de deux choses lune l’autre c’est le soleil” Marché de maîtrise d’oeuvre pour la réalisation d’une oeuvre lumière sur l’unité d’habitation Le Corbusier de Firminy Firminy, France 2019_in workprogress”De deux choses
Sous les nuages exactement’’ Le voyage à Nantes, bureaux siège LVAN Nantes, France
Les Inséparables, Dispositif lumineux, table light, 2018
Rich comes from an abbreviation of the lighting designers’ initials, Isabelle Rolland and Christophe Hascoët.
By sharing their experience in architecture, graphic design and lighting, Isabelle graduated in architecture and Christopher designer have developed expertise around the material of light. Together they have been able to create light sourced objects and light inspired experiences through architectural projects, both indoor and outdoor.
The story of Rich starts in 1996 in Paris where Christopher is the artistic director of the Yann Kersalé agency and Isabelle the editorial assistant for Sens & Tonka edition.
In 1998, architect Annabel Karim Kassar commissioned them for the lighting plan of a small ottoman palace in Beirut. The trio continued to work collaboratively until 2003, when they formed Cai Light in Beirut, a lighting design company producing a collection of objects and consulting for international lighting design projects. From Beirut and then Dubai in 2009, they produced a collection of objects praised in the international press. Their clients include Ralph Lauren in New-York, SLS Hotel Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, the Sketch restaurant in London, the British Council in Tunis and Beirut; Pollini in Milan and Paris; La Maison Champs Elysees in Paris and the Circus Hotel in Berlin.
After years in Paris and the Middle East, they set up their lighting-design agency in the Olivettes neighbourhood of Nantes. Their work is inspired by their experience overseas and the French savoir-faire. Their sense of intervention and intuition underlies their sense of creativity. They produce interior and outdoor lighting projects, either in hospitality sector, offices, housing and landscape and develop custom-made lighting objects, in a spirit of search. Rolland, associate professor at the scenography department of the Nantes Architecture School, and Hascoët involve and combine in their works ecological issues as well as formal matters and an expression of sensibilities, an aesthetic quest. Their approach takes into consideration all the contingencies, topographies, and raises questions about the models and their specific historical circumstances in order to produce a just, poetic and resonating vision that privileges a series of successive touches in favour of pre-determined ones. Their work seeks to combine technology, economy, utility and poetic expression.
