Anatomy of Light by Paloma Bau Studio
At Feria Hábitat València 2026, Paloma Bau Studio brings the concealed workings of architectural lighting into view with Anatomy of Light, a modular installation built around Ilutrek’s own LED profile system.
Dark burgundy curtains and matching carpet create an intimate setting for Ilutrek’s installation at Feria Hábitat València 2026. Within this continuous field of colour, beech display boxes, translucent panels and exposed lighting components draw the eye. The warmth of timber and the softness of fabric temper the technical character of the products, lending the exhibition space the sensibility of an architectural model.
Designed by Paloma Bau Studio for the Valencia-based LED lighting brand, Anatomy of Light explores what happens when the components usually concealed within an interior become its organising elements. Guided by the idea that “light begins where the product is revealed”, the studio uses Ilutrek’s profiles as both a construction system and a means of explaining how its lighting works.
Within the eight-by-eight-metre footprint, a divisible central core accommodates meeting, lab and product display areas, alongside storage. A large circular lighting composition surrounds these elements, drawing visitors along the perimeter. Formed from Space 35 luminaires arranged radially, the piece gives the stand a recognisable outline while keeping the brand’s products at the centre of the spatial experience.
The display structures follow the same logic. Space 35 profiles and Mars II uprights are connected with angle brackets to form frameworks for CNC-cut boxes in beech and opal acrylic. Stacked and slotted into place, these boxes introduce a material familiar from architectural model-making, translated here to the scale of furniture.
Their contents move between individual products and demonstrations of their use. Spotlights, downlights and wall-mounted step lights sit alongside miniature assemblies showing how an LED profile can be integrated into a skirting detail, a shadow gap or a piece of furniture. Each model supplies the architectural context that a loose component cannot convey. Paloma Bau describes the installation as “a human-scale model of the anatomy of light”.
This attention to assembly extends across the stand. Spotlights hang from threaded rods, while floor-level step lights sit on timber blocks fixed with Ilutrek’s own profiles. LED strips and wall lights complete the display. Every light is drawn from the brand’s catalogue, with its construction deliberately exposed.
On a central translucent panel, the phrase “The power of being invisible” introduces a tension between the installation and the interiors its products serve. Integrated lighting is often valued for its discretion. Here, its normally hidden components are made tangible, allowing visitors to understand the relationship between the light they see and the system that produces it.
The stand is also designed for a life beyond the fair. Its four four-by-four-metre modules can be separated and reused, with one intended for Ilutrek’s next appearance at Interihotel in Madrid. For the smaller 4.6-by-four-metre footprint, the studio has developed three layout options that retain the installation’s design language.
