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The week that was…1-5 February 2016

Singapore – Istanbul – Singapore, Weekend 6-7 February 2016

The travelling has begun again and for some reason this year looks like shaping up as a long haul travel year. We have diversified into projects in other parts of the world which sees us now travel to the Middle East and Eastern Europe to the West and New Zealand and Polynesia to the East as we follow the economies that flourish or have active projects rather than linger along in slow moving areas. Yes I know I am departing from my strategy of doing projects only in a radius of around 5 hour’s flight away from Singapore, but the reality is that we have a practice that needs be kept busy and hence we go where our client’s want us…

Buyukada Island, Istanbul.
This week’s travel was to Istanbul where we are working on an absolutely lovely project on an island of the Asian side of the city. It very much means that we are “stuck” on the island, but being a somewhat derelict but very picturesque island with no motorised traffic (except public services such as police, ambulance or maintenance cars), all traffic is pedestrian, bike or by horse carriage, it is a pleasant stay. With what’s going on in the world it somehow feels like a little safe haven, so no complaints! Over the last few blog’s I have ranted about the need for good communication and coordination and this visit (for which I initially was not even invited!) proved the point again of how important it is to regularly meet with the team on site with the actual site issues right in front of you to understand, discuss and resolve. In the few days on site more issues are resolved then in one month through long distance communication! This is proven true time and again, you can’t design from just behind your desk! The devil is as always in the details and these generally come out on site. The site contractor’s interpretation of your design is often different then yours so site confrontation helps to shortcut all possible misunderstandings. We had really fruitful meetings and with next meeting now officially pencilled in for March we have all have a clear target ad deadline for the deliverables. The local interpretation of our specifications and layouts is where our assistance and guidance will be most needed…

I am not 16 anymore!
Back in Singapore later in the week I had two projects to attend to requiring physical site visits. Again design is never fully completed from behind a desk and I had insisted in visiting the sites with the local engineer to get a thorough understanding (both projects are renovations) of the current lighting situation, the issues they face on site and potential opportunities for improvements. This is where you realise the perils some of the maintenance people have to go through to maintain a lighting installation. In case of the Parkview project accessing the upper levels of the building where switch boards, dimmer racks and access to the ceiling cove lights is located, meant creeping through a small port hole and then climbing up a “rescue” ladder bolted vertically to the wall through a manhole of about half a square meter up about 15-20 meters. You then arrive on a metal mesh platform from which you can only navigate further on to small steel I-beams without any form of security (no hand rail to hold on to); if you miss-step you land on to the ceiling which no-doubt will see you fall through to the floor below…downlights, which are serviceable from the top, can only be reach by bridging 2 beams with a plank! Anyhow I had a good look and convinced myself that whatever we do it should involve an absolute minimum of lights in the ceiling if not just for the future nightmare of maintenance. During this perilous tour of the ceiling catacombs I also realised that I am not 16 anymore! While my mind is willing to climb, creep and balance my way through, my body does no longer have that elasticity which became all to obvious when I managed to dislocate my shoulder when trying heave myself out of the manhole on to the landing platform 3 stories up! Fortunately I managed to relocate my shoulder quickly without too much pain, but aborted my “tour” and after re-capturing my breath descended back slowly to safe grounds to complete the rest of the inspection from the safe seat of my lounge chair and a large glass of cold water…

When IP rating does not help.
For the final project inspection, a condominium where we are asked to renovate all exterior lighting following residents’ complaints of the poor quality of the lighting, we toured the property part by day and part by night to have a good feeling of both day and night time situation. The point is that during the day you can still inspect the physical condition of the lighting installation while at night you can only appreciate the lighting effects and performance of the lights. These inspections are super useful as they immediately expose the short comings and the quality of the existing installation. The most notable conclusion from this inspection is that despite the use of reputable brands (Bega/ Ligman!) with proper IP65, some 67, protection ratings, many were not working. With all conventional technology (Metal Halide, CFL, Halogen and PAR lamps), some surely where due to lamp failures, but from engineers feedback we quickly realised that the cause was tripping and continuous short circuiting due to water seepage into junction boxes or other conduits, probably with brittle cabling. There is no point in having IP rated light fittings if your electrical infra structure is not at the same level of protection! We found rubber sealant rings of junction boxes replaced (probably they had become brittle through age) by black duct tape and I am sure that if we would have dug further we would have found more of the same. It is clear that before we can even undertake any lighting improvement the electrical infrastructure has to be thoroughly reviewed and tested with all failing circuitry to be fully replaced by new. Lighting is a s god as the weakest link and besides notable visual improvements we will make to the lighting, the electrical “IP” rating will have to be priority number one. The invisible is as important as the visible! I leave you with one famous cartoon (recently sent to me by a colleague) that describes communications in an organisation as no other…

Have a great long weekend!
Happy Chinese New Year to all.
Gong Xi Fat Choi!

Shit & Assholes

Beatiful Buyukada Island 6.30am…6.30am 2

6.30am 3

6.30am 5

6.30am 6

6.30am 6b

6.30am 7

6.30am 8

6.30am 8b

6.30am 9

Parkview

pvs 5

pvs 1

pvs 4

pvs 7b

pvs 7c

pvs 8

pvs 8a

 

06. February 2016 by Martin Klaasen
Categories: Light & Learn, Light and inspiration, light watch, lighting and culture, lighting applications, lighting design, lighting standards | 2 comments

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