In Conversation with Peter Broome, Director of Rako Controls
Think about the lighting in a well-designed contemporary kitchen. There are pendants over the island for atmosphere. Recessed spots over the work surfaces for cooking. Under-cabinet strips for the prep area. A freestanding lamp in the corner for evenings. Ten separate lighting circuits that can transform the space from morning coffee to school-run chaos, from afternoon quiet to kitchen disco. That’s a lot of switches to flick to get the right ambience.
Enter Rako. This intelligent lighting system lets you create layers of light to set the scene via a simple tap on your iPhone or keypad. It’s the obvious choice for homeowners who care about modern design aesthetics and premium systems – and one of the reasons Rako features in the design of UltraView’s new Sky-Frame and MHB showroom in the Cotswolds.
We spoke to Rako director Peter Broome about how intelligent control systems have been shaping the way we live today, and why it’s the perfect solution for homeowners who care about premium home design.
Why smart lighting control has its moment now
Rako was founded 25 years ago. To say they were ahead of the game is an understatement – their first app was on the original iPhone 3 – at a point when most people were still working out what a smartphone was for! Today, however, as smartphones and technology are part of our everyday lives, it’s a different story.
“As people build new homes, they think about the lighting a lot more,” says Peter. “Lighting design has become more complex, and with the introduction of LEDs, you can highlight more features. This means more switches on your wall, but with a Rako control, you can just press one button and it instantly changes the scene and sets the mood.”
The wow moment
The Rako system is a really powerful way to change the ambience in a room. It can create that ‘wow’ moment in the modern home – intelligently switching the lighting from dawn to dusk, or creating an experience just by opening a door – something that can be seen in the Sky-Frame sliding door display in the UltraView showroom.
“When you come to the showroom, yes, the windows look amazing,” says Peter. “But it’s the whole package – seeing the lighting design working with the glazing that really elevates it.”
Glass, blinds and the complete package
Lighting scenes are one part of what Rako manages. Shading is the other – and it is here that the connection between smart control and modern glazing becomes most clear.
“A lot more glass is being used in homes these days,” Peter says. “That means people need to control the amount of light coming in, or keep the heat out – we can control curtains and blinds directly from the keypad.”
For homes with floor to ceiling windows, where manual operation is simply not practical, this matters in an obvious functional sense. But there is also something more refined available. Rako systems can programme multiple blinds to travel in perfect alignment, creating another ‘wow’ moment in time.
“When you have premium windows, just little touches like the automation of the hem bar alignment can make a big difference,” says Peter. “Multiple blinds all controlled together to open and close in perfect synchronisation, timed to come on with the lighting at the same time – it’s an incredibly slick operation!”
Security, simplified
A home with a significant glazed footprint – multiple sliding doors, large windows across several elevations – can raise practical questions about security that simply do not apply to conventional houses.
Rako addresses this at several levels. The simplest: a press and hold operation that brings on all the exterior or interior lights at once. At a more integrated level, the system connects with the building’s alarm. If the alarm is triggered, the lights come on automatically.
Another special touch is the holiday mode. “The system records you going round controlling your lights, opening and closing your blinds and doors as usual,” says Peter. “Then it recreates that for the holiday mode. It’s not a light on a timer coming on at 7pm every evening – it recreates how you really use the space.”
The professional solution
The measure of any home technology, whether that’s new glazing technology or smart home automation, is how much it improves the experience of living in the home. Twenty-five years on from the iPhone 3 app, Rako’s founding principle has not changed.
“Layered lighting enhances the way a room feels, but we advise homeowners to keep things simple,” says Peter. “Stay focused on the things that are practical for how you live in your home.”
In the premium market, provenance and longevity is part of the specification. Sky-Frame is still designed and manufactured in the original Swiss town where it was first engineered. MHB steel windows and doors carry a service life of over a century. As one of the original founders of Rako, Peter is equally proud of his company’s history – designed and manufactured in the UK and engineered to last.
“We are very much the professional solution,” he says. “We, and our clients, want our systems to work for many years. There’s a synergy between premium glazing and lighting – they go hand in hand and together, have the potential to create something really special.”
See Rako at the UltraView showroom
The Rako system is installed throughout the UltraView showroom in Toddington – integrated with the XAL architectural track lighting, the automated Sky-Frame corner door assembly and controlled from EOS keypads throughout the space. It is one of the few places in the UK where the relationship between architectural glazing and intelligent lighting control can be experienced properly, in a working environment finished to the same standard as the projects it represents.