Replacing standard showrooms, the terracotta-toned space features a dedicated studio for testing spatial illumination effects.
What would a home be without the right lighting? A mere shell of a space. Why then do most new homeowners leave their space’s lighting design for last? Questioning this practice, founder of Abner, Shashank Nayak says, “I have always believed that we do not live in rooms. We live in the light that fills them. This belief has shaped my work for more than two decades and led to the evolution of Abner, a design-led lighting brand.”
At its brand-new retail Experiential Centre at Worli, Mumbai, Abner offers technical and decorative lighting with European design sensibilities, global components and local expertise to create lighting solutions designed specifically for Indian conditions. Originally founded in 2015 as Lightworx, Abner sought to address the lack of lighting solutions that combined the precision and design sensibility of international products with reliability and functionality. He explains, “India presents a particular set of challenges for lighting: heat, humidity, dust, monsoons, demanding outdoor environments and the practical realities of longterm maintenance. A beautifully designed luminaire has little value if it cannot perform in the conditions for which it was specified. This became the foundation of Abner’s approach. Design and engineering had to work together, ensuring that lighting was not merely aesthetically compelling, but built to perform over time.”
An early project that helped establish their practice was the JW Marriott hotel in Juhu, Mumbai. “The project became an important reference point for us, and our association with the group has continued across subsequent projects. It was an indication of the kind of work Abner wanted to pursue – lighting that could meet the demands of sophisticated hospitality environments while remaining technically dependable,” explains Nayak.
Seeking to look beyond conventional lighting materials, Abner works with concrete, marble and alabaster. They were also the first to introduce concrete outdoor lighting, Spanish alabaster decorative fixtures and marble-based exterior lighting. Nayak shares, “Our intention was to understand the inherent properties of each material and examine what happened when light encountered them. Concrete absorbs and conceals light differently from stone. Marble brings density, pattern and variation. Alabaster, with its natural translucency, allows light to pass through the material in a softer and more atmospheric way. These qualities became an important part of our design vocabulary. This material-led approach is reflected across our four core series – Stone, Marble, Technical and Concrete – alongside its exploration of materials such as alabaster. The result is a portfolio that moves beyond architectural and decorative applications without treating them as unrelated categories.”
He further adds, “Technical lighting remains equally important to the practice. Our work for Bluestone Jewellery is a great example. Having executed lighting for more than 250 Bluestone stores across the country, we have developed a specialised high-CRI lighting range for jewellery environments, where colour accuracy and consistency are critical. The scale of this work reflects the technical depth that sits behind our more visually expressive collections. This balance between technology and design has become our defining characteristic. Components are sourced globally where required to meet international benchmarks, while our understanding of Indian conditions informs how those components are applied and engineered.”
Customisation is also a key part of the practice as it allows lighting solutions to respond to the specific spatial, architectural and technical requirements of each project.
Speaking about their new space, Nayak says, “The next chapter of this evolution is now represented by Abner’s new Experience Centre in Worli, Mumbai. Conceived as a physical manifestation of the brand’s philosophy, the Centre provides a space in which light and material can be experienced together under one roof. The Centre moves away from the conventional language of retail display. Instead of creating a neutral white box in which products are arranged for easy viewing, it has developed an environment with its own material and spatial identity. The interior is defined by a continuous terracotta-toned surface, sweeping curves, recessed niches, built-in seating and layered planes across the ceiling.”
The decision to create a continuous material language is significant. Nayak shares, “The architecture becomes a surface against which the lighting can be understood. Curves soften the movement through the space, while niches allow individual fixtures to be curated. Built-in seating introduces moments of pause, making the Centre less transactional and more experiential. The ceiling, too, becomes part of the lighting conversation. Layered planes create opportunities for light to be concealed, reflected and directed, demonstrating how illumination can alter the perception of volume and surface. In this sense, the Experience Centre operates almost as a living library of light.”
Nayak also points to the Centre’s Black Box, which is a dedicated space for light to be studied in controlled conditions. “By altering colour, intensity and placement, the room demonstrates how dramatically illumination can change the perception of a material, object or space. It offers a more hands-on understanding of what sits at the heart of our practice – the fact that light is not simply something to add to a space, but something that can transform it.”
Noor Anand Chawla pens lifestyle articles for various publications and her blog www.nooranandchawla.com.
