It has been a year and it seems incredible. The truth is either Monica or me are very glad of the outcome of a blog that was born to become a channel of dialogue with our fans

We always had in mind that we did not want a business and boring blog. Our aim was always to tell you many and various things that in other case we would not be able to spread.

Furthermore… to allow you to learn more about the ins and outs of this company and of its visual performances but also to answer any possible doubts about uses of the products and to let you know about the most alternative events and discuss interesting projects too.

We are very happy and really impressed about the number of visits. Nevertheless, we would love to read more comments tha will help us to learn and improve!

Thanks for being there and following us, the idea is to keep on providing interesting and innovative content. Thanks to all people for your enthusiasm and support!.

One year ago we opened this blog with one of the most read post ever, even after several months. Once again, we believed in sharing with the experience lived during San Juan’s night at that area known as “O Areal”, next to the Ulla river, in Galicia.

Arturo Álvarez, our designer, has created the perfect fittings for the occasion of this pagan and mysterious party. He was able to completely blend them into the landscape with the light filtering through its spaces in fanciful shapes. Made of former wood pieces that belonged to the door of a Galician raised granary (locally known as “horreo”), they bring themselves into the world and become meaningful.

This party of ancestral celtic roots is new and different every year but brings also new surprises, always magic and impressive anyway. With the video and images we are trying to communicate you the whole picture of the spot, everything here is already thought and favoured by Gañete, the guardian of the sandy place (“Areal”), who throughout the year looks after, pampers and protects the place.

This year one of the major figures of the post will be the “purifying” bonfire that burns the old and welcomes all the new…

We would love you to share with us your magic experiences of the San Juan’s night!

The “garage” of arturo alvarez, an outstanding space in full nature with 80 years of history, was inaugurated some months ago. A few days ago an exhibition with John Weeden and Arturo Álvarez was organized there.

Painting and illumination were joined in a unique and singular dance where, beginning from two very different ways of expression, the colours, the feelings and the emotions intermingled in a subtle way.

In a three-dimensional way, the designs AROS and GUAU reinforced the language chose by John, ovals, a leitmotiv of his paintings.

Lots of organic and alive cells expressed a different idea in each painting, a dream, landscape or, as John used to say, whatever conveyed by them…

To increase this organic sensation, the suspension lamps NEVO and the floor lamps GEA helped with their convincing nature in the room.

The suspension lamps FLUO remembered us simultaneously both the subtlety and the complexity of life.

Starting from wood, UXI wall lamps and SHIO, suspension, floor and table lamps, returned us back to the nature and origin of all the living creatures.

We enjoyed a lot this experience of mixing different ways of expression. We will certainly dare to repeat it with other languages…

If you know other stories of interesting mixings, let us know!.

We hereby leave you with some guests’ views:

Juan Ares, diseñador de interiores: Espacio Invisible

Lorena, private guest

Félix Calviño , interior designer: Don Fogar

Lisardo, private guest

Ephemeral architecture should not neglect even the most single detail. Juan García, at the head of the company El Rincón de los Sentidos, is a pundit in these matters and organizes events such as the one that happened at the beginning of this month at the Agbar Tower in Barcelona. Our new collection AROS has been one of the main figures of the event.

In this event Terras de Pontevedra was introduced; it is a touristic community focused in promoting tourism in that region. What better than a Galician designer to give light to this ingeniously designed space?.

This organizer of events could show his skills once more by developing the Pasta-Party, an event celebrated in Pontevedra on the occasion of the European Cup of Triathlon. For this event he neither doubted to count in with elements of the most leading companies in decoration, when creating a mobile-restaurant in which different meals were presented to top elite sportsmen/sportswomen. Again our collection AROS contributed and gave a point of fun and self-confidence to that space.

If you have attended any of these events, please make sure to tell us your experiences.

A few days ago we were visited by a group of children who attend an elementary-school nearby. They saw some of our creations and gave us their opinion about them.

They were grateful for the invitation and brought us their own designs… Arturo Álvarez appreciated that very special present and was deeply impressed: We want to share it with you.

Please pay attention to their names, among them could be some successful designers in the future!!…

Thank you very much indeed Antonio! Congratulations for your kind and thrill work with so many children!.

We really fancy seeing how day by day the bioclimatic architecture is more and more within reach of everybody. We show you a project by Yonoh Estudio Creativo that we really like since it uses traditional ideas in order to supply any part of the house with  energy.

RIVER is a house over the river that generates its own energy by means of a mill or a waterwheel. Moreover this item becomes a decorative point and it works as a room divisor inside the house, a moving spectacle.

Projects like this, after having won the Prize Porcelanosa Interorismo 2010 encourage us to look towards the future and be aware of the fact that ecologic houses are a reality and that the most current technology isn´t needed to create future houses.

An interesting initiative is the competition Solar Decathlon Europe 2010 for universities organized by the U.S. Department of Energy. It promotes the design as well as the building of self-sufficient houses working on solar energy… We are on the way!

You will get to know more on Solar Decathlon and ecologic houses through this video:

We would like you to tell us your favourite projects on ecologic houses.

arturo alvarez earmarks 0.7% of sales of his new collections UXI and SHIO, made of birch wood from managed forests, to the reforestation of the Atlantic forest in Brazil.

Specifically in the Serra do Lucindo in the southeast of Brazil is one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet, it  only  occupies 7% of its original area, less known than the Amazonia, but no less striking, with a high diversity of unique species, endemic flora and fauna and which is in serious danger of disappearing.

From the firm arturo alvarez, we are interested in further exploring the path that leads us gradually to devise more sustainable designs.

The beginning of this adventure is UXI and SHIO. We think that we should do more to raise awareness in companies and individuals to move towards more ecological and sustainable designs and hence the idea to contribute a part of the sales to reforestation. The Spanish NGO devoted to the preservation of natural heritage and biodiversity acciónatura helped us with this opportunity. We hope that this initiative will awaken your interest and I hope this idea makes a deep impression in many hearts.

I will not bore you with many words, the new designs that we have just presented in Frankfurt speak for themselves. There is a bit of everything: for different needs and sensibilities. All of them very marketable and easy to integrate in different atmospheres

Two collections made in marine board, a material used in an ingenious way in SHIO and UXI for diverse uses and atmospheres, seeking the warmth and well-being that wood provides. Both designs mark the beginning of a path towards more sustainable designs that we will continue exploring.

A perfect complement to our design PLANUM, called HEXA an original luminaire to make geometric patterns on the wall or ceiling and finally AROS the “superstar”, funny, without complex and very useful for business proposals.

We wait for your comments about the novelties 2010. We are interested in your opinion!!

We are just back from the fair bursting with satisfaction, happy with the reception of the market and especially with the success that our novelties had this year. Light+Building is one of the most important fairs in lighting and gathers the best professionals within the sector.

Organizing a fair is not an easy task and there are lots of months of work, management, planning and preparation so to finally find you there and, when mounting your booth, you start to wonder if really such an effort is it worth…

But finally everything is getting its shape, all the boxes thrown around and the empty places are being transformed in a friendly space which invites you to look around, to touch, to test the materials and colours, all able to generate very different feelings in each and every visitor.

And when the show starts, the high release of people interested in the product, a bunch of congratulations for the novelties, the admiration for the work well done remember you, no doubt about it, that any effort is low for such a pleasant result.

OK, I stop talking and the best is to see it yourselves in this video which sums up our stay in Frankfurt and some impressions about the fair. For those who could not attend the fair you can also have the sensation to have shared this space with us.

Thank you to everyone who have collaborated and made possible to be there and also to everyone who each year visits and lean on us in each fair.

An unavoidable appointment from 11^th to 16^th April in Frankfurt for any lighting professional who wishes to keep up to date with the novelties that will be presented by all the manufacturers of technical and decorative illumination for 2010. We will be at hall 1.1, stand F02 to show you live our amazing designs!!!.

Things are coming to a head and yes we, and at least some other manufacturers, understood that the crisis has to be fought with more and even better designs. We made a big effort and deep reflection about what actually needs the market, which are the people concerns and which are their needs in illumination. Leaving aside the superfluous and focusing in just the core, without forgetting the ingenuity and the freshness, one thing is compatible with the other.

The result of what you are going to see at the fair is mainly: original designs in form, very functional and versatile, environmentally friendly and ready to help with energy saving policies at very competitive prices. You will also find designs where we have let our imagination to fly, thought for a more commercial use, for avant-garde and daring spaces.

We hope you will enjoy them!  Ah!… after the fair please don’t forget to give us your feedback of what you have seen in this post!! We would be delighted to have your opinions, it is always important to continue learning and improving.

We will make a feature of every eye-catching issue and we will show it to you in this blog!!!

And for the high street customers who wish to see our brand new products, about the 20^th April you will find in our Web under the “Products” tab all the novelties!!! Have a look up, we also are interested in your opinion!