LIGHTING IS HARDLY an enlightening subject, bringing to mind raw images of fluorescent tubes, tungsten bulbs and tangled electrical wiring. And few will be able to name a lighting designer, never mind a famous one.
However, Arnold Chan may be the man to change all that. The Hong Kong-born architect is, almost single-handedly, bringing sex appeal to a decidedly dull industry.
Chan's most recent work with Philippe Starck on Ian Schrager's highly publicised hotel projects (St Martins Lane and the Sanderson in London, the Mondrian in Los Angeles and the Delano in Miami, arguably the most fashionable hotels in the world), has drawn him increased attention and Chan is finding himself being tugged, somewhat reluctantly, into the limelight.
'My main goal is to make the client look good and make the architect look good,' Chan stresses. 'If they look good, I've done my job really well and I'm happy. I'm just the support group. In fact, I'm just one of the support group.'
His clients, the list of which reads like the current Who's Who of design glitterati, would claim otherwise. Over the past 18 years, Chan has worked with almost every major name in architecture and interior design: Christian Liaigre (the revamped Selfridges department store and London's hottest restaurant of last year, Hakkasan); John Pawson (the spartan Cathay Pacific VIP lounges at Chek Lap Kok); Zaha Hadid (the Vitra Chair Museum in Germany); the Costes brothers (Georges restaurant in Paris' Pompidou Centre); and Anouska Hempel (the Zen chic Hempel hotel).
He is currently illuminating the New York apartments of Donna Karan, Calvin Klein and America's arbiter of home style, Martha Stewart, and has already lit the pads of Rupert and Wendy Murdoch, Chantal and Bob Miller, Richard Rogers and Pawson. He brightens up the stores of Gucci, Armani, Louis Vuitton and Bottega Veneta worldwide and is currently being kept busy by the recent wave of jewellery label rebranding - among them Cartier, Dior, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Asprey & Garrard (spearheaded by Jade Jagger).