LIGHT+ART+NATURE

Over the last decade, Lightswitch has been honored to be part of the ever-evolving conversation around experiential design within gardens, conservatories, and arboretums. These immersive experiences, often timed with end-of-year holidays, solve a dilemma for many gardens located in cooler climates who find attendance and engagement dip during the off-season. Winter programming bolsters numbers through these historically slow periods, generating much-needed revenue as well as expanding community awareness and excitement around these seasonal offerings. Immersive experiential environments are also beneficial to gardens in more temperate climates. Especially in larger metropolitan areas where there are numerous botanical centers and holiday festivities, bespoke experiential design offers organizations the opportunity to differentiate their institution from other holiday events and similar locales. 

Lightswitch’s approach to immersive overlays within a botanical setting focuses on allowing our designs to be inspired by the site itself. We work with the garden to create a totally unique experience inspired by and tailored to the landscape and executive board’s objectives. We do not arrive with a preconceived show, with all the equipment rentals and additional overhead these more formulaic offerings entail. Our clients trust us to leverage our expertise and industry connections to create a totally unique experience for guests, as well as to be their strongest advocate when sourcing competitively-priced and high-quality products. As artistic directors, curators, and designers, we work closely with the organizations and the site itself to create bespoke experiences that celebrate the collections and history of these important cultural institutions. 

One of the benefits we bring our garden clients is deep experience working in large-scale implementations. These projects can be expansive in both scope and scale, and require the ability to envision a design that encompasses sweeping communal experiences as well as quiet, personal moments. “Illumination: Tree Lights'' at Morton Arboretum, located just outside of Chicago, is an excellent example of these large-scale installations. It was also one of our first big breakthroughs in demonstrating the concept of horticulturally-focused immersive design. Rather than using trees as armatures to hang lights, the trees themselves became the stars of the show. We used our lighting to showcase the natural beauty of the winter trees and landscape, which deepened guest connections to the garden itself and created cinematic, fully immersive scenes. “Illumination” was also unique in that in comparison to its predecessors, it was decidedly not a Christmas show. Our long-term commitment to our clients at Morton Arboretum allowed “Illumination” to become its own holiday tradition. Each year we tweak and reconceive aspects of the show to consistently improve guest experiences, and to continue to establish it as an important part of the garden’s repertoire. Our approach keeps visitors excited for new elements and expanded offerings, while still upholding the tradition that has made “Illumination” a seasonal favorite in Chicagoland. 

Intrigued by the success they saw at Morton Arboretum, Descanso Gardens in Los Angeles County asked Lightswitch to create an immersive experience for their collection. The installation, titled “Enchanted: Forest of Light,” spans 40 acres for a mile-long walk through a portion of the garden’s collection. In contrast to Morton Arboretum, Southern California obviously doesn’t experience a weather-based off-season. Rather, the organization brought us on to create a bespoke solution to distinguish it from other larger conservatories and holiday events in the area. Our design therefore leaned away from traditional holiday shows in favor of abstract, ethereal, and magical components used in an ambient way to create an experience at the intersection of light, art, and nature. We used the power of site-specific design to showcase the flora while also introducing the context to visitors in a literally new light. In fact, 45% of the elements used for the show were custom-designed or fabricated solely for Enchanted. Lightswitch also connected with artists early on in the design process and curated their work into the overall concept of the show. These partnerships amplified creative experiences within the garden, and in our role as art directors, we were able to ensure that their pieces flowed seamlessly with the larger context of the design. Our goal with these artistic partnerships was not only to further distinguish the experience from other events but also to invite visitors to access art installations they wouldn’t ordinarily encounter. “Enchanted” was a wonderful success for the Descanso Garden, increasing ticket revenue during the run of the show and awareness in the community of the conservatory’s offerings for year-round benefit. 

While Lightswitch is perhaps most known for these more expansive, high-acreage installations, we have also adapted our skillset to fit more intimately scaled institutions. Our solutions deliver awe-inspiring effects within compact spaces, applying our artistic and technical methods to the architecture and unique contexts. “Night Bloom” at San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers is an example of this challenge at play. The Conservatory is an elaborate Victorian greenhouse with a central dome rising nearly 60 feet, and a collection spanning 1,700 plant species. In contrast to shows like Enchanted and Illumination, “Night Bloom” was an exercise in taking similar concepts and scaling them into a compact, miniature delivery. In fact, Night Bloom had a comparable number of lighting features to Descanso Gardens or Morton Arboretum, but the installation was packaged and incorporated into a much smaller space. Because Lightswitch has worked across so many mediums and contexts, we were able to adapt our methods and align our artistic vision with the Conservatory’s individual context, objectives, and scale. Our show highlighted the flora, as well as the beautiful architecture of the building, and the visibility garnered by the show has established year-round interest for visitors as well as increased attention on the Conservatory's important community role.

The Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City are another example of compact design. Although the botanical garden itself spans 17 acres, we were tasked with implementing a seasonal show within the 224-foot Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory. The limited space within enforced design rigor and conscious decision making, and the executive board’s desire for a non-traditional holiday show necessitated a vision that would expand interpretative possibilities of a “seasonal” installation. Our design hit all of these objectives with a breathtaking result that not only provides an exceptional interior experience but also used lights playing through the glass structure to allow visibility throughout the park and adjacent skating rink. 

All of these examples, along with additional recent work for organizations like the Green Bay Botanical Gardens and the Kohl’s Children Museum, demonstrate the breadth and diversity we have built in our portfolio within this exciting sector of experiential design. It has been a wonderful privilege to bring immersive experiences to the gardens we have worked with. Throughout our projects, we have witnessed not only the transformation of the gardens themselves into a spectacular program but also how these events have strengthened the relationships between the organizations and their communities. 

It’s also exciting to be a part of this rapidly-evolving art form. Experiential design within these horticultural contexts points to a trend of lighting within the art realm. The lines are blurring between gallery and exhibition as environments transformed by light, sound, and interactive sculpture become the art itself. This new form of experiential design is sweeping through all facets of placemaking, and creating experiences that feel deeply personal for both artists and audience.