Looking back on 6 month blogging
Shanghai, 2nd May 2010
Yes it has been 6 months already since I started blogging during PLDC Berlin in October 2009. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I started the blogging project but sometimes you just have to jump in the deep end of the pool. As some of you may know I was inspired to start the blog after I saw the movie Julie and Julia (with Meryl Streep) in which the movie character sets herself a task to blog about her experiences in realizing one recipe each day for a year from a well known cookbook. Though I am writing my Reflections column in Lighting Today magazine I was looking for some more direct and interactive challenges to share my experiences …and so this project was born.
How has it been so far?…Though my biggest worry was to run out of subjects, I have not really had that problem and I suspect that it will not become one either. The dynamic nature of our lighting design profession combined with my 30 years of experience in the field as well as daily world events, provides me with a continuous angle for a subject. I purposely keep it light hearted (hence “Light Talk”), with the aim to touch on issues or events that relate to our work as lighting designers and provide some food for thought about lighting in general. For some it maybe educational for some it maybe a reminder, but whatever it is I hope you enjoy it, I certainly do!
I know I have a number of enthusiastic followers who read my blog daily which is nice to know….thank you! I would invite you all to keep commenting on the subjects I provide as with your comments and inputs the blog becomes even more valuable. Let me know about how you experience the blogs, how I could improve and what it means to you! Another 6 months to go!
PS: Today is also my Mums birthday and her being one of my biggest fans I can but thank her for being there for me always. Thanks Mum, Happy Birthday!
World Expo Day 1
Shanghai, 1st May 2010
Some people have all the luck, isn’t it? Well, today I was one of the fortunate ones. In possession of a VIP pass I managed to enjoy the first day of the World Expo without having to queue up at any pavilion… I can’t tell you how good that feels when you know that the average queue to get into a popular pavilion is easily 1 hour! And I am not even talking about the queues to get into the Expo. I heard on the news that entries to the Expo had been limited to 500,000 people…wow, that is a lot! In the Expo park alone, which is the largest ever, they have 200,000 volunteers at hand, in the city another 2 million! Which country can mobilize such an army of volunteers!
Today I decided to spend the day around the European pavilions of which I saw a big part (thanks to my “jump the queue” pass :)). It is interesting to see how each country represents itself. One just have to compare Italy and Germany who attempted to show the same (technology, lifestyle, fashion, etc) but with total different styles. The practical Germans versus the stylish Italians…
To me Italy by far stuck out also by the open design allowing much daylight into the building. As a novelty the Italian pavilion had applied “transparent” concrete as building material, a technology allowing light to filter through concrete courtesy of embedded little fiber optic strands. At night the light pattern is reversed, creating a glow coming through the walls. Interesting was the Polish pavilion with its paper cutting technology applied to create a very nice visual ambiance. As can be expected LED was highly visible and applied in each pavilion. From observation I would say up to 80% of the pavilion lighting was LED, from linear to flood lights. Of course RGB plenty…too much at times. But absolutely smashing all records in the European pavilions is the application of multimedia screens and projections, 3D, interactive projections, most building high or long in size. Overall I was much impressed with the efforts put in by the countries. In regards to facade lighting design the UK pavilion must be the favorite, its porcupine fiber optic design looks magical at night.
Anyhow too much to report ..There is fantastic website that allows you to take virtual tours of the pavilions to check it out yourself at www.expo.cn
Design and reality
Shanghai, 30th April 2010
When we design our lighting we have all these beautiful images in our mind on how it will look like. When you are developing the lighting concept and you have virtually no constraints and can let your imagination flow, everything is exciting. You get into a dream state on how your project is going to look like. But gradually along the way you are brought back to reality. As the design progresses and the real life constraints and limitations appear (more then often the budget) one after another the dream slowly falls apart, leaving you in the end with a skeleton of what once was this great lighting design that you had envisaged. I dramatize a bit here but in many cases I am not far off the reality.
Today I was confronted with it when I was asked to inspect “our” lighting as installed in a 4 star hotel here in Shanghai. Honestly we had already given up on this project as the client did not follow our specifications, ignored our installation details, all in the name of cost saving. Though we are generally quite flexible and adaptable (isn’t the saying: “the client is king”?), there has to be a limit to what we can accept in terms of quality and performance. In the end we are responsible designers and have to apply our professional expertise in advising the client to make sure the lighting installation is safe, sufficient and able for operation including its maintenance.
What I saw was at times pitiful…Illuminated back panels without any access panels for lamp maintenance, with already lamps visibly failing, chandeliers with exposed non dimmable metal halide lamps in the main lobby (!), badly installed light fixtures such as down lights hanging of the ceiling creating light gaps between trim and ceiling, indirect cove lights showing the irregular messy installation, and so on.
You wonder why they even bother to ask you to come and look…they know what we have to say. But somehow they think we will help them rectify all these problems which now become so apparent…but should we?
Where does lighting design stop?
Shanghai, 29th April 2010
…and electrical design start? This is one of the questions I get asked frequently. What is in the scope of work of a lighting designer and what not…Of course it depends on the practices, but as pure professional architectural lighting designers we (as in my office) do not provide nor have the electrical design as a core competence. Whenever a client asks this to be part of our scope of works we engage an electrical specialist or outsource the work to them. I realize that there are practices that provide the both lighting design and electrical design consultancy, but in general we can draw a line between what is considered part lighting design and what part of electrical design.
To describe it simply I generally say that lighting design is all that is visible and electrical design is all that is hidden (behind ceilings, walls, in the ground, etc). In other words lighting design is about the selection of light fittings (and its associated controls), location of lights, integration of lights in the architectural structures and so on. We could say that is the “hard-ware” part. But there is also a “soft-ware” part to this which is the way we control the light and its lighting effects (looping), its energy management (power consumption/dimming/switching), comfort/quality requirements (color/glare/brightness). Basically when I turn on the switch it needs to switch on the lights in the way that I want.
But how it is achieved (wiring, cable size, switchboards, etc) is the responsibility of the electrical consultant. In practice however there are some “grey” areas as a result, specifically when it comes to the contractors installing the lighting, as sometimes the electrical contractor is different from the lighting installation contractor. So if we are not careful we end up with a missing link between the lighting point and the controls or transformers/ ballasts for instance.
Though we may be clear about our scope in terms of lighting design, we also need to translate that into a clearly defined scope for the contractors that will install our lighting design.
Wining and dining
Zhengzhou 28th April 2010
Those who have read my recent article in PLD magazine about doing lighting design in Asia may remember the part about wining and dining. I am currently in Zhengzhou to present to (and get approval from) the local government for our lighting design of a major landmark tower in the city. As the project is very political and prestigious to the local government failure is not an option. Therefore the government is going to great length to make sure the lighting design is feasible and will achieve the design intent. They cited several project examples in China in which the LED lighting (which we are using here) failed to achieve causing considerable local embarrassment.
But it is not a simple matter of just going into a meeting, presenting the lighting design to the officials and get approval…oh, no! The local government had invited some of the top national and local lighting design experts for the assessment of the design. Professors from the architectural lighting division of the Beijing University, independent professional lighting designers and members of the local Design Institute were invited to be part of the assessment panel. So to “break the ice” our client organised first a dinner last night with the key panel members with the intention mainly to get to know each other, understand the lighting design concept and avoid unnecessary confrontation in front of the government by discussing the potential issues first.
The result of last night’s “wining and dining” could be felt this morning when I presented our lighting design to the government officials as the mood was friendly, cordial and above all respectful. With the understanding of the basic design issues, knowing each other better, the questions and comments on the lighting design were to the point, valuable and constructive.
I was happy to get the endorsement by the panel of lighting design experts advising the government. It is not often that we are judged directly by our peers and their approval for my design meant a lot to me.
World intellectual property day
Zhengzhou 27th April 2010
You can feel the excitement in the air in Shanghai. As I was doing my “daily dose of daylight” walk earlier this morning before flying off to Zhengzhou, the sun was out and there was a definite buzz in the air… hard to describe. The opening of the World Expo is now only days away and the city has gradually completed all upgrading works to look neat and ready to receive the influx of visitors expected for the Expo. The park where I normally go for my walk just opened a new section full of flowers and blooming trees, the maintenance staff had all new uniforms…it’s all these little things that add to the feeling…Shanghai is ready for the Expo!
As it happens yesterday was world intellectual property day, a subject that should be close to every designer’s heart. A subject certainly sensitive and much talked about in this part (Asia, China) of the world! The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) was established on this day in 1970 and has its primary aims in raising awareness about the impact of patents, copyrights, trademarks and specifically designs on our daily life. By further protecting people’s IP rights it helps to promote creativity and innovation, something vital to our society.
Don’t we all copy things that we like in life, be it lifestyle, recipes for food, interior decorations? But most of the time we copy from things we encounter in the public domain, things we see around us, things we read in books or magazines, etc. And most of the time we copy just for our own personal use and enjoyment, not for commercial benefit.
When it comes to (commercial) lighting design I think it is the same. As a designer we develop our own style of lighting design, using concepts and lighting effects we like, we have seen working well. I would dare to say that there are very little original or innovative (lighting) designers. Let’s face it, most designers use existing products and proven concepts but apply them in new creative ways or environments. Is it copying? Are we infringing on someone’s IP rights? Not an easy question, certainly when it comes to lighting design. Would be interesting to hear some opinion on this!
Post Light + Building 2010
Shanghai 26th April 2010
Frankfurt Light + Building 2010 is well and truly behind us and but for many of us the memory will probably always remain the airspace closure due to the ash clouds from the Iceland volcano eruption, rather than the light fair itself! I heard from friends and colleagues that some undertook bus and train trips from Frankfurt all the way to Barcelona and Istanbul to get home! Wow.. talking about an adventure!
I still got emailed some statistics about the fair for those interested…According to the organizers more than 180,000 people had already been counted before the close of business on Friday, a near 10% increase compared to 2008. About 43% of the visitors came from abroad. It specifically mentions, though not in exact numbers, that architects and lighting planners were very well represented….
No less then 2177 manufacturers from all over the world displayed their latest products and shared their thinking about what they thought the latest trends were with the visitors to their stands. Billed as the World’s Leading Trade fair for Architecture and Technology with focus on lighting, electrical engineering and building automation, energy efficiency and LED were the key drivers for most new products.
Programs held in conjunction to the Fair such as the seminar and forum programs and the Luminale event with about 150 lighting installations set up throughout the city at night were also very successful.
I understand the next Light + Building will be held from 15-20 April 2012, By then we will be watching out for even more advanced and sustainable LED lighting solutions but possibly also potential new applications such as RGB laser technologies, integrated sound and light products and more mobile phone based lighting controls and applications!
Light years away
Singapore- Shanghai, 25th April 2010
This week the world celebrated the anniversary of the Hubble telescope, launched into space 20 years ago now. They are dubbed our eyes in space as they can see light years away, things we can’t see from Earth. Hubble has discovered thousands of galaxies, some more than 11 billion (!) light years away. Just to get an idea of what a light year is…a light year is an official unit of distance; it is the distance light travels in one year. If you know that light travels at a speed of about 300,000km per second it adds up to 9.5 trillion kilometers in one year. Multiply that by 11 billion and that is how far these galaxies are, mind boggling isn’t it?
Some amazing pictures have been released at the occasion of Hubble’s anniversary, pictures of galaxies, constellations, gas and dust clouds, planets and more. The pictures are beyond imagination with incredible colour palettes and lighting effects. This is lighting at its purest form I feel. To us human beings, the Universe exists because of light. We would have no perception of what it is if not for the images of light that reaches our eyes. There is of course a whole other world out there beyond the visible spectrum, but hard to imagine as we can’t see it.
I have always had an interest in space and space travel and in my younger years even aspired to become an astronaut. I still have all the news clips and magazine articles of the first moon landing. It is inspiring to know how we can defy the odds and develop technologies that allow us to create and achieve beyond our dreams. It is inspiring that it involves lighting.
The celebration of the Hubble telescope is therefore also a celebration of light, even though light years away 🙂
Staff matters
Singapore, 24th April 2010
Another weekend is upon us and as always a good time to look back on the week’s events. The airline troubles in Europe just reminded us all how much we nowadays depend on air travel. As we speak I just confirmed my meetings in China for the next two weeks and further meetings in India and Australia thereafter! The economic woes in this part of the world (Asia) seem now behind us and we have experienced a clear revival of new projects throughout the region since the beginning of this year.
Today’s blog is about staff. With the demands increasing again I am scratching my head for new staff, but quality staff. I can get production staff and school graduates, but finding the right experienced and skilled people is really a problem. I think all my colleagues in this region experience the same. Skilled and experienced lighting designers with at least 5-10 years in the business are difficult to find and certainly in high demand! If anyone out there is interested, please let me know!
But more importantly I cherish the great team I already have. I may be the face of the company but without my staff I wouldn’t be where I am today. I respect my staff for it and I appreciate the commitment of my staff! Thank you! I can’t say that enough. But with that also comes the challenge to nurture and grow each staff to higher levels of skills and experience. I know I am failing at this because I am “too busy” with running the company that I don’t take out enough time for them.
Growing a company is therefore also very much a matter of finding a balance between direct operational needs and growing your staff with you through on the job training, developing trust and responsibilities in project design, management and above all respect and understanding for each other.
Earth Day 2010
Singapore, 23rd April 2010
Yesterday was Earth Day 2010, the 40th Anniversary of the Earth Day Network. I previously blogged about Earth Hour held not so long ago, but this environmental network has been around much longer. I have to confess I was not really aware of this organization nor its global outreach. I went to their official website www.earthday.org to find out more. I quote from the website:
“Earth Day Network was founded on the premise that all people, regardless of race, gender, income, or geography, have a moral right to a healthy, sustainable environment. Our mission is to broaden and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable environment. We pursue our mission through a combination of education, public policy, and activism campaigns. Earth Day Network has a global reach with more than 20,000 partners and organizations in 190 countries. More than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities, making it the largest secular civic event in the world. Earth Day 2010 can be a turning point to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day Network is galvanizing millions who make personal commitments to sustainability. Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day”
Needless to say that environmental consciousness is becoming very big. Brought to the main public attention by Al Gore’s “An inconvenient truth” amongst others a few years ago, it is has now really reached main stream public acceptance.
As lighting designers we can but apply our professional consciousness, not only today but every day, by using lighting systems and designs that contribute to this worldwide cause. It was maybe (not) a coincidence that in an interview for a new project today the client insisted that their building had to have Greemark compliance and that they were asking us to design as much as possible with LED lighting…
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