build­ing out a team of indus­tri­al design­ers to dri­ve the process and ensure each new prod­uct was the best it could be.

Glenn: The great­est dif­fer­ence between design­ing a project ver­sus design­ing a prod­uct is actu­al­ly one of the most sat­is­fy­ing. When design­ing a hotel, we’re often look­ing at an eight-year time­line. It’s a slow burn. When design­ing prod­ucts, we ideate, we design, we pro­to­type, and that object is brought to life in a year or two. That rel­a­tive­ly imme­di­ate grat­i­fi­ca­tion is deeply sat­is­fy­ing and keeps things exciting.

Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
George and Glenn have been work­ing togeth­er for 40 years and form a cou­ple for almost the same peri­od. How­ev­er, this is not an obsta­cle for them, on the con­trary, they are per­fect­ly attuned to each other.

What kind of atmos­phere you want­ed to reach?
George: Orig­i­nal­ly, we saw Cipher as a plug-and-play sys­tem; a matrix of dif­fer­ent com­po­nents fit­ting into vary­ing envi­ron­ments. We have spaces, espe­cial­ly in hotels, that are high vol­ume and where we may need to drop some­thing down a stair, or intro­duce light to a tight space or a spe­cial­ized space. In time, we real­ized we could build the sys­tem not only lat­er­al­ly, but could also intro­duce floor lamps and table lamps to cre­ate much more range. From there, we’ve con­tin­ued to find new shapes and forms. We’ve cre­at­ed every­thing from a Cipher Christ­mas tree to grand Cipher chan­de­liers, small wall sconces to art instal­la­tions. The abil­i­ty to con­tin­ue grow­ing the col­lec­tion keeps us excit­ed and engaged.

From your enthu­si­ams I assume you‘re per­son­al­ly using Cipher in your projects, right?
Glenn: We are, and it sat­is­fies an amaz­ing range of needs while main­tain­ing a sense of new­ness and nov­el­ty. We opened The Lon­don­er Hotel this fall in Leices­ter Square and Cipher was used through­out – seam­less­ly float­ing above a pre-func­tion bar in a sin­gle, hor­i­zon­tal for­ma­tion, trans­formed into an art instal­la­tion above one of the hotel’s pub­lic entrances, and most spec­tac­u­lar­ly, span­ning three sto­ries of the hotel’s unique under­ground pro­gram­ing, punc­tu­at­ed with star­bursts each step of these way. The col­lec­tion feels nat­ur­al in each of the spaces while still main­tain­ing a unique iden­ti­ty for each pur­pose. Cipher feels as nat­ur­al in The Lon­don­er as it does sit­ting here on my desk in our New York apartment.

George: Anoth­er recent instal­la­tion of Cipher may be found at the Park Lane Hotel in New York. It’s been installed as both lin­ear sconces and as a dynam­ic chan­de­lier-as-art above one the lobby’s spi­ral stair­cas­es. We’d not yet played with flat-planed geo­met­ric for­ma­tions, but we were able to bring them to life in our own back­yard here in New York City. The con­trast between these projects – The Lon­don­er and the Park Lane Hotel – is demon­stra­tive of how dynam­ic Cipher is. The Lon­don­er was a new build, very mod­ern, where­as the Park Lane is actu­al­ly a ren­o­va­tion, with her­itage ele­ments pre­served. The col­lec­tion worked seam­less­ly across both properties.

Speak­ing of wide range… How many com­bi­na­tions can you actu­al­ly cre­ate with the collection?
George: Glenn and I went into design so we could avoid doing any­thing involv­ing num­bers, so [laugh­ing] I’ll have to leave the arith­metic to you. I can say with con­fi­dence that the options feel lim­it­less. Cipher trans­forms to fit mod­ern spaces and tra­di­tion­al spaces alike, while its scale ranges from sweet table lamps to mul­ti-sto­ry chan­de­liers. The col­lec­tion both trans­forms and is transformative.

Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
“Their ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment to the art make this col­lab­o­ra­tion all the more spe­cial, as does the per­son­al ele­ment. It res­onates emo­tion­al­ly,” says George Yabu about the devel­op­ment of the Cipher and Otto collections.

What is impor­tant when choos­ing a light for a home or a hotel?
Glenn: It’s the qual­i­ty of light that cre­ates mood. It isn’t sim­ply about bright light or dim light, but rather where you put the light. Com­ing from the floor, a small lamp spreads light to cre­ate mood and illu­mi­nate the ceil­ing. Recessed light trans­forms atmos­phere. Then comes the col­or and inten­si­ty of the light. Bright light is ener­giz­ing, dim light can be sooth­ing and sen­su­al. These ele­ments form qual­i­ty, and with them we’re able to cre­ate highs and lows, mov­ing one’s eye to where the light is, guid­ing you through a space or high­light­ing a par­tic­u­lar area.

Your hos­pi­tal­i­ty projects work fre­quent­ly with the top­ic of lux­u­ry. What does lux­u­ry mean for you personally?
Glenn: New lux­u­ry is qual­i­ta­tive, not quan­ti­ta­tive. Those who are knowl­edge­able, those who are for­ward think­ing or who trav­el are ear­ly adopters. Typ­i­cal­ly, those peo­ple are also look­ing for qual­i­ta­tive lux­u­ry. It’s not about gild­ing the lily, but rather cre­at­ing things spa­tial­ly that evoke emo­tion. Things that you can con­nect to. Things you under­stand and that are thought­ful. They can be com­prised of the sim­plest mate­r­i­al and be the most beau­ti­ful. Jux­ta­posed against the most expen­sive mate­r­i­al, it doesn’t need to be equal­ly expen­sive. It’s about pro­por­tions and the way some­thing occu­pies space in a room. That’s a lux­u­ry. Otto and Cipher work with very gen­tle, sim­ple and refined details. I have a feel­ing, that this decor cre­ates a very under­stand­able lan­guage that feels famil­iar and com­fort­able, yet in a very dis­tinc­tive, approach­able and sophis­ti­cat­ed way. Seems almost like jewellery.

Since you‘re also a cou­ple, how do you com­plete each other?
George: It goes back to trust. We’ve been part­ners in work for more than 40 years, and in life for near­ly just as long. We’ve shared expe­ri­ences and grown along­side one anoth­er and togeth­er. Feed­back is a nat­ur­al and essen­tial part of our work, and because we have com­plete trust in one anoth­er, we already know how to review. We will con­tin­ue to have dif­fer­ing opin­ions from time to time, but the dif­fer­ences are nev­er tak­en personally.

What is the key fac­tor in your work?
George: Curios­i­ty. And try­ing to find the answer to some­thing. We’re chas­ing the emo­tion­al res­o­nance you get from a project that works.

Glenn: There is a sense of emo­tion and pow­er that define our best inte­ri­ors and most sat­is­fy­ing work. There is a com­plete­ness when every­thing is work­ing in har­mo­ny. We hope that what we cre­ate res­onates and won’t be soon for­got­ten. It’s not about a bam. We don’t want to be too ephemer­al. We want to be lasting.

Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
“Preser­va­tion of his­to­ry. Pro­tec­tion of craft. Unpar­al­leled exper­tise and a thread of con­ti­nu­ity span­ning gen­er­a­tions,” this is what Glenn Pushel­berg val­ues most in work­ing with skilled Czech glass craftsmen.

Do you have a sys­tem for divid­ing types of work in the studio?
George Yabu: We’re both very hands on and like to remain close to the design process. There isn’t a for­mal sys­tem by any means, and we will reverse roles as need­ed, but I’d say it’s nat­ur­al for Glenn to take on more of the client-fac­ing tasks through­out the life­cy­cle of a project. His abil­i­ty to devel­op rela­tion­ships and keep things on track, push­ing when need­ed or keep­ing firm on some­thing we’re pas­sion­ate about is a skill he can be com­plete­ly entrust­ed with.

Glenn: As George men­tioned, we both do a lit­tle bit of every­thing. While I’m fly­ing some­where to meet a client on the oth­er side of the world, George is the one sit­ting right along­side our design teams sketch­ing out the details, refin­ing and ele­vat­ing. His atten­tion to detail makes our work what it is. The cur­va­ture to the back of a chair, the angle where two seams meet, or the shade of a tex­tile… He’s attuned to all of these ele­ments and has a beau­ti­ful vision that makes them feel alive.

What is the most beau­ti­ful thing or place, that you ever saw or visited?
George: The Kat­sura Impe­r­i­al Vil­la in Kyoto. What cap­ti­vates us is that for a roy­al res­i­dence, it’s extreme­ly hum­ble. That’s what I love about it. The gar­dens are extra­or­di­nary all year round. Rock, stone, water, nature… parts of the gar­dens are untouched and parts are deeply con­sid­ered and cul­ti­vat­ed. There are mean­der­ing moments between dozens of small­er build­ings, filled with vary­ing sight­lines divid­ed by wan­der­ing path­ways and slid­ing screens.

Glenn Pushel­berg: Walk­ing a sim­ple stone path, the fram­ing of the views is amaz­ing. There’s a syn­onymy with the way Hauss­mann recon­ceived of Paris in that no mat­ter where you turn, there’s an excep­tion­al sight­line ahead of you.

 


Yabu Pushel­berg is an inter­na­tion­al design firm with stu­dios in Toron­to and New York, found­ed in 1980 by Glenn Pushel­berg and George Yabu. Their spe­cial­iza­tion lies in inte­ri­or hos­pi­tal­i­ty and res­i­den­tial projects and prod­uct design. Yabu Pushel­berg stu­dio is part of the Lasvit fam­i­ly since 2017.

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Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
Yabu Pushelberg is an international design firm with studios in Toronto and New York, founded in 1980 by Glenn Pushelberg and George Yabu.
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
Cipher is the first lighting collection designed by Yabu and Pushelberg that uses LED technology. “It gave us tremendous freedom,” says George Yabu.
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
Finding new path in design is usually a question of expperiments, which require patience and luck. Such as when George found the defining principal for Otto glassware. The solution was waiting there, it was enough to look at the glass from a different angle - through a stream of light.
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
The breadth and versatility of the Cipher collection is also why Yabu and Pushelberg use their own lights across their own hospitality and residential projects, such as The Londoner Hotel.
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
George and Glenn have been working together for 40 years and form a couple for almost the same period. However, this is not an obstacle for them, on the contrary, they are perfectly attuned to each other.
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
“Their dedication and commitment to the art make this collaboration all the more special, as does the personal element. It resonates emotionally,” says George Yabu about the development of the Cipher and Otto collections.
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
The designers developed the system in such a sophisticated way that the combinations of the individual components create a light alphabet into which everyone can encrypt their own message and give the space further meaning.
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
“Preservation of history. Protection of craft. Unparalleled expertise and a thread of continuity spanning generations,” this is what Glenn Pushelberg values most in working with skilled Czech glass craftsmen.
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine
Yabu Pushelberg: Original Idea - Lasvit - Spacial Magazine

Discover more

The Londoner Hotel

SLS Lux Brickel Hotel

Four Seasons Hotel

Cipher Lighting collection by Yabu Pushelberg

Yabu Pushelberg at Salone Del Mobile Milano (video)

Otto Glassware collection by Yabu Pushelberg

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