Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
A WORK by internationally-renowned glass worker Rocco Borghese has been commissioned to put the finishing touch to Bahrain City Centre shopping mall in the shape of a shining chandelier.
The design took five months to create and Rocco and his team will be travelling to the kingdom later this month to instal the fitting in a three-day operation.
He told GulfWeekly: "The inspiration for the design came from aquatics and coral and the way the sun reflects on coral through shallow waters.
"I have really enjoyed working on this piece and am very excited to come out to Bahrain and put it up, the erection of the piece is one of the most important things - to get it in place in the way that I saw it in my mind's eye when I was designing it.
"I'm sure it will look great in Bahrain City Centre."
Forty-year-old Rocco was born in Calabria, in southern Italy, and began his career working with his glass sculptor father in Murano, near Venice.
In his 20s, with ambitions to start his own glass blowing business he travelled to London to study architecture and interior design at the London School of Architecture.
After graduation he set up his first lighting business creating custom light fixtures using neon but after several years he decided to work exclusively with Murano glass, moving away from commercial projects in favour of developing his lights as art pieces.
Combining an instinctive Italian understanding of style and design with the passion of an artisan, he now creates unique, one-off pieces which grace some of the world's most important museums and public areas such as the Victoria and Albert in London.
Those charged with fitting out Bahrain City Centre approached him to come up with a design to put the finishing touch to the soon-to-be-opened mall after spotting his work in the US.
As a result, he has created a unique chandelier measuring 110cm by 210cm with 60 external lights and 24 internal mood setting lights.
