A search for constant meaning, the seriousness of design thinking and the creation of engaging and dialoguing spaces. Anastassiades and Coordinates, a family now complete

Michael Anastassiades thinks that the "wow" effect should not be part of the design goals. The amazement is simple but ephemeral and Anastassiades does not like the superficiality and senselessness of words and gestures. There are other qualities that give meaning to things and closely concern design. Balance, modesty, involvement are the tools of the relationship between human beings and objects, and from this serious and honest basis we start to make design. What Anastassiades adds to the world through his design is a notion of openness and availability that transforms space. In counterpoint, and perhaps to seek a solid basis, there is also a great interest in mathematics. Cartesian diagrams and lines, geometry and pure forms serve to create a glossary useful for orienting oneself and satisfying the natural need for symmetries and beauty.

Coordinates by Michael Anastassiades for Flos

Coordinates for Flos is the summa of Anastassiades / thought. The zero degree of the project is an intersection of two light segments, suspended in space. The Cartesian plane on which we usually build visual representations of mathematical formulas is an interesting landscape. It becomes even more so when other segments are added to form a three-dimensional grid. To simplify, it can be said that Coordinates is part of an urban aesthetic. But that's not enough, things are more complicated than that. In this project for a light installation there is the desire to put something more important into play. After all, Coordinates seems like a question, like so many works by the Cypriot designer.

Technically, the project is based on an invisible electrical and mechanical coupling system, around which all the compositional possibilities of Coordinates revolve. Each rod is made of a body in extruded aluminum worked and anodized in champagne color, a white opal diffuser in platinum silicone and an integrated Led strip. The choices of materials and finishes are the result of a reflection on brightness and aesthetic impact. There are three ceiling versions in two possible lengths to fit standard or very high ceilings and four chandelier models of different shapes and sizes. For larger and more complex compositions, it also features a repeatable module, which can be mounted in a suspended or ceiling version. The brightness adjustment of the pendant models is integrated in the canopy and allows the choice of different dimerization systems.

The product family is also made up of a floor model that is resolved into two vertical and parallel rods resting on a simple circular base. And this year the wall model has been added, in two versions, which reconfigures the same geometric elements - segments and circle - on the design of the applique. Coordinates is now an organic system, probably destined to become iconic, a series capable of making manifest the spirit of this complex and disturbing time. The answer, as Anastassiades argues, is in the search for meanings.