Signature · Interiors · São Paulo
Lightworks
A lighting-design practice with its own factory: the fixture that enters the house was designed for that house and forged in Vila Romana.
Who it is
Lightworks Iluminação e Consultoria was founded in 1995, in São Paulo, by lighting designer Airton José Pimenta. Trained in Industrial Design, he worked at lighting companies — where he built up knowledge of photometry, products and reflectors — and began producing handcrafted fixtures in a small workshop set up in his father’s garage, providing photometry and product consultancy to manufacturers. As demand for projects grew, he moved to dedicate himself exclusively to his own business.
What sets the firm apart is this dual nature: design and factory. Lightworks develops the lighting design and manufactures the fixtures specified — many of them created for that specific project. The factory is in Vila Romana, in the western zone of São Paulo, with metalworkers, welders, assemblers and electricians, and the in-house catalogue runs to around 250 models, in copper or white-goods finish, spanning recessed fixtures, ceiling lights, pendants, wall lights, spots and tracks. Copper is the founder’s signature material: it disappears into the setting, so that the light is seen and not the source.
The speciality is high-end residential, leisure areas, marine settings and gardens — and the list of partners tells the rest: Jacobsen Arquitetura, Bernardes Arquitetura, Mareines + Patalano, Studio Arthur Casas and Gui Mattos, among others. In the archive, it signs the lighting design of One Haus Alto de Pinheiros, in Alto de Pinheiros.
Aesthetic
- Language: light integrated into constructive details — a low general lighting index, bounced light, little direct focus, path lighting and warm tones. The lighting follows the resident’s rhythm, with automation and intensity control.
- Materials and brands: hand-designed copper fixtures manufactured in the firm’s own workshop, chosen to blend with the architecture’s materials; linear indirect cove lighting; long-lasting, low-consumption equipment designed for simple maintenance.
- Awards and publications: four Abilux Lighting Design Award trophies, all in the residential category — 1st place in 2004 (Praia da Feiticeira residence), 1st place in 2006 (Terra Golf residence) and 1st and 2nd place in 2009 (Ilha Josefa residence and Casa Folha); 3rd place in the Public category of the Abilux Luminaire Design Award, in 2005, with the Caititu fixture. Cover feature and case studies in Lume Arquitetura magazine.
Signed projects
- One Haus Alto de Pinheiros, in Alto de Pinheiros, São Paulo — with Jacobsen Arquitetura and landscaping by Renata Tilli.
- Ilha Josefa residence and Casa Folha, in Angra dos Reis (RJ).
- Praia da Feiticeira residence, in Ilhabela (SP).
- Restoration and lighting of the century-old façade of Colégio Dante Alighieri, in São Paulo.
- Pousada Maravilha, in Fernando de Noronha (PE), and Pousada Tauana, in Ponta do Corumbau (BA).
Signatures in the portfolio
No development in the collection carries this signature yet — it is here for the weight of the name in São Paulo's high end.
