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INTERIOR & DÉCOR, but with a twist

Beyond Brightness: Milan’s LIGHT HUB reflects on light not as decoration, but as structure and meaning

Stella Manferdini

INTERIOR & DÉCOR, but with a twist

29.10.25

Keywords:

Creations , Lighting , Commercial

When LIGHT HUB opened in Milan in late 2024, it was presented not simply as another showroom, but as a reflection on what light means within architectural space. One year on, the project – designed by Giuseppe Tortato Architects for the Linea Light Group – continues to invite discussion for its nuanced approach to spatial experience, material expression, and the performative role of light.

Rather than adopting the conventional showroom typology, the architects approached the project as an architectural narrative, where movement, light, and material define the experience. The intervention retains the building’s structural identity while introducing a new hierarchy of spaces, each shaped by specific lighting conditions and sensory atmospheres.

©Carola Merello

Two staircases structure the internal sequence. The first, a sculptural white steel installation, acts as a vertical axis and visual anchor, establishing an immediate dialogue with the entrance. The second, more introspective, leads to the lower level, where designers and visitors engage directly with the luminaires. In this subterranean zone, light ceases to be background illumination and becomes a material of interaction – something to be tested, adjusted, and observed.

Throughout the building, light is treated as a tool of perception rather than decoration. Subtle contrasts between shadow and reflection modulate the sense of volume and proximity, creating a rhythm that shifts as one moves through the spaces. The result is not a spectacle, but a controlled experiment in how illumination can articulate architecture.

©Carola Merello

A focal point within the ground-floor layout is a long red metal table, also designed by Tortato. Its geometric form and bold chromatic contrast introduce a moment of tension within the otherwise neutral environment. More than a piece of furniture, it functions as a social and operational surface – a place for exchange between designers, clients, and the company’s creative teams.

The project reflects a collaborative design process between the architects and the company’s founders, based on a shared interest in the cultural role of light. Rather than showcasing products, LIGHT HUB proposes a reflection on production itself – on the processes, craftsmanship, and experimentation that underpin contemporary lighting design.

©Carola Merello

By resisting the commercial logic of display, the showroom positions itself as a mutable platform – a space that can adapt to new collections and research directions without losing its architectural coherence. Each configuration reveals different possibilities of light as both medium and subject.

Ultimately, LIGHT HUB functions less as a retail environment and more as a laboratory of perception, inviting architects, designers, and visitors to reconsider the way light defines the built environment. It is an exploration that situates illumination not as an accessory to architecture, but as one of its most expressive and dynamic components.