Réflec­teurs solaires

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These devices redir­ect natural light from sunlit areas to darker spaces, on both an urban and domestic scale. Simple enough, appar­ently, but bene­fi­cial and nuanced too, as reflec­tion trans­forms spaces and the way we exper­i­ence them. Nath­anaël Abeille, in collab­or­a­tion with vari­ous crafts­men, has developed the precise skills for enhan­cing the reflect­ive capab­il­it­ies of noble mater­i­als such as glass, ceramic and metal.

When the rays of the sun bounce off a vibrat­ing water surface, they create fabulous patterns. These caustics can be observed under bridges, on the hull of a sway­ing boat, or on the edges of a swim­ming pool. In the city, one might catch a glimpse of a reflec­tion, the chance encounter of a sunbeam on a glass facade.

Nath­anaël Abeille is a daytime light­ing designer. He dedic­ates his prac­tice to these phenom­ena and tames them; he works with their qual­ity, their substance, their poten­tial. In a neces­sar­ily contex­tual and delib­er­ately artis­anal approach, he designs domestic and urban objects to be placed in the sun, and these objects react to the passing of time as well as the weather. In La Bricarde, in the north­ern district of Marseille, the designer installed a series of coloured-glass reflect­ors on a hill facing a large hous­ing complex. While at sunset the apart­ments were illu­min­ated by the white light of neon, they now welcome these coloured rays. Nath­anaël Abeille also designs domestic objects that, when exposed to the sun, extend the sun’s reach inside homes: over the hours and seasons, their reflec­tions evolve within the room. Made of blown or opaline glass, aluminum, or enamelled porcel­ain, each creation sublim­ates the rays through an alchemy of mater­ial and crafts­man­ship. Perhaps one day the reflect­ors will multiply: then we will live in cities where build­ings, and even the rooms of apart­ments, will sunbathe each other.