Glenn Sestig: Reflective Awe

Working in extreme precision, Ghent-based Glenn Sestig has established himself as one of Belgium’s leading luxury architects. Working in various and at times, clashing noble materials, the Henry Van de Velde Institute graduate’s interior designs have been described as monolithic; employing refined lines. Basing his approach on personal calculations, Sestig also draws inspiration from music and fine art. He recently designed the studio-cum-residence of famed Ghent DJ-duo Soulwax. Sestig  has also forayed into products, nightclubs, penthouses and storefronts. TLmag spoke to the architect about his Pleasure Dome Supernova developed for Spazio Nobile, in collaboration with Lasvit and Van Den Weghe.

TLmag: What is your affinity for silver?
Glenn Sestig: As a visual material it can be interpreted as a finer detail within an interior. Often we finish our specialized mirrors with a silver coating as it has the highest reflectivity of all metals. Silver maintains an enduring role within most cultures. It irradiates class; transcending era, culture and personal taste.

Your Pleasure Dome Supernova design features a silver finish. What visual, physical, or metaphoric treatment does it allow you to express?
The perfect curve of the Pleasure Dome’s silver bell renders a new dimension within its surroundings. The everyday blends into the ephemerality of surrealistic painting, specific to its environment and placed on a natural mass pedestal. The image of Alice in Wonderland comes to mind, falling deep into a rabbit-hole, without any reference to either space or time.

What process did you use to achieve a silver aesthetic?
Silver Travertine Titanium is a raw natural stone that can be adapted into a lightweight material with a silver-like sheen. We’ve used this composite quite frequently in recent year. For Pleasure Dome, we juxtaposed it with a central dark natural stone dish. Together the two materials glisten within light and gain a silver aesthetic. This design is the perfect synergy of flawless mirror-effects and rough natural properites. Employing advanced laser-cutting technology, we were able to achieve the same level of precision across these polar material.

How did your choice of material allow you to adopt a reflective effect?
The reinterpreted ‘silver’ edition of the Pleasure Dome stands as a singular object but also evaporates within its setting. As the hemispherical shape becomes reflective, surroundings are extended in a new elusive atmosphere. This scene incorporates into the object and visa versa. Opened, the object reveals surprises.

Season III – Silver Edition, design & Silvano Magnone, handmade photography, Spazio Nobile, Brussels (BE), 24.11.2016-19.2.2017, www.spazionobile.com