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Olesya Tarasova, engineer and lighting designer

Our eyes never touch space: all we perceive is the light its surfaces send back. My work is to decide what that light reveals — the relief of a volume, its depths, what comes forward and what recedes — so that the place is perceived as it should be.

Every client expects something different from their place: that it calms, that it impresses, that it sells, that it feels like home. I begin by understanding that aim, then I design the volume of light that answers it, and I know how to build it: engineering, specification, fabrication, site work and fine-tuning.

An engineer by training, I have worked with light since 2000, and designed the lighting of luxury boutiques, hotels and villas in Europe since 2003, and I pass this approach on to other designers. I design the pieces that carry this light myself, and have them made in my workshop and by my partners.

My studio, Philosophie de Lumière, is based in Théoule-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera. I work from Monaco to Aix-en-Provence, and in Switzerland.

Olesya Tarasova on a ladder, adjusting the spotlights of a Hermès window Portrait of Olesya Tarasova
Adjusting the lighting of a Hermès windowOlesya Tarasova

What drives me

Light gives a project its whole emotional dimension. Beautiful architecture, badly lit, looks ordinary. Well lit, it shows its full worth.

Your home is unique. Why should your lighting come from the same catalogue as everyone else’s? I design one-of-a-kind pieces that are sculptures by day and light by night.

For a hotel or a rental property, the lighting atmosphere makes the photographs, the reviews and the room rate. Light is not a finishing touch: it is what gives a place its value.

Career

  1. 1997-2002

    Engineering

    Bryansk State Technical University: master’s degree in industrial process automation, followed by a second master’s degree in management. From 2000, while still a student, lighting consultant in a lighting shop in Bryansk.

  2. 2002-2003

    Boston

    New Horizons programme: project management (Bentley College), entrepreneurship (Suffolk University), Autodesk VIZ (Wentworth Institute of Technology), lighting design (Lightfair Institute).

  3. 2003-2007

    Paris, the Voyons Voir agency

    Lead lighting designer on more than 40 projects, coordinating a team of three, designing bespoke light fittings for luxury houses.

  4. 2007-2011

    Going independent

    Independent lighting designer: Chanel, Hermès, St James; six villas of around 3,000 m² each; a shopping centre; training seminars for lighting engineers.

  5. 2011-2013

    Manufacturing, at Forlite

    Creative director of an LED luminaire manufacturer: how a luminaire is designed and produced in series.

  6. Since 2013

    The studio in France

    Luxury boutiques, villas and palaces, hotels, restaurants and golf clubs, gardens, galleries and museums, facades: more than 260 projects to date.

  7. 2026

    Sculptural luminaires

    Development of a proprietary fabrication technology, between hand sculpting and 3D printing, which puts the unique piece within reach. First piece: an 11 m light sculpture in the staircase of a villa on the French Riviera.

The projects, year by year

From the first Paris boutique in 2003 to the light sculptures of 2026: every published project, each with its own page.

  1. 2024

  2. 2023

  3. 2022

  4. 2021

  5. 2020

  6. 2019

  7. 2018

  8. 2017

  9. 2016

  10. 2015

  11. 2014

  12. 2013

  13. 2012

  14. 2010

  15. 2009

  16. 2008

All projects

An engineer first

I don’t just make a pretty drawing and leave it there. I specify LEDs at component level — colour rendering index, R9, colour temperature, binning tolerance — I write the DALI control schematics and the power layouts, and I explain to the electricians how to carry out the installation.

For an architect or project manager, this means one thing: most of the headaches around lighting and electrics disappear from their desk. For the owner, it means an installation that still works in ten years’ time. My facade lighting schemes have run for more than ten years without a single failure.

I design and I make

At Forlite, I learned how a luminaire is made in series. In my workshop, I learned how to make just one: plaster, patinated bronze, alabaster, glass, each designed for a specific place.

In 2026, I developed my own fabrication technology, between hand sculpting and 3D printing. It puts the unique piece within reach: a sculpture by day, light by night, for a single home.

Bespoke luminaires The collection

The method: a single point of contact

  1. Concept: what the place should become at night.
  2. Study: calculations, layout, scenes.
  3. Specifications: every fitting, every LED, every driver.
  4. Procurement: a network of manufacturers in Europe and Asia.
  5. Manufacturing follow-up: prototypes, samples, quality control.
  6. Site: answers for the installers, presence on site.
  7. Switch-on and fine-tuning.

The services in detail

Recognition

  • European Property Awards 2018-2019 — Award Winner, “Exterior Lighting Design” category, for the Malaya Bronnaya 15 building in Moscow.
  • PINWIN, 9th season (December 2016): the studio was a finalist in the “best interior and exterior lighting project” competition.

Three languages

Projects are run in French, English and Russian: with architects and authorities, with manufacturers in Europe and Asia, with owners from all over the world.

In lighting since
2000
Of experience
25+ years
Projects
260+
Of facades without failure
10+ years

Every project begins with a conversation

Describe your project in two minutes. I will call you back personally.

Discuss your project +33 7 51 62 06 94
+33 7 51 62 06 94 Email