The Latest by Vibia in Brera

He was born in Tarragona in 1960 and now lives in Barcelona.

He studied at the Eina School in Barcelona, and in 1984 began his professional career at the Estudio Liévore y Pensi. He subsequently joined the company AD Associate Designers and in 1994 founded Estudi Arola.

His projects cover highly diverse fields such as lighting projects for various design firms like Santa & Cole,Vibia, Viabizzuno, pieces of furniture and perfume containers, as well as interior design projects and ephemeral installations.

He combines his professional career with teaching, workshops, artistic experimentation and research into light. His eternal and continuous investigation into beauty, inspired by ancestral cultures and his own particular way of looking at light, confer on him a unique versatility which filters through into each project.

His work has been shown in individual and collective exhibitions around the world in cites like Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, London, Mexico, New York and Tokyo.

Among other prizes, Arola has been awarded with the National Design Prize in 2003, four times winner of a Silver Delta Design Awards, and in 2012 winner of a Red Dot Design Award.

Artist, designer and landscape architect, Josep Xuclà has a style that can be characterized by an architectonic and minimalist approach, inspired by geometry as well as natural elements. Over the years Xuclà has collaborated with Vibia in the conception and design of several outdoor lighting collections. He explains his perspective on introducing the right atmosphere, creating an environment and the advantages of using decorative lighting in the outdoors.

“When it comes to choosing the right piece it’s key to know what the lamp is to be used for, where it is to be placed, whether it’ll be combined with other pieces of furniture, if it’s for the garden or the terrace and what kind of light is required” says Xuclà.

Luminaires can either be disguised within the environment or given a more prominent presence. When fixtures are camouflaged by daylight, it is sometimes a totally different effect by night. What might have appeared to be an element of the garden or landscaping unexpectedly lights up. Xuclà explains, “The contribution of decorative fixtures in the outdoor environment is the power to bring in artificial illumination without breaking the magic of the night”.

The extent that the area and the features that are to be highlighted usually determines how much illumination is required. The incorporation of LED technology makes the presence of these lanterns or spotlights less cumbersome, more integrated within the environment. “LED technology allows you to create smaller and more interesting shapes to further integrate them with the landscape,” points out the designer.

Garden and terrace zones are different by nature. In the garden the lighting effect and the specific areas to be lit should have more prominence; the terrace needs a more intimate light, with decorative lamps or wall sconces. Lighting should be subtle and indirect, preferably without seeing the source. As a rule, it is the same concept as in a living room, but outdoors.

In addition to outdoor fixtures, Xuclà has designed interior lighting for Vibia and owns an interior design studio on Sèneca Street in Barcelona.

Growing up in a household of 4th-generation carpenters, Stefan Diez’s early bond with craftsmanship has profoundly shaped his development as an industrial designer. Following his family tradition by training as a cabinetmaker, he went on to study industrial design under Richard Sapper at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart. After returning to Munich to work with Konstantin Grcic, he founded his own studio in 2002.

From 2007 to 2014, he was professor of industrial design at the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe (HFG), before joining the School of Industrial Design Lund, Sweden, in 2015.

In 2008, Stefan Diez established his studio in the renovated facilities of a former joinery, which provides the ideal platform for his unique combination of hands-on experimentation and technical know-how. Led by curiosity and supported by a network of local craftsmen and specialists, DIEZ OFFICE is dedicated to transforming ideas into actual products with great diligence and proficiency.

Together with his team, Stefan Diez has been exploring a broad spectrum of design, creating award-winning furniture, tableware and accessories, in collaboration with internationally renowned manufacturers like e15, emu, Hay, Rosenthal, Thonet, Vibia, Wagner and Wilkhahn.

Toan Nguyen is a French industrial designer living in Milan who was born in Paris in 1969. He graduated from the ENSCI (Paris) in 1995. After experiences in Paris and Barcelona, he pursued his career with Antonio Citterio, where he took over as head of design and became design partner, co-signing over ten years more than forty products for Axor-Hansgrohe, B&B Italia, Flos, Iittala, Kartell, Technogym and Vitra, amongst others, before founding his own studio in 2008. 

Since then he has designed specific collections with an elegance that hits the mark, essential as well as spectacular, pushing the details to their maximum: the Bellows collection of occasional tables and poufs for Walter Knoll; the MU outdoor range for Dedon projecting sofa standards to a new level; the table Wow for Lema; the ambitious Lagunitas system with Coalesse; the profuse Contemporary Collection for Fendi Casa; the iconic Penta armchair for Viccarbe; the innovative INO range in SaphirKeramik developed by Laufen; the architectural and complex Algorithm lighting system for Vibia and the Infinito Lounge collection and Masalla tables for the new premium brand Studio TK addressing the needs of the contract market.

“I like the direct and sometimes rudimentary aspect of objects that are open to immediate interpretation, not requiring any explanation or conceptual pretexts. I focus on reduction to achieve an object free from anything superfluous. Not like a dogma or an aesthetic line, but like a principle of economy, or even of ecology on every front: in the productive process; the matter and materials; the specific functionality, but also in the gestures and the expression.” His creative line can be summarized in a phrase, harnessed through chance encounters that he refers to on a daily basis, “Anything that has no use to me weighs me down.”