Lutron has long been at the fore of lighting control systems, developing next-gen products that are quietly reshaping how residential and commercial spaces alike are designed. Today, two of the brightest thinkers in their respective fields, electrical engineer Horace Ho, cofounder of Ketra, and artist Cecilia Ramos, senior director of architectural markets at Lutron, are helping to realize the lighting industry’s glow up.
In 2009, Ho cofounded Ketra to explore the possibilities of LED. “It was in its early stages, but we knew it could change how people live,” he says. Lutron quickly took note and acquired the company in 2018, and together, they are bringing smart lights and controllers capable of creating almost infinite light values to a larger audience. One extraordinary use of the technology has been a collaboration with Taliesin West in Arizona. When the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation approached Lutron about joining its restoration efforts, “It was a no brainer,” says Ho. “They wanted to preserve Wright’s vision for how it should be lit—daylight, firelight and low-wattage incandescent—but wirelessly, so the structure wasn’t altered,” he explains. “Bad lighting can ruin good architecture, but good lighting brings out the beauty of form and material.”
“When we acquired Ketra, it introduced an atmosphere and feeling beyond what we were doing, and now we’re able to command spaces with light,” says Ramos, whose role is advocating for the needs of architects, designers and museum curators. “Lighting is an unseen luxury because it elevates a space by bringing out color and texture, and its transformative aspects are powerful,” she explains. (Ramos, an architect, previously worked as a lighting designer for LVMH’s international boutiques; a devoted painter, her first solo show opens at TenBerke in New York this March.) “We want architects and designers to embrace electric lighting as a foundational element of their projects and use it as a medium with which to design, just like wood or marble.” And whether the goal be task lighting or even moonlight, control is in the homeowner’s hand.
Horace Ho sits in the Taliesin West drafting room, which was retrofitted with Lutron’s wireless lighting systems by Ketra.
Sapphire earrings designed by Ramos, whose eponymous jewelry collection launches this year.
Cecilia Ramos in her Manhattan art studio.
Night & Day
An entryway demonstrates how Lutron’s new 2-inch intelligent luminaires deliver dynamic lighting scenarios at a small scale, crafted specifically, though not solely, for remodel applications. “We listened to the market and created smaller designs that let architects and designers employ them in restrictive scenarios, like retrofits,” says Ramos. Take the new Ketra D2 Remodeler, shown, which mimics daylight with exceptional color rendering, with simple installation in existent ceilings. The Rania D2 Remodeler, another recent design, replicates natural daylight, supporting clarity and well-being in any environment.
