Video: Behind-the-Scenes with Linnaea Tillett

Interior Design Staff -- Interior Design, 2/1/2013 2:00:00 AM

"Icepool" in Lapland, Finland, 2004. In collaboration with Kiki Smith and Lebbeus Woods. Photo by Seth Tillett.


The luminous Linnaea Tillett of Tillett Lighting Design transforms public spaces, landscapes, city infrastructures and residential interiors through light. Her international roster of collaborators includes Maya Lin Studio, Toshiko Mori Architects and Michael van Valkenburgh Associates, all of whom know the value of Tillett's PhD in environmental design and her decades of experience working with the behavioral and emotional effects of light.

Here, she takes Interior Design behind-the-scenes at her studio in Brooklyn, New York, and discusses the process behind some of her current projects— including the high-profile Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park and the Battery Bosque, both in New York—and a few of her all-time favorites such as Icepool (shown above). Icepool was part of "The Snow Show," an art exhibition at the Arctic Circle in Lapland, Finland, that used fiber-optic technology buried under layers of ice to realize the looping pencil lines of architect Lebbeus Woods. The magical streaks of light illuminated shadowy figures by artist Kiki Smith floating just below the surface.

Watch the video to learn about Tillett's process for Four Freedoms and more.

More in this series:

Walk-through: Carl Hansen & Son
Walk-through: Huys with Piet Boon
Wendell Castle: A New Environment