Christopher Boots on the Synergies Between Food and Lighting in Collaboration with Gaggenau.

“I feel the synergies with food and lighting can’t be separated”, says Melbourne-based industrial designer Christopher Boots. He was approached by Gaggenau to create a unique lighting display for their Melbourne showroom to coincide with the launch of the combi-steam ovens earlier this year.

Boots is renowned for a signature aesthetic and unique lighting handmade by skilled artisans. His studio was founded on material and metaphysical exploration of quartz crystals, traversing relationships between architecture, symbology and geometry found in nature. The parallels between Christopher Boots and the German manufacturer of luxury home appliances may not be immediately obvious, but it is their shared commitment to superior quality, design and craftsmanship that unites the two.

For Gaggenau’s Melbourne showroom, Boots investigated the tangible concept between the quality of light and it’s potential to directly impact our perception of food, and how the two go hand-in-hand.

Arresting linear pendant and wall sconces by Christopher Boots featured inside Gaggenau Melbourne Showroom.

At the Gaggenau’s steam oven launch, food was served on quartz slices reminiscent of Christopher Boots’ bespoke lights. A lovely touch.

Referencing their newly-launched ovens, Gaggenau’s brief centred around the ideas of steam, engineering, precision, and intensity of pressure and change.

In response, the Melbourne designer and his team created two different light fittings, especially for the project – PETRA linear pendant and SUGAR BOMB wall sconces. Both of them feature materials like quartz and stone, “which actually occur because of pressure and change, so we thought that was a really nice thematic connection,” explains Boots.

SUGAR BOMB Sconce with Stormy Quarts Slice imitates quartz crystals that grow in reefs – the light represents the ability to replicate nature through human skill. The sconce radiates warm light through cracks and crevices to illuminate the delicate beauty of natural quartz crystal.

PETRA pendant embodies an individual stone biography, the resonance of formation made visible by individual colouration, translucency and veiny detail. PETRA (from the Greek Πέτρα, meaning stone) celebrates subtleties and complexities of natural materials. Textured and organic, PETRA Agate articulates our cosmic and volcanic origins, divinely illuminated and captured for eternity.

Released in Australia in 2020, the combi-steam oven range represents Gaggenau’s ongoing commitment to refinement and innovation. The brand’s very first combi-steam oven was introduced into the private home in 1999, which – for the first time ever – enabled restaurant-style cooking outside of professional kitchens.

The new Gaggenau 400 and 200 series combi-steam ovens are capable of steaming, baking, cooking, braising, grilling, simmering, regenerating and more, ready to serve the most ambitious private chefs to create their next masterpiece.

“The brand is more than just an identity – it’s a personality, it’s who you are, what you stand for and how you’re perceived,” says Robert Warner, General Manager of Gaggenau Australia. “It has taken more than 336 years to cultivate our Gaggenau personality, and it’s one that built not only on our heritage, it was built on values such as craftsmanship, precision, design and professional cooking at home.”

To find out more about Gaggenau, the world’s only luxury brand of home appliances, visit gaggenau1683.com.au.

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[Images courtesy of Gaggenau.]