Marianne Tuxen
When light creates experiences
Based on principles of simplicity, logic and a special holistic understanding, the Danish designer Marianne Tuxen has made her mark with her lighting designs
Marianne Tuxen (b. 1958) strives to create beautiful experiences with her light fixtures, guided by the belief that light has the power to transform everything. Throughout her career, she has created light fixtures and designed lighting solutions in everything from churches, museums and galleries to hotels and airports both in Denmark and abroad. Always with an eye for the whole, the underlying story and the environment in which the lighting is being installed.
Tuxen’s light fixture designs are always based on a specific need. And just as each lighting need is different, her lighting designs also vary. Nevertheless, there is a common thread in her designs in terms of their simplicity and logic. The products appear obvious, functional and harmonious in almost every context. The quality of light serves as her constant inspiration, as she experiments with curves, proportions, materials, surfaces, colours, light and shadow to craft light fixtures that create a perfect ambience.
Marianne Tuxen has always had a creative streak. She was born in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, and discovered her passion for drawing and design early in life. After upper secondary school, Tuxen travelled to the USA to study graphic arts and sculpture, and on returning to Denmark she continued to pursue her creative path by enrolling at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ School of Architecture in Copenhagen. During her studies there, Tuxen designed her first lamps, which were already being produced before she graduated in 1985.
Following her studies, Marianne Tuxen worked on a number of projects for Danish and international companies, before establishing her own design studio specialising in lighting in 1988: Tuxen Design. Throughout her career, she has created lamps and lighting that can be found at, for example, Copenhagen Airport, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, the Carlsberg Foundation, the Rockwool Foundation and at the Danish Institute in Rome.
In addition to designing light fixtures and her interior design, Marianne Tuxen has also worked with industrial design for many different Danish and international companies. Her understanding of light and lighting has resulted in design awards and honours both in Denmark and abroad.
“It should be nice to be where the light is.”
“I find inspiration everywhere I go. I always draw – even when I’m falling asleep, I draw inside my head.”
“When I walk into a room, I always tailor the light to the space. I look at the architecture and the characteristics of that particular room. This becomes the focal point of whether what I create for the room becomes dominant, because it suits the room, or whether it becomes almost invisible, so that the focus is solely on the room.”
“By working with light, you can create countless perceptions of not only size, colour and surroundings, but also of mood, atmospheres and emotions. When executed to perfection, the result is a universal and amazing experience. Light changes everything,” says Marianne Tuxen about her view on lighting design.
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