In 2025 we’ve seen lighting design evolve to illuminate every part of our day: dining, leasure, vibrant concerts, and amazing lighting art installations. It is hard to select the top five designs of 2025, but we did our best. From Copenhagen’s most beautiful showroom to the illuminated shield of Karim Rashid, we present you with the five most exciting developments in the year that’s slowly coming to its end.
St Leo Showroom
St Leo Showroom, situated in North Harbour in Copenhagen, is a multipurpose space that encompasses an art gallery, a showroom, an office space, and a small café. The lighting design company Studio Kasper Hammer decided on the bespoke lighting system. The offices, are equipped with tunable white light fixtures suspended from the ceiling, accompanied by brown brass spotlights.
By following wall-mounted lamps on the stairs, the visitors can climb to the upper floor where an art gallery awaits them. Flexible display configuration is supplemented with illumination that centres on art pieces, thus showcasing their beauty. The showroom on the same floor features warm ambient light, which brings out the textures and tones of the materials, pigments, and plaster finishes presented on the floor. Color rendering is impeccable, and color variations during winter and fall are emphasized through a wireless control system which adjusts the temperature and the intensity of the light.
Bad Bunny’s No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí
Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny opened a residency at San Juan’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in his home country. Entitled No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí the place has revolutionized the way we feel about music, staging, and light design. Designers from STURDY studio, headed by Marcus Jessup, collaborated closely with video expert, Pyro:/FX, and the architecture of the stage to create a cohesive experience.
The lighting serves a dual purpose: to celebrate the vibrant culture of Puerto Rico and to guide viewers through Bad Bunny’s music. In order to achieve this, the designers blended stunning visuals with innovative technology and immersive storytelling. The design of the stage is inspired by the traditional Puerto Rican house “la casita,” while also featuring a mountain that references the local landscape. As the show lasts for several nights, the crew can adjust angles, brightness, and timing to engage the crowd in faster songs and illuminate the singer and scenography for a more intimate moments.
Arc ZERO- Eclipse
Arc ZERO: Eclipse permanent light installation was made at the rooftop of a new mixspace structure in Seoul, South Korea. The circle that rises high above the pool is completed with the reflection in the pool below. Visitors looking through the illuminated eclipse can see a bridge that is framed by the arc and the surrounding skyline of the city. The ellipse shows its true beauty during the night when the arch lights up with mist and air movement.
A fine spray is illuminated within the ring while the mist derives from humidity and wind, appearing softer or denser depending on the weather. The installation uses programming and fine-tuning to reduce water use and energy-efficient LEDs to reduce energy consumption. The installation is a part of Tapscott’s ongoing Arc Zero series of works installed all over the world.
RARA House
Illuminating the building of RARA House in the Chinese city of Hangzhou has been challenging due to the lack of light. Secluded behind several other structures, natural light was hard to come by. This inspired lead designer Ke Yang and the company YAANK Lighting to try out innovative ways of illuminating the space. They collaborated with the interior designer firm Feibo Chen to turn the building into a source of light.
A modular lighting system changes throughout the day, following the human natural rhythm. Morning mode lights up the upper half cavity of the structure and creates a natural transition. Daytime mode lights up both the upper and lower cavities, recreating the brightness of daytime. Twilight mode mimics the soft light of the setting sun in the lower half of the building structure. The building is not completely deprived of natural light as light enters the building through the window on the ceiling.
Karim Rashid’s Korum
One of the most influential lighting and industrial designers of today, Karim Rashid, has brought us another one of his trademark lighting designs in 2025. This time working for the company Cini & Nils. Korum, a lighting fixture with an integrated mirror, is inspired by a word for “shield”. Its modular design enables the combination of one, two, or multiple lamps that come in three colors: Glossy white, Matte black, and Cool Grey.
The flexibility of the design extends to the installation, as the product can be both wall-mounted and suspended from a ceiling. Made from recyclable aluminium, Korum features energy-efficient LEDs and meets the IP20 touch-proof standard, Insulation Class I in electrical safety, as well as CE and UKCA certification. Korum is just one in the family of indirect lighting fixtures designed by the famed designer for Cini & Nils.
Header: Hai Zhu
