‘Lighting Is as Important as the Architecture,’ Says Designer Nicci Kavals

One of the leading luminaries in the world of lighting design, Nicci Kavals actually started her career as a chef, relocating to cook at a restaurant on the Greek island of Naxos, before she moved to Paris to work as a food stylist for the magazine Votre Beauté.

“My experiences as a food stylist taught me the process of reduction and simplification,” she says. “What remains—whether on the plate or more broadly in design—needs to have purpose and relevance, even if its significance is hard to articulate.”

Kavals eventually returned to her native Australia, working as Melbourne editor at Vogue Entertaining + Travel magazine, and then as a homewares and hard goods product designer for the lifestyle brand Country Road, before she ultimately established Articolo Architectural Lighting in Melbourne just over a decade ago.

“I felt there was a gap in the market for superbly designed artisanal lighting that was unique, sculptural, detailed yet timeless,” she says.

Now, with showrooms in Melbourne and New York City, Articolo has designed artisanal lighting for Nobu Restaurants, the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest, the Tiffany & Co. flagship store on Fifth Avenue, and residential clients including Robert Downey Jr.

The company relies on artisanal workmanship, Kavals says. “Each of our pieces embodies their expertise.”

Articolo has steadily expanded its global presence, having made its European debut at Salone del Mobile Milan in 2019. The company reached a pair of milestones last year, as Kavals unveiled a new identity and rebranded the company as Articolo Studios—reflecting its evolution into a luxury lifestyle brand—while opening its North American flagship showroom in an elegant, gallery-like space with soaring ceilings across from New York’s Madison Square Park.

Articolo Studios’ New York showroom
Eric Petschec

As her designs evolve, Kavals acknowledges the need to stay ahead of ever-advancing technologies. Last year, Articolo launched its first tuneable white light source known to restore the body’s circadian rhythm in a decorative fitting.

In April during Milan Design Week, the company introduced Articolo Home, a capsule collection of small-scale furniture pieces. And last month, the company launched rechargeable lighting.

Kavals, 68, recently spoke with Penta from her home in Melbourne where she lives with husband, Vic Kavals, also co-founder and director of Articolo Studios.

Penta : Among design elements, how important is lighting?

Nicci Kavals: It can change our perspective on how we view and appreciate the space around us—lighting is as important as the architecture, the interior design and finishes and the furniture selection. Lighting provides the soul to a space. It often provides a moment of awe, where you are moved by something beautiful.

How much of a difference does bespoke decorative lighting make?

When each fixture is purposely selected to enhance the space with shadow play of light, there is a sense of atmosphere and soul—the animation of light dances within the space, patterns and striations casting movement, layering, and providing depth. I love the notion of moving through a space and happening upon a beautiful fixture or light, which is more like artwork and makes you stop, pause, and exhale, where you take in that moment of beauty and then move on.

How do you describe your process?

I have a huge library or body of designs that I am continuously working through and refining. I tend to mull over them endlessly to perfect them before being ready to take them to market. We like to explore and experiment with new materials. … It’s important that each design reflects the many hands that have produced it, celebrating the craftsmen and -women whose skill and talent I deeply respect. It’s the human element that in many ways we’re losing through mass production—I strongly believe there’s no substitute for the handmade.

Where do you look for inspiration?

To express myself creatively through the play of light and shade is a genuine gift. I find inspiration everywhere I go; from the washed, bleached colors of Marrakech and Mexico to the architectural detail found in minimalist Japan. I love to explore the local crafts, and pore over the work of local artisans of different lands. The Japanese are exceptionally talented in porcelain, whilst the Mexicans are experts in beading, embroidery, and silver.

How would you describe your progression from an Australian firm to a global one?

At the time of starting Articolo in 2012, designing and manufacturing lighting in Australia was quite uncommon, with most of the high-end decorative lighting coming out of Europe and the U.S. In the beginning, my knowledge of lighting was minimal—which in hindsight, was perhaps a blessing as I may never have embarked on this journey had I been aware of the challenges. As I don’t come from a lighting background, I’ve found that I’m not restricted by a traditional approach. As we expanded globally, we had the option to expand into Europe or the U.S. I have always been drawn to a European design sensibility that celebrates craftsmanship, timelessness, and the artisanal. However, knowing that the U.S. was the harder option, we went in that direction as we never make the easy decision and have challenged ourselves at every turn to be better and improve constantly. This was a completely new ball game for us—certification standards to comply are vastly different in the U.S. than the rest of the world.

What does the future hold for your field?

Embracing cutting-edge technologies can elevate the functionality and aesthetics of luxury lighting. Integration with smart-home systems, customisable lighting experiences, and the use of innovative materials and finishes can provide clients with a truly unique and immersive experience. I expect to see a surge in demand for intelligent lighting solutions, and I am optimistic about the potential for transformative advancements in this area. While technology is crucial, I also value the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into creating luxury lighting pieces. I hope to see a continued appreciation for handmade, artisanal designs that showcase the skills of talented craftsmen. Balancing traditional craftsmanship with modern design sensibilities can result in timeless pieces that stand out in the market.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OpenAI says it is scrapping the release of its next-generation AI model over safety concerns that researchers raised during internal testing, in one of the clearest signs so far that agent misbehavior could stymie the industry’s rapid progression.

The move follows a summer punctuated by reports of artificial-intelligence systems industrywide going rogue, and marks a rare case of a major AI developer ditching a new release because of safety concerns.

The company had planned to launch the model, known as GPT-6.1 Astra, in the coming days or weeks, aiming for an October debut. The model was more capable than the company’s previous models in completing challenging tasks from end-to-end without human assistance, as well as writing.

The company instead will focus on improving the safety of future models, which it expects to be even more capable.

Saachi Jain, OpenAI’s head of safety systems, said in an interview that GPT-6.1 Astra regressed in two areas. Compared with its predecessor, GPT-6 Astra, the model performed poorly on tests measuring alignment, or how well the model adheres to what humans would like it to do. Specifically, GPT-6.1 Astra showed higher levels of deception: It wasn’t always honest about telling users of the actions it did or didn’t take.

Another issue was what OpenAI calls “scope authorization,” meaning that GPT-6.1 Astra would push ahead on a task without asking the user for permission, and would at times reach for external tools and services even if it might be unsafe.

“For anything regarding safety and alignment, there’s a trade off,” Jain said. “You really do need to find what’s the right line between staying within scope, but also avoiding laziness in terms of how the model actually pursues tasks even when it hits friction.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended a United Nations Security Council meeting about AI last week. Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

While GPT-6.1 Astra improved in areas such as “model laziness,” Jain said it didn’t quite meet OpenAI’s bar for safety and alignment, so the company decided not to launch the model publicly.

The announcement comes one day ahead of OpenAI’s annual developer conference in San Francisco. In the past, OpenAI has used the conference as an opportunity to launch new models and services that reduce costs for software developers—a segment the ChatGPT-maker competes with rival AI company Anthropic to win over.

In recent weeks, OpenAI and Anthropic have called on industry partners to slow down the development of cutting-edge AI models and invest in safety standards, noting they will temper the pace of their own internal AI progress.

OpenAI says it is working to investigate a range of agent security incidents that it has discovered in recent months, and address the safety issues underneath them. As part of the work, the company has implemented a new monitoring system to catch AI-agent misbehavior more quickly, and started requiring engineers to use stronger security guardrails for testing its AI systems.

Earlier this summer hundreds of OpenAI’s internal agents, which were tasked with completing a cybersecurity test, ended up hacking into the AI company Hugging Face. Since then, high-profile organizations such as the Australian government and United Nations discovered that OpenAI’s agents used similar, but less extensive, techniques to gain access to their websites.

Many of the publicly known agent-security incidents involved OpenAI’s internal AI models that were never slated for public release.

Last week, OpenAI said it paused training on its most capable AI models after an AI agent slipped through a gap in the company’s internet restrictions to query a public chatbot. The company said its new monitoring systems flagged the incident within 15 minutes, and training on these models remains paused.

GPT-6.1 Astra isn’t one of those models, but a different case, the company said.

“We want to make sure our model development is safe no matter whether that’s in the company, or when we ship it to users,” Jain said. “But when we ship it to users, we have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment.”

While the company decided not to ship GPT-6.1 Astra, it hopes to use the same base model to do additional reinforcement learning runs, and create future generations of its GPT-6 models.

OpenAI plans to conduct several deep dives to identify the root cause of the problems identified in GPT-6.1 Astra, Jain said. The work includes ensuring that OpenAI’s reinforcement learning environments are rewarding the right type of behavior, Jain added, though she noted the company would investigate all stages of model development.

AI companies have begun to draw scrutiny from policymakers and public officials, who are paying attention to the rapid development of the technology. Later this week, a Senate subcommittee is holding a hearing with third party AI researchers titled, “Rogue AI: Securing the Homeland Against AI Agent Attacks.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, sued OpenAI in June, claiming that the company and Chief Executive Sam Altman knowingly released an unsafe product and ignored warnings that it could harm users.

In a motion for temporary injunction filed Monday, Uthmeier sought to prevent OpenAI from developing new AI models without third-party approved safeguards, stop ChatGPT from soliciting user engagement and limit the company’s ability to advertise ChatGPT as safe.

Tech companies claim they “cannot stop barreling forward with their potentially civilization-ending endeavors unless they are forced to do so by the government,” Uthmeier said in the filing. “The Florida Attorney General is answering your cry for help.”

An OpenAI spokeswoman said that people want to know AI is being developed safely, “and that starts with what companies like ours do ourselves.”

“Governments have an important role to play in setting robust safety standards for AI, and we’re committed to working with Florida and other states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry—not just one company,” she said.