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The week that was…5 – 9th June 2017

Guangzhou, weekend 10-11th June 2017

As I prepare this week’s blog I am in Guangzhou attending the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE), under management of Messe Frankfurt. I am a guest speaker at the Think Light event and am also here to join today’s Chinese Lighting Designers Association’s Annual General Meeting which is being held in conjunction with the GILE. On behalf of CLDA’s International Advisory Council (IAC) of which I am an executive member, I will present an overview of our past and ongoing activities to promote better awareness of good quality lighting design in China specifically and the Asia Pacific region in general. Tomorrow, besides my presentation at Think Light, we will also meet with the Messe Frankfort management team to discuss our participation in the Shanghai International Lighting Fair in September (already confirmed) and next year’s presence at the Frankfurt Light & Build event, so plenty of actions going on there!

This week, fittingly, we move to our China team and the first up is Zhaolin, my longest serving, loyal team member. I am very grateful to her for sticking by me for all these years and also very proud of her continuous strive to improve and get better. Her efforts to master English to better communicate and interact with the team and international client and design members have been an important aspect of her growth. Thanks Zaolin.

Intro: Me and Martin

Hi, all! I’m Zhaolin, from KLD Shanghai office. When I got the message that I need to write an article for Martin’s blog, his face appeared in my mind. It’s been 13 years since I entered his company in China end of 2004. During these years, I have been growing from a draftsman to a lighting designer and a project manager. My first lighting idea, my first meeting with clients, my first site visit, my first lighting programming…… every step has his guidance and company. For me, he’s more a great teacher, not only teaching me lighting knowledge, but also some truth of life, like how to work with professional attitude, how to treat everyone equally and gently including his employees, how to help and support young people…… May I take this opportunity to say “Thank you, Martin!”?

Me and Lighting           

The first time I heard about Lighting Design was at my interior design graduation job fair. After my two girl friends and I had learned what a lighting designer needed to do, we decided: we’ll not be lighting designers! But several years later we all became lighting designers!

The first project I joined in was Yuanyi Hilton hotel in Hefei province, east of China. Lighting in the main lobby is quite dark. But several years later, when I visited it with another interior designer, he told me that he liked the lighting there: yes, it was dark, but it made sense但很有感觉. My favourite project is the Kempinski Resort Hotel in Sanya which included interior lighting, facade lighting and landscape lighting. I started to be involved in design work. It was a hard but exciting time. Looking at it when I went to do the final programming with Martin, the feeling was like having my own baby.

As time went on, I designed Double Tree Hotels, Crown Plaza Hotels, Alila Hotels, and currently we are working on two other Hilton Hotels, one in Shanghai and one in Sanya. Some projects went well, some were difficult, no matter what was going on, I enjoyed the process, and I knew that I would do better next time. Lighting is a very small part in a whole project, but in order to finish our work better, we still need a lot of knowledge and abilities: lamps, fittings, materials, dimming systems, control systems, the ability to communicate with clients, the ability to balance budget and quality, the ability to realize design effect, etc. and with the progress of science and technology, we must continue to study. It will be a long way, but I do enjoy the way.

Zhaolin, Lighting Designer

 

 

 

10. June 2017 by Martin Klaasen
Categories: Light & Learn, Light and inspiration, light watch, lighting and culture, lighting design, lighting design practice | Leave a comment

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