The week that was 22-26th June
Singapore weekend 27-28 June 2015
Monday 22th Hangzhou/Anji – The China countryside I am a lucky guy as I get to travel and see the world mostly paid by my clients. Today I am on my way to the hinterlands to a village in Anji province 2.5 hours drive out of Hangzhou. Rather then flying through Shanghai and then taking the high speed train to Hangzhou as I had done in the past combining business in the big city, I decided to fly in directly from Singapore on a Silk Air flight, cutting a few hours of my travel time…By the time we landed in Hangzhou and got into our car to Anji it was already late in the afternoon but nevertheless we decided to go straight to site which we reached an hour before sunset (though there was not much sun on the day). Despite its higher latitude and it being a day after solstice day (the longest day on the northern hemisphere); darkness already sets in around 7.30pm. But enough light to enjoy the sights of the little village and the resort views on arrival. The resort we are in process of commissioning is located on the border of a beautiful lake surrounded by bamboo forested hills which were the background for the famous Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie. To me it is a greatly inspiring landscape and a welcome break from the busy, human bowling concrete city environments…this project is a gem in the making, blessed to be involved…
Tuesday 23rd Anji Meiziwan– Power to the people But everything is not rosy and sunshine…as it turns out there is still no proper power on site and as such we could only do physical inspection work but no check on actual lighting performance and effects. The site is so remote that the client had to negotiate with the local authorities to build an access road and bring (from 11km away) power to the site. The initial dirt road that lead to the site is now nicely surfaced with safety rails along the steep slopes down to the lake and power lines are ow cutting through the landscape to the resort. As always red tape has been utterly frustrating with final connection on site still awaited. Works (with the help of generators) has been ongoing and the site should hopefully be ready for partial opening later this year. The big question is of course how well have they managed to install all electrical infra structure with just a power generator. It would be a huge surprise if everything is all ready to “plug and play”; we will need to wait till power is connected to find out. Not surprisingly the contractors have used every excuse in the book (no power!) to justify any lack of electrical power infra-structure completion and as a result we found many unfinished areas with switchboards, circuit breakers and dimming systems yet to be installed…fingers crossed…
Wednesday 24th Anj/Hanghzou – Looking through to the future After the final team meeting in the morning we get back on the way for our return trip to Singapore. We reach Hangzhou well in time for the flight back and I use the time to write up my site review report and read up on the latest lighting innovations and developments. Two things strike out, one is a development form Samsung which is pioneering a LED screen on the back of trucks to allow cars queuing behind to see what is ahead. The screen gets a life feed from a camera fitted on the front of the truck so you can see “through” the truck. It apparently works day and night. While not directly related to lighting per-se, it does use a flat LED screen. I can see other applications on buildings for instance where life feeds would allow you to see what is happening inside as if walls not exist, perhaps something to consider in future space and lighting designs.
Another development, one I wrote about in a previous blog, is the graphene lamp, this time complete with a You-Tube video about the technology. I am not sure where this is heading but it certainly seems to gather steam with more and more media reports appearing. It may well be what we need to give the LED Cowboys a run for their money. Right now LED is shaping up as the only alternative forcing the industry to move into LED whether you like it or not. An alternative perhaps competing technology could re-align minds and commercial attitudes to a healthier state! One development certainly to follow! Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DaxKbATmTCE
Thursday 25th Singapore – Dark condo’s Back in Singapore where I have a number of deadlines to meet. Fee proposals, project progress submissions and some financial end of financial year (June) matters; all that with the normal stream of office visitors popping in and out. We have an open door policy towards most manufacturers and suppliers and certainly in the age of LED technology samples of light fittings we intend to specify are flying in and out of the office on a near continuous basis. As I enjoyed an early Starbucks coffee on my way to the office this morning I read about Singapore’s “dark condo’s” an apparent reference to the oversupply of residential units in the city. Some reporter went out to check how well real estate is doing and photographed current condo’s at night and his assessment of the state of condo sales was based on comparisons of night time lighting today and one year ago. It just struck me that they were using lighting as a measure of occupancy. Not sure how accurate it is but one thing is sure…light is life…
Friday 26Th June Singapore – The money ball The week ended with a last ditch run to complete my entry for next year’s 2016 I-Light Marina Bay festival, due today. I was a proud participant in its inaugural event in 2010 and had done a submission last year that was not selected. This year I am trying again. Selection will be announced by the end of August. My busy schedule has seen me miss many deadlines for events such as lighting design competitions, news articles, etc. I do want to participate but a day only seems to have 24 hours… 🙂
My subject of the week is what I may call the “Money Ball”. We all deal with money in one form or another and in our design discipline it is fees and budgets. Time and again we are confronted with it, first when we reply to fee proposals and we have to submit our fees, later when we collect our fees and reimbursable claims and most of all when it comes to capital budgets for the procurement and installation of lighting…they are all linked. When we submit our fees we are often confronted with an uneven playing field. As professional and independent consultants we submit fees for our services to represent our time and required inputs and bar company size, overheads and expertise, professional fees should be within same ball parks. In reality however we lose out to “unprofessional consultants” who go in with very low fees banking on their supplier relationships to collect the “balance” in commissions at the end. This is specifically felt in our neighbouring countries. It is the only way I can explain fees submitted by “competitors” at one fifth of ours! The frustrating thing is that the clients fall for it and the even greater irony (as I have experienced first-hand) is that the client stupidly ends up paying much more during procurement where the “missing” fees are covertly included in the procurement prices and second rate fixtures are sold for the price of top rate ones. The lure of “cheap” and so called professional services often wins out leaving professionals like ourselves scratching our heads. Not surprisingly these projects end up with very much to desire…hopefully continuous education of our clients will help to establish the need for quality, not only in products but also in services…
I end with a picture I took in my hotel shower earlier in the week…you tell me what is wrong with the lighting… 🙂
Have a great weekend!
The week that was…
The week that was 15-19th June
Singapore weekend 20-21 June 2015
Monday 15th Singapore – The LED Cowboys are still at it After a full on week in China I was back in the office attending to a back log of project issues and attending meetings scheduled for the three days I am back here. Two of our projects in Malaysia specifically are using up a lot of our attention specifically in regards to light fitting specifications. One client has personal relations with a Chinese lighting manufacturer, though if you look at their product range they are really cowboys pure-sang…in other words as LED Cowboys they don’t come any better! So we have to thread this very carefully as the guy is friend of the owner and the owner is the one paying our fees, hence some diplomacy and tact is required to demonstrate to our client that the quality of their products is really well below par. The alternative fittings of which we received samples (see pics below) where supposed to be equivalent to our specifications. Besides that the “looks” already started the alarm bells ringing once we opened the fittings the “truth” came out. The so called IP65 wall fixture may have looked the part from first impression, but once we opened up the fitting it was virtually empty, just a little LED strip glued at the top and a driver in a corner covered up in black silicone to give it the “IP rating”. You can see why we rejected it… the recessed linear light was even worse! Relief came when we were informed that the company has now filed for bankruptcy…I wonder why? At any rate it now saves us from convincing the client that that company is no good…
Tuesday 16th Singapore – The Cowboy Contractor There are other types of Cowboys around in our lighting world…this one is the Cowboy Contractor. We received today in copy some pictures from the project manager of one of our projects, reminding the contractor to be more respectful and tidy with his store room. To his and our horror the store room, with still heaps of top of the range floodlights some valued at more than $2000 each (!) still to be installed, looked like a war zone. The pictures below tell the story. It speaks volumes about the lighting contractor, but then if you pay peanuts you get monkeys and that may well be the case here. I don’t know the current situation between the contractor and the client and whether they have been paid or not but clearly for all to see it is affecting their quality control and neatness of work let alone attention. As it is, this attitude is totally reflected in their way of work; they are hard to track down, sloppy if not poor at their installation work, poor in keeping schedules. It is hard to understand as the contract is huge and the project if completed well a big plus on anyone’s track record. Perhaps they have totally underestimated the amount of work, are understaffed and if poor payment from the client is added in has resulted in this attitude. Who knows? The supplier/contractor is well known and one of the leading ones in Malaysia. As always it is probably a chicken and egg situation…poor work, poor payment…poor payment, poor work…meanwhile the rest of the team is stuck with it…how difficult can it be to keep your store room neatly organised?
Wednesday 17th Singapore – Cove lighting One of the most challenging and frustrating lighting solutions is cove lighting. At the same time it is also one of the most applied lighting features in interior lighting applications. Ever since someone came up with this concept in the eighties, it has been a big challenge to get all disciplines coordinated to bring it to a good end. There is the architect and interior designer who needs to detail this within their overall concept, there is the lighting designer who needs to detail the light fitting specifications and the related cove dimensions to make sure the resulting lighting effect is as desired and there is the contractor who needs to read both architectural as well as lighting design drawings for its installation. Add to that the cost of linear lighting, which if applied generously, generally breaks the bank and you are in for a challenging and frustrating ride…at least that is my experience. Interior designers design them initially too small (conventional technology), then too big (LED technology) often leaving not enough opening space for the light to properly disperse. The contractors cant be bothered to properly finish the inside of the cove thinking that no-one can see and on top of that leave “structural” cross beams that hold up the cove exposed leaving an uneven cove base making it impossible to get nice straight lines. Poor electrical wiring with loose and untidy cabling adds to the fun and resulting poor lighting effects; I blogged about this before. It is great to see that some lighting companies (typically not a Cowboy J), specialised in linear lighting has a full section dedicated to the proper installation and detailing of cove lighting.
Thursday 18th Jakarta – Looking for the X-factor On the road again with several meetings lined up in Jakarta today and tomorrow. Our first and main stop today was a kick off meeting with one of the main broadcasting companies in Indonesia. While we were already on board for the architectural lighting of their new HQ building, they had asked us if we would be ab le to help them out with the 1000-seat theatre-studio, a planned state of the art integrated Auditorium, Concert Hall and TV Studio capable of holding concerts, talent shows, game shows, pageants, theatre performances, musicals…as we found out basically anything. We added some specialists to our team as this is not our everyday bread and butter and got appointed resulting in today’s kick off meeting. I think we are all excited as the aim is to create a unique venue that not only can sit a sizable audience but is also suitable to house shows to be recorded for national TV viewing; X-Factor being one of them. It is clear that this is also a challenge for the project team as the space planning still leaves a lot to desire. Knowing how to design a TV Studio is obviously not the same as designing the same within an architectural theatre envelope. The first stage of this project therefore will be to decide the “game plan”, the space planning that will be required for each and every type of show that we would like to have in there. Only then can we start designing the (lighting) infra-structure around it. That lighting infra-structure will consist of special stage/performance/effect lighting systems (suitable for TV Recording), architectural lighting systems; set up/maintenance lights; and emergency evacuation lighting. All that too be neatly integrated within the architectural space planning…exciting, but very challenging…
Friday 19Th June Jakarta – Take-off and landing… My final meeting was perfectly located practically next to the airport’s main runways. From the meeting room we could see the planes take-off and land, just showing us how busy the country’s main airport is. We are negotiating the final contract for the renovation of one of the main terminals. The existing terminals will all be renovated and a new one is being built by an international consortium. The aviation industry is booming. Should we be appointed it would be one of the easiest sites to reach… J. So much so that my time to reach the site from Singapore maybe shorter than those who have to come from Jakarta with their oh-so notorious traffic jams…We had a false start with Bali Airport a few years ago when we had started to design the lighting concept, even presented it, with the to be appointed contactor, only to find ourselves pushed aside when a new project team and contractor was put in place as a result of government changes. It was a bitter disappointment at the time, but not much that we could do about. Having learnt our lessons we are now pushing for a contractual and binding contract directly with the Airport authorities rather than with the contractor as we were directed to do last time…After the first take-off and (hard) landing, we have good faith that this time we will take off if our meetings was anything to go by…
Have a great weekend
The week that was 8-12th June
Chongqing, weekend 13-14 June 2015
Monday 8th – Thursday 11th June Guangzhou – Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition Fair (GILE)
This week I am in Guangzhou attending the light fair as a VIP and invited Guest Speaker and in Chongqing at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute to open the 100 Lighting Design Projects Exhibition and present a lecture at the Institute where we teach students under the tutelage to the CLDA. On the side lines of the GILE we also had our AGM with the CLDA.
Rather than the usual daily blog feedback I will give you a general impression of the events and my take on how the lighting market is developing based on my observations walking the fair.
It is hard not to get overwhelmed with the quantity and quality of what is on offer, and I say this with the knowledge that 99% of all manufacturers present hail from China and probably more than half from Guangdong province here, the heartland of LED manufacturing. It is said that there are more than 6000 LED manufacturers now active in China and when walking the fair everything supports that notion. Besides that, the quality of the stands is also way up from what it used to be. No longer do we screamingly bright product driven stands (well they are still there, but it is clearly decreasing), application oriented stands where real life applications, such as retail residential fashion or hospitality that show the lighting effects and the quality of light, are becoming more dominant. Human centric lighting, the buzz word nowadays, is catching on fast with sustainability being dropped in favour of the “human centric” approach. Whether they actually understand the deeper meaning behind this approach remains unclear, but they certainly hopped on the bandwagon…anything to remain relevant and attractive I guess… But the point is that the quality of the light fittings has come a long way. Some of the stands that I saw certainly rival in size and quality any of the stands you would find in Frankfurt’s Light & Build!
Without doubt the (mainly) Chinese manufacturers are catching up with the big boys or are getting really close giving many established lighting manufacturers a run for their money. While doubts still remain, exploring the light fittings on offer definitely shows a greatly improved quality level. In our own practice we have already discovered several “china” brands that have passed the minimum quality threshold. Another really interesting fact that I came to know is that several of the leading local manufacturers are now shying away of showing of their latest innovations in fear of being copied by the fierce local competition. Interesting isn’t it; the Chinese being worried about being copied!
The main reason for my presence here was however that I was an invited guest speaker, one of the several international lighting consultants invited as part of an extensive program consisting of Design Talks, Lighting Talks and Tech Talks. With Kevin Shaw, Charles Stone, Paulina Villalobos, Susanna Antico, Paul Ehlert, James Wallace and Lear Hsieh I was in good company! My presentation, “the Quality of Lighting”, was part of the Light Talk sessions, a coincidence that I only discovered recently when I was sent the program. Of course I could not resist of bringing my book of the same name which found eager buyers…What better platform to have my book at an event called Light Talk!
In the afternoon I joined in with our International Advisory Council (IAC) team to attend the CLDA’s AGM. It was a great occasion for the growing CLDA / IAC family to meet and share the progress made and the plans in store for the future. This is later followed by a Gala dinner courtesy of A-Lighting.
As we depart for Chongqing we are caught in huge bad weather spell delaying our flight for more than 5 hours. Eventually we do arrive in Chongqing close to midnight, all still reeling with the usual dose of Chinese frustration. My personal frustration was further tested when I discovered that the lock of my suitcase had been forced and my luggage obviously opened. In the presence of the local airport authorities I opened my bag to check. We found a note from the Guangzhou airport security inside that they had found a lithium battery in my luggage and had removed it…oh well…
Friday 12Th June –Chongqing – The 100 Lighting Design Project Exhibition
Today our team of IAC members (Paulina, Susana, Paul, Kevin, James and myself) were guest of honour at the official opening of the 100 Lighting Design Projects exhibition a joint initiative between the CLDA and the SCFAI aimed at sharing lighting projects from established lighting designers from around the world with the new generation of lighting designers in waiting at the Institute. Attended by a packed room of students, teachers and principals it was a great occasion for the students, our future lighting designers, to mingle with some of the established lighting designers who’s projects where show cased and ask questions about the projects and take pictures with them; something to which we all happily obliged. We duly autographed our project exhibits and after the walk around and official visit of the exhibition (which spans three floors) with the students, left all together for dinner to enjoy the traditional Sichuan Hot Pot, a (super) spicy hot pot barbecue famous to Chongqing; a meal not for the faint hearted. A joyful end to a day full of promise for the future…
Have a great weekend
The week that was…
The week that was June 1-5
Perth, weekend 6-7 June 2015 –
Monday 1st June Perth – Photo op
One of the things that you need to do as a practice is to catalogue your projects for reference, so when your project is completed you have a good set of pictures to show off your hard work. Today is actually a public holiday both in Perth as well as in Singapore so I will keep this one short and jus share some of the pictures of our Subiaco project. Just some residential street art, but with high visual impact; another great cooperation with artist Rick Vermey.
Tuesday 2nd June Perth – Prototyping continued
In a blog sometime ago I spoke about the importance of prototyping. Today we had the chance to inspect the first prototype of a pendant being developed for one of our heritage projects. It is one thing to work out everything on paper and do renderings to get a feel of the design, its integration in space, but a totally different one to see the actual thing in real life environment. In this particular case it is not so much the lighting effect as well as the spatial proportions that are critical. As it turned out the lighting effects were pretty close to expectations and with some minor adjustments that will be fine. The main thing that we discovered with the prototype is that the proportions need some serious adjustments. Originally designed around dimensions thought the best suitable to house the lighting components, the guts so to speak, the prototype showed that suspended in its intended environment is felt too “bulky”. We all agreed on how to render the pendant sleeker in appearance, more elegant and with some structural changes we will get a real nice end product. The art glass that we specified in the centre comes out really well and adds a great touch to the look and feel. It was a great exercise totally justifying the importance of prototyping these kind of applications…can’t wait to see the finished product…
Wednesday 3rd June Perth – Safety protocols
One of the things that shows you in which part of the world you bare active are the site safety protocols. In general in Asia there are little to no safety protocols on site. Some developers may disagree but if I compare the safety protocols that apply on Australian worksites with those in Asia, moots recently when I was on site in Kuala Lumpur and Vietnam, it is clear that Australia applies strict safety protocols. Where in Asia I can virtually walk up the site without any safety prevention gear, perhaps a safety helmet here and there, most work sites in Australia don’t even let you on site without a proper safety guidelines induction. Big mining sites for instance have induction “seminars” that you have to attend before you can even get close to the site. These induction programs may take one hour to half a day depending what your scope of work is. Accessing the site further requires safety shoes, helmets, sometimes glasses and special clothing. Our prototype review yesterday involved getting on site as the pendant was there. Anyone accessing the site for the first time had to follow a 5-10 mins induction “course” in which general protocol, safety procedures and emergency evacuation was explained. Subsequently everyone was issued a safety helmet and a safety luminescent bright yellow jacket which was labelled “visitor”, to make sure everyone could see you a “foreign intruder” like a new comer not really belonging there J. Though it may seem over the top for a simple prototype review, the fact is that there a strict safety laws in force and non-compliance may put the site contractor in trouble.
Thursday 4th June Perth – Another photo op Our Raffles Hotel project in Jakarta, bar a few areas still to be completed in phase 2, starts to look very marketable with some great professional photographs taken. This time we share the photographs taken by HBA, the lead interior designer on this project who took the time to send their photographer to catalogue the completed areas of the hotel for their own marketing purpose. We thankfully reproduce the some of the pictures with thanks and credits to HBA for a great job.
Friday 5th June Perth – Back door politics There are days that you want to eat your hat in frustration…today was such day. Without naming names or project I do wish to share this because it is something that many of you may recognise as something that has happened to you as well. This in regards to a very prestigious project in a country that prides itself for the fact that there is little to no corruption. For a couple of month we have been liaising with the interior designer of this project, who has been working on this project already since a while. The client, a government organisation with big financial means, has been a very poor paymaster and eventhough the project is a public landmark project, refuses to pay the dollars that you would professionally expect for a project of this stature. We, keen to get our name on the board for this, even offered our services for free (I don’t really do that in general, but the nature and type of application is one we keenly wish to get involved with). The architect who was asked to take care of the lighting as part of his scope, however, struggling to get payments out of the client, decided to ask a supplier to help him with the lighting design, not in the least so he could get a commission no doubt to cover him due to the lack of payment from the client. The supplier then turned to a young lighting designer upstart company for the design work. And that is what enraged/ frustrated me. In the end eventhough I offered my services for free, the architect was worried he would not be able to get a commission from the lighting supplier as I would have certainly blocked that and now a young upstart company will see its name attached to this project and I am just left by the roadside. No hard feelings to the young designers, they gladly took this opportunity (and will no doubt be paid by the supplier later), but the irony is that most likely the client in its stinginess will end up paying more as the product cost will have to include the cover for architect and lighting designer! Bummer!
Have a great weekend
The week that was…
The week that was May 25-29
Singapore, weekend 30-31 May 2015 –
Monday 25 HCMC, Vietnam – First impressions I am in HCMC to meet my client for the first time. After months of negotiations in regards to the contract, kick-off meetings with the lead consultant and operator in Singapore, we are finally in Vietnam to meet this new client. The actual project is a high end resort somewhere along the coast an hours’ flight away, but we are meeting in HCMC where they have their HQ. As another added benefit the mock-up room will be built in the concrete structure next door where they are building some huge residential towers. I have seen pictures of the beach site where our resort is to be taking shape, which is a new to develop beach tourist destination which shows a master plan with a beach promenade with a dune landscape along which some 10 to 15 hotels are to be built including all related infrastructure. Potentially more projects ahead? While I have known the Singapore based consultants and operator, the client is new to me (and we new to them you can say) so these kind of kick of site meetings provide you with some first impressions that may be indicative of the project to follow. First of all they have been at it for more then 5 years, but funding issues had halted the project previously…a worrying sign? But now they seem back in the money; our appointment fees were duly paid before the meeting…a good sign? They are in a hurry because their government approval to build seems to be subject to some time limits for completion…sign? They seem however to have little understanding of project schedule, planning, sequence of work, inter-relationship between the consultants in terms of needs and information…potentially a disaster waiting to happen or a blessing? I guess time will tell, for now the first impression is to give them the benefit of the doubt, they seem eager and full of good will…
Tuesday 26 HCMC Vietnam – Market potential Vietnam seems to be a country with an economy on the rise and hence potentially a country with project potential. Yesterday’s kick off meeting looks like a first tip of the iceberg as I had some further meetings with potential clients today, one of them having no less than 12 hotels in their planning books over the next few years. It is quite interesting to see how economic growth shifts around in the region. Yesterday’s powerhouses China and India seem to have slowed down considerably noticeable by the stark reduction in projects and the slow payments, even though their economic growth is still hovering around 5-7%, certainly not a bad figure. Meanwhile Australia is feeling the pinch with the mining boom coming to a halt, affecting projects in its wake. Star countries now are Indonesia and Malaysia with Vietnam looking at following in their footsteps. For a practice like ours it is therefore important to keep a finger on the pulse and understand the market forces at play and shift our focus accordingly. Vietnam is definitely on our radar at the moment…
The vibrant HCMC night market…
Wednesday 27 Singapore – Corporate identity Our lighting design approach is much directed by the client…obviously. A big part of the design considerations are stemming from a client’s corporate identity it wants the property in development to reflect. Hotel operators have their “design manual” and corporate guidelines to which the property has to comply. However there are some down sides to it if left to individual interpretations. First of all it is our experience that many corporate guidelines are outdated, to basic or open to a multitude of interpretations. True, you need to allow the designers some leverage and freedom of interpretation, but without some basic quality parameters the manuals may have well not have been written. Many of the operator manuals today struggle with the integration of LED lighting technology in their corporate guidelines, simply because they have no fundamental understanding what to look for or use a standard minimum quality criteria. Few have the insight to actually hire a professional lighting consultant to help them put a meaningful lighting document together, preferring to draw on past experience to formulate their guidelines. Hence in a way it is always behind the facts. We have just engaged on a corporate client project, a bank, for which we are designing the lighting of their corporate visitor floors. They have however taken the corporate identity to a whole new level. They had redesigned their head office just recently, liked it and now have instructed each of their worldwide representative offices to look identical. Corridors, meeting rooms, reception…just copy and paste, even the light fittings have already been specified. The only thing left for us to do is to adapt the layouts and quantities to the actual building fabric. I don’t think our creativity is going to be tested to the limit, though we may have a hard time beating some of the weird down lighting configurations we found! J A room with a view…
Thursday, 28 Kuala Lumpur – Solving site issues Quick daytrip to KL today to look at some site issues and hopefully come to a consensus on how to solve them…also called keeping my client happy…While I have left this project largely to my team to run and had not physically met the project manager for nearly a year coming down personally in times of need was a show of our commitment and dedication to bring this project to a successful end. Our attitude in this project has paid large dividends with our payments never in discussion and gradually our scope extending to now encompassing the full project including all additional works. Where other consultants have fallen by the wayside (we are now dealing with the 3rd Interior design consultant) we are still standing proud and with a happy client it is easy to make yourself available for support as the efforts are appreciated. It takes two to tango…The interesting part of today’s site visit was not the lighting effects being in question but its integration in the architecture. The design details were signed of a long time ago but now the client feels that lights should be even more recessed in the ceiling trough. We looked at ways to achieve this with the architect and client and found a way, it may however mean exchanging the fitting for a different type bringing cost issues to the fore. Creative thinking however lead us to reusing the now “redundant” lights in another area where lights are yet to be ordered…perfect, we just swop the budgets… A fruitful day in the office with satisfied clients and consultants, amazing what a small trip to site can achieve…
Pic above: yes, someone decided to do some fogging (pest control) as we were doing our rounds…great! Corridor with double focus down lights.
Friday 29 Singapore – Do you mind a bit more… If yesterday’s trip was a good day in the office, today certainly topped it by all accounts! I had hardly settled behind by desk in the morning when the telephone rang…one of our potential clients calling to confirm our appointment for a new high end resort project. Great! Oh and by the way, could I please sent in the invoice for our appointment today so they can process that straight away, they want to get cracking soonest. Oh and by the way number two, can you please make the invoice 50% of your fees, the client is serious and want to show their commitment!?!…Really, are you sure? What about our proposed payment schedule…? Why was I asking that! For once a client who shows commitment and appreciation offering to pay more than you ask rather than one (like most!) trying to negotiate less! I have no idea what lays ahead but it is certainly a great way to start the relationship and a great way to finish of the week!
I leave you with a look towards a “bright” future. Midweek I attended a function organised by Lutron one of the leading lighting control companies in the market. Lutron was proud to announce not only their new Paladium control system but also that their lighting control app was one of the features available on the new I-Watch from Apple. It was a nice social networking night with many of Singapore’s leading lighting designers in attendance…
Have a great weekend
The week that was…
The week that was 18-22 May
Singapore, weekend 23-24 May 2015 –
Monday 18; Singapore – Pubic media interviews
My short trip to Bangalore recently continues to yield fruits…today I received a copy of the final interview that I had, this one with CW Interiors one of the leading interior design magazines out of Mumbai. While you can always debate the value of interviews I believe that if you have something sensible to say that reflects your knowledge and expertise in your field you can contribute positively to the public opinion, in this case public awareness of good lighting and lighting design. For years education of the general public, fellow design professionals as well as young aspiring designers about the value of good lighting and the benefits it generate to our daily lives has been close to my heart. I have always had the belief that keeping all my knowledge to myself serves only myself and does not contribute in great ways in making our world a better world. By sharing my knowledge through public speaking events, lighting seminars and conventions, my blog and lighting articles but also direct public media exposure helps to make people more aware and excited about lighting and how well designed lighting can be of benefit in their own world. In June I will be speaking at the lighting forum at the Gangzhou Light Fair alongside some famous peers like Charles Stone and Kevin Shaw. Looking forward to it. Fulll article can be found on our Facebook account.
Tuesday 19, Singapore – Bike Balls
Sometimes I come across some light-hearted lighting applications. My blog has always has the intent to be light hearted while sharing my daily adventures in the life of light. Some Canadian researchers came up with an “innovative” idea for bike lighting that they dubbed “bike balls” for obvious reasons. They got the idea after having dangled a LED light at the back of their bike seat which had little effect other than a little swinging point. As they brainstormed for a better solution they came up with the idea to incorporate an LED light inside a silicone shell thus producing a much larger illuminated surface, the evolution to dangling balls was probably arrived at after a night were no doubt some drinks were involved. Regardless it is original and fun…as a lighting designer I love these out of the box lighting solutions…I am not a biker, but if I had one I would probably get one…J You can watch the bike balls in action on the YouTube video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Z6Y0YNQGg
Wednesday, 20 Singapore – Electricity
One thing that I did not realise is that still one out of 7 people on this earth have no access to electricity! I read that in one of the daily newspapers today. We are so used to have access to electricity that we forget that we are privileged to have that luxury! Not only that, my profession of a lighting designer would be tough if not practically impossible without electricity! These kind of reports, even though probably unnoticed by many, should remind us not to take electricity and our profession for granted! But there is a great positive lining to all this; a bit further in the same newspaper I read that the technology used to convert solar energy into electricity has again made a major step forward with the announcement by researchers from the Aalto University in Finland, having used black silicon solar cells to achieve a new efficiency record in the conversion of solar energy. The black silicon solar cells as I understand are a cell type capable of gathering sunlight even from very low angles, increasing the captive efficiency by adding a dense network of nanoscale needles on top of the silicon. As an added benefit modifying the material in this way also starkly reduces the reflection of the solar cells. This development is only regarded as a small step forward, much more improvements in this technology through better materials with even better conductivity are expected in the near future. The use of solar energy in our projects is still at its very infancy. Only very occasionally we have the opportunity to “think” in renewable energy terms, but with renewed focus I am sure this is one area primed to grow in our profession in the future. The black silicon solar cell:
Thursday, 21 Singapore – Flexibility in design
Lighting design is generally a fixed and integrated layout and installation. But some applications like landscape lighting design require a degree of flexibility to cater for the ever changing surroundings. When a project is realised the landscape is generally still fresh from the nursery, except perhaps some feature trees that have been salvaged from the existing location, with most tree and planters yet to reach maturity. The landscape designer may well indicate the type of tree and specify it’s minimum length on installation, but a 5m high tree can be slender and tall or short and “fat” still satisfying the desired minimum of 5m. Over time these trees however grow and in this part of the world 1-2 years can mean a totally changed landscape in terms of height and density. It has always been a challenge for lighting designers to select lights to cater for this growth. We generally end up with an average which is too much in the beginning but not enough for the final mature landscape. Having a light that can adapt its output and beam characteristics to this growth would be just what we need, isn’t it? Well Louis Poulsen just came out with such light, the Radius, yet to hit the shelves it was demonstrated in our office today and I can see great opportunities for it. Available in a few “sizes” it has not only an adjustable beam (from narrow to wide by moving the lens up or down in the unit) it can also adjust its lumen output and is adjustable as well. It comes with integral drivers, all within a quite compact size for what it does! Great product…
The week that was…
Friday 22 Singapore – People business
It does not matter how long you have been in business, how many people you know, our business is a people business. People like to do business with people they know, people they like, people who have supported them successfully in the past. I had a meeting today with an operator I had done business with on and off over the last 20 years and was surprised I found a team that was not even aware we existed. Well they did of course but not prior to our appointment. Impressed by our track record they also wondered why we had not been doing more projects with them. It just shows that the right hand does not always know what the left hand is doing and that in a big organisation like theirs the internal communication does not always seem to work. While we know we are listed on their approved consultants list I was surprised they didn’t know us. And this was not just a like a new rookie team, no, these were guys, certainly the project director who has been around for many, many years. Now that we have met I suspect this going to change for the good, but the fact that people like to deal with people they know, was once more proven.
Have a great weekend
The week that was 11-15th May
Singapore, weekend 16-17 May 2015
Monday 11; Singapore – Blast from the past
It is always intriguing to see how people fare and evolve in life. Last weekend I had the chance to catch up with my former boss in Philips, Ton Begemann. Retired several years ago he continued providing his expertise through private consultancy but now enjoys family life including his grand-children. On his final stop in Perth after a great holiday in Australia before flying back to Europe, we had a chance to catch up. I had a good reason to see him as in the end he was the one who posted me in Singapore with the rest being history as they say. We had not seen or spoken to each other since I left Philips in the early nineties, so at least 20 years. He had not really changed (good on you Ton!) and we both reminisced (and ranted) about life in Philips. I think we were fairly typical of getting older…we don’t seem to understand what today’s generation is up to, let alone today’s LED generation. I think we did enjoy the good old early days of lighting the LED B.C. times…Meanwhile the further development of the LED technology seems still far from having reached its full potential with yet another innovative development claimed by an Korean researcher…the Quantum LED…
Tuesday 12, Singapore – Leasing
Years ago in Philips (80’s) we pioneered the concept of leasing lighting installation. The idea being that you provide the lighting installation free of charge and get paid in the subsequent years out of the savings obtained from the more efficient lighting installation. At the time it was centred around the fluorescent and compact fluorescent lighting technology. It is therefore not surprising that companies have now emerged offering the same with LED technology. I met with a representative of such company today (by chance) and was really interested to hear more how it worked out for them. Their company operates mainly in Japan I understood but from case studies I noticed that savings can potentially be huge. A department store could typically save $250,000 a year in energy costs of which about 70-80% would be payable to the leasing company over a pre-agreed period of time. After which the savings are pure gains. The advantage is of course that there are zero upfront cost involved for those who want to upgrade to LED lighting. I did note that the leasing concept they provided was for retrofit lamps only. Understandably that keeps the upgrade simple with just simple light fitting adjustments and only one for one lamp replacement needed. Replacing completed lighting systems would involve serious ceiling works which may render the exercise more difficult for the lease providing company. Note however that the gains were calculated on energy saving only. Adding maintenance, lamp replacement and workman’s hours into the calculation should make it more interesting. Leasing is a concept we could perhaps consider for those clients short of cash or capital…?
Wednesday, 13 Singapore – Hidden agenda’s
It is common knowledge that many design consultants draw commissions form suppliers and while each consultant should run their business the way they seem fit, there are professional ethics I believe should be the driving force behind every professional and professed independent consultant. I was confronted with this issue today when one of our project team consultants, interior designers, decided to modify our lighting design to fit their own “needs”. Out of the blue we received drawings issued by the consultants to the team with a totally new lighting layout and specifications. None coordinated with us…just like that out of the blue. Their excuse being that the client did not like our concept…a weird statement as it was approved several months ago. It soon dawned on me that they were trying to take control of the light fitting specifications for obvious reasons. This is not the first time and certainly not the last time this will be happening. It is disturbing to say the least and while there is no concrete evidence, dealing with these situations requires a high degree of diplomacy and tact. Certainly when the consultancy practice in question is closely related to the owners of the project. My only tools are my professional expertise and knowledge and therefore my reply was purely centred on professional reasons related to quality and performance needed to achieve the desired lighting design…something that is non-arguable! Anyhow let’s look at the funny side…
Thursday, 14 Singapore – Hitting the road
The economy is arguably slowing down in the region with previously booming countries like India and China notably developing in a lower gear. From industry feedback I get that all of us are feeling that. But some countries like Malaysia and Indonesia and probably to a slightly lesser degree Vietnam, are still going strong, in fact they are our strongest project countries at the moment. The thing with our project business is that we need to think ahead and make sure our work does not dry up. This means generally that we need 130 to 150% project works to cover the 100% cash flow we need as there are always delays, always projects that somehow stall completely or even cancelled. From past experience we know that about 80% of our work comes in from word of mouth, the rest is self-initiated project acquisition; projects we hear about, projects we are interested in, etc. But when economies slow down we see an increased need for project acquisition. While we are still comfortable and even saw a recent upsurge in new projects (seasonal?), we have lately “hit the road” more often in search of new projects. A practice like ours is like flowing down a river…sometimes the waters are calm, sometimes we sail through rough waters, and sometimes we navigate the rapids…Since we are looking at life from the bright side, this is our working teritory:
Friday 15 Kuala Lumpur – Revisiting old stomping grounds
I am in KL today for some business and at the same time attend the launch of CLA’s new show room in Malaysia. CLA, led by the illustrious Eddie Tang, is one of the trend setting lighting suppliers in Asia with representation throughout the region and a reliable partner to many of the leading lighting consultants operating in this part of the world. There are probably few lighting consultants left who have not had a drink with Eddie at one point of time! Being in KL gave me also the opportunity to revisit one of my old stomping grounds, the KLCC Petronas Twin Towers. After we completed the project I never really had the time to go back up in the towers, with visitor queues for tickets discouraging any attempt. Staying around the corner I rode my luck and when I saw a minimal queue jumped to the occasion and bought myself a ticket. The 45 minute visit brings you up the sky bridge at level 42 and to the observation deck at level 86. I vividly remember my first few steps on the link bridge in the mid-nineties, even stronger is my memory of wandering around at the top floor of what then was then still just a concrete open shell, with no windows or cladding on the building and just a simple scaffolding separating us from the ground 400+ meter below. The building remains iconic in every way, by day and by night, a superb architectural design by Cesar Pelli. I am proud to have been part of its history as one of the 3 principal lighting designers on this project. It was a thrill to be back at level 86, albeit as an ordinary visitor.
Have a great weekend
The week that was…
The week that was 4-8 May
Perth, weekend 9-10 May 2015
Monday 4; Perth – Another year
On my way to Perth for some meetings and family time. As I celebrated another year wiser yesterday I will have my belated birthday dinner with my kids tomorrow night. Thanks to all the well-wishers who wrote on my timeline and wished me well via skype and others! On my flights I like to either read up or catch up on movies (I am pretty much up to date with all what is out there), as for some reason working on a plane does not really “sit” well with me. One of the things I got my hand on was an airline manual that indicates the various programmable lighting moods in the A380 (see below). I have flown the aircraft since one of its very first trips (Singapore to Sydney wit SQ) and even though I support the science behind the colours the execution is pretty poor. I am not impressed and even recently when I flew the A380 back from Shanghai most of LED RGB lights where inconsistent and out of sync. It looked cheap and messy. Surely an airliner can do better. Which begs the question, do they actually use a professional lighting designer for the design of cabin lights or do they just knock on the door of a lighting supplier? It feels like the latter and quiet honestly there is a lot of room for improvement!
Tuesday 5, Perth – The holy grail of due diligence
One of my latest contracts in Perth is the lighting of 3 churches, inside and outside. They are mostly heritage listed and a great need of a renovation. The church congregation is not cash strapped as they are supported by rich donations from big multinational firms. This will allow us to do some decent design work with good quality lighting systems. The churches are also home to various events such as exhibitions and weddings so we would be looking at implementing a certain level of special events and stage lighting equipment as well. Key to the lighting design will be the transfer from old energy consuming to new sustainable LED lighting systems with an eye on integrating the lighting harmoniously within the period heritage fabric of the building. Easy maintenance and simple operation will be integral to the design as well. All of the churches have a huge switchboard with heaps of manual toggle switches to activate one light or another, lamps and lamp colour are a mismatch of compact fluorescent, gas discharge and some old PAR lamps. There is no visual focus or directional light all is diffuse ambient of poor performance with uncomfortable glare. As part of the design research work we visited the St George Cathedral in Perth that was renovated some years ago. It was done with conventional lighting technology but still it was a good reference to visit. Part of our research is to understand what is around in similar project situations as references and comparisons are bound to be made, certainly in the same city! Due diligence!
Wednesday, 6 Perth – Pending pendant prototyping
One of the most interesting but also challenging projects is the renovation of a building that once was a hotel and the epitome of luxury during the west Australian gold rush early last century and that over the years saw it transformed for different usages, the last one being a bank building. Today we are working on a design that is transforming it into a social hub with bars, restaurants and offices right in the heart of the city. The thought is that period buildings like this should be more accessible to the general public to enjoy its heritage roots. We are the lighting designers for the interiors and exteriors of the building and developed the concept up to all tender documentation. Our main challenge now is to get the pendants design to satisfaction. We developed the concept of the pendants, the general look and feel as well as the specific lighting performance requirements. But as we are not chandelier manufacturers with the required expertise to sign off on structural and electrical safety issues, we leave the actual shop drawings and detailed execution to the awarded contractor subject to our approval. For some unexplained reason, the client is rushing the project to an early completion physically leaving no time for prototyping, a condition we had clearly stated in our documentation. Today’s meeting with the contractor was a bit “rough” at times as pushed for time any requests for samples or even remotely looking like a change were met with fierce resistance and threats of massive variation costs. On top of that the contractors chosen manufacturer for the pendants is a quality workshop no doubt, but by the looks of it with zero experience in producing high end decorative lighting pendants…this is going to be interesting! The shop drawings provided for sure don’t give us the necessary peace of mind as they are crude and rudimental with little details…
Thursday, 7 Perth – Design moment
In developing lighting concepts one needs to be inspired and find “that” solution that will create the perfect blend of providing the necessary lighting for the visual tasks required as well as the lighting to visually enhance the building. All that packaged in a way that will create a wow effect for the overall interior or exterior rather than just a lighting “wow”. Key to all my designs has always be the seamless integration of the lighting within the architecture; people entering the space should appreciate the space in its totality and not be distracted by the lighting. The best comments about the lighting are generally no comments, as that means it has been integrated perfectly, not too much, not too little. In preparation for a design progress meeting tomorrow I collated a number of my sketches that I had made during my site visits on Tuesday. One of the great advantages of doing work on existing buildings is that you can actually physically sit there and emerge yourself in the environment and building fabric to get a good feel; it allows you to spot lighting opportunities but also potential limitations to any lighting scheme. It is one of my favourite design moments…just sitting in the space I am to redesign and imagine how the lighting could be achieved. Nothing beats this. It is also (in my humble opinion) the most efficient way to come to your conceptual lighting design. Generally when I leave, the concept is pretty much inn my head or as in this case with some sketches on paper. I know what to do, know what needs to be achieved, where the lighting will have to be, know what needs to be avoided…that moment in space generally is the birth of my design concept…
Friday 8 Perth – Pending pendant prototyping – part 2
There is a twist to the story from Wednesday. The building owners (my client) awarded some spaces to a key tenant and as part of the deal they are to fit out the spaces themselves. This is now creating some confusion as we developed the heritage concept for their spaces as well, but they (the subtenant) engaged an interior designer (and their own lighting designer) to design the interiors of these spaces to suit their needs. Through poor communication we only recently discovered that they had designed their own version of my pendant. It was never made clear that the heritage pendant is one that will be installed throughout the building and they would have to be all the same for consistency. Today we had a head to head meeting with the subtenants design team to sort out whether we should adapt their design throughout the building or them to adopt my design. As good ego enhanced designers do, they wanted their design to be adopted and all stops were pulled to justify that. The killer blow however came from our contractor saying that my pendant design was already ordered and in production. This reverted the discussion back to prototyping as for obvious reason this would have to be done to satisfy all parties involved…the conclusion of this meeting was (to my great satisfaction) that preparing a prototype had now been officially sanctioned and possible extension costs accepted!
Have a great weekend
The week that was April 27- May 1
Singapore, long weekend 1-3 May 2015
Monday 27; Singapore – Client pain
There is nothing more frustrating than working with a client who has no respect nor understanding about what good design and project management is. We have been working on a hotel project with a client who also happens to be the operator of the property and that perhaps explains the disaster that we face time and again. I have done several projects with them over the years and time and again I am thinking, ok, let’s give them another round of the benefit of the doubt; after all they are a reputable 5 star operator with high profile hotel property. While it may look good on your portfolio list I am seriously starting to doubt the wisdom of pouring in all our energy in such projects which in 90% of the cases will give you a lot of headache and pain and worst of all at the end no-one comes out a winner! Poor management, short-sightedness and undue pressure on budgets create stress and painful results. The strange thing is that they do have the money if they want to, but in good Asian spirit you try to screw their consultants and suppliers who in turn over-charge and submit unreasonable claims. I guess you get what you pay for., pay peanuts and you get monkeys. Today again I attended a client “rescue” mission where the sole aim was to weed out abortive costs and over charges, all this the result of poor management and short cut behaviour (not totally unfair in retrospect) by the contractor to save costs pressured by the client. If the client would have respected the consultants in the first place and followed due diligence with good quality all these abortive works would not have been necessary and my personal view is that we would probably have ended up cheaper with better quality and happier faces! Some google images to illustrate our various states…
Tuesday 28, Kuala Lumpur – The writing is on the wall
A short day trip to KL today for a consultants meeting on one of our hotel projects. As we are doing two hotel projects with this client we will also take the opportunity to have a look at the MUR of the other project as well as a new ID came on board who ripped out the old interior concept to replace it with a new one. Somehow the owner did not “click” with the previous ID and even though I thought their design was nice, the client did not really relate to it. Can happen. While they followed our general direction the MUR was redone without much input from the other consultants as they wished to move on quickly. I must say it was pretty ok for a first shot and I think with some minor adjustments and slight improvement of the light fitting quality (performance and light distribution) we will have it sorted in no time. As they already have a preferred lighting supplier on board working with them will narrow things down and make selection and communication easier. While it may be limiting to be tied in with a lighting supplier in this case we are fine. We have worked with them before and we know they have a wide range to choose from. Budget-wise we should be able to achieve our goal. As we inspected the now dismantled MUR we found back the many notes scribbled on the wall, typical from discussions between consultants and contractor when building the MUR.
Wednesday, 29 Singapore – Fatal “lighting” attraction
On my way back yesterday I read an interesting article on the BBC news site describing the phenomenon called: “fatal light attraction”. This was in relation to the state of New York’s plans to turn off all non-essential lights in state run buildings to help birds navigate their migratory routes come spring and autumn. Birds are believed to use stars to navigate at night and not surprisingly bright city lights can be disorienting, causing the birds apparently to crash into buildings with fatal results. The article reports that it is estimated that around 1 billion (!) birds are killed this way every year in the US alone, an unbelievable high amount of casualties. Millions of birds migrate through the state of New York on what is called the Atlantic Fly Route. The idea is to switch of the lights between 23pm and dawn during the peak migration seasons. Several well-known NY landmarks such as the Rockefeller Centre, the Chrysler Building and Time Warner Centre will join this “Lights-Out” program. It is an interesting side to our profession as lighting designer. We generally don’t design with “birds” in our mind and taking these nature phenomenons into consideration makes total sense if not only in respect to our mother Earth. I often say we don’t design for lux meters we design for people…I should probably add:…and in conservation of our planet Earth!
Thursday, 30 Singapore – LED; Lighting Experience Design
There was one place that I did not manage to visit when I was in Milan recently, which was the LED, Lighting Experience Design centre. I read up on it just recently. One of the attractions of this “LED” approach is that it seems to optimise the LED qualities and focus on using the unique features of the LED technology which really is its compactness, its ability to manipulate light colour and distribution in combination with smart controls. Too little in my opinion, is done by the manufacturers today to really explore and exploit the uniqueness of LED technology and too much emphasis is put on de developing systems to replace the traditional and conventional lighting systems as we know and knew them. Many have just been replaced by a LED equivalent with little to no thought of creativity or innovation. There are some encouraging signs from some of the leading lighting manufacturers as well as some “new players” coming up with cool new lighting systems typically made possible by the LED technology. Please keep it going! We need some fresh air and inspiration, manufacturers and lighting designers should work more closely together on this! Please do sent and share new fresh LED system ideas if you see them around!
Friday 1 Singapore – Labour Day
Caught by surprise…did not realise it was a public holiday today, until my staff yesterday told me” See you on Monday…”
…good time to catch up on some back log…
Have a great weekend
The week that was…
The week that was 20-24th April
Singapore, weekend 25-26 April 2015
Monday 20; Singapore – Out of the box
There is creativity and creativity…we proud ourselves on being creative lighting designers, certainly not “engineers” and that is what our clients like about us, our ability to think out of the proverbial box. But sometimes this creativity ends up to take on unexpected and perhaps strange forms. Bear in mind that our lighting design is always a cooperation with other key consultants, mostly architects, interior designers or landscape consultants. In this particular case the architect cum interior designer for a high end residential project wanted a bit of an “out of the box” lighting design for the ceiling by just using down lights. While we were not convinced about the proposed concept we went along with it, but with the design now installed I am wondering if it makes any sense. The client seems to like it, at least so I believe, so that is not the issue but this more about my own appreciation of the design that we supported and help create. Note that it will come with a pendant and matching interior design furniture layout. Judge for your self…
Tuesday 21, Singapore – Interpretation
There are projects that start one way and finish another way then envisaged. In of those projects we did all the ground work from concept to design development to all technical documentation for tender. Then the client decided that the contractor appointed to do the actual fit-out, would be responsible for the implementation including their own interpretation of the design specification. In other words they are to take our design intent specifications, interpret these and then come up with their own “design” solutions. The only catch being that we will have to approve it. To make matters more complicated the project has been split into two package so we have two contractors. Considering the fact that I had specified lighting fixtures (pendants) as a feature throughout the building, I am now facing contractors who are interpreting the pendant design totally differently? My dilemma being who will I follow, one or the other as I am quite convinced I have to maintain unity throughout the building so I am likely to impose one of the solutions on to the other contractor…always expect the unexpected…
Wednesday, 22 Nanjing – Smashing pumpkins
After an overnight flight to Shanghai and a fast train ride to Nanjing I have arrived at one of our hotel project sides for a mock up room (MUR) review. Fellow consultants and operator from China and Singapore have all arrived in town so this is one of the rare occasions that the whole team is together. We spent the afternoon doing the initial reviewing prior to the joined inspection scheduled for tomorrow. While my team had been on site 2 months ago we had not yet been in a position to review the lighting and (not surprisingly here in China) the contractor had done their own thing with their own interpretation of our specifications. They had sent us some alternative samples a while ago, but we had rejected them with comments on how to improve quality and performance. While I could see that the lighting layout was right, the overall lighting effects was lacking due to much poorer performance and visual quality (intensity, light distribution, light fitting size). The owner / investor of the project who put his personal money in this venture was obviously on edge as he wants this to be a success but relies on his team (project manager/ contractor) to get there. Later at night during the dinner the drinks got the better of him and, possibly unaware of the shortcuts that his own site team had taken towards beating the budget for brownie points, started a drunken rant towards his consultants which felt were responsible. It ended in a round of smashing empty cognac glass on the table after drinking them in an expression of showing off his anger. It just reminded me how alcohol can totally transform people as the next morning he was all cheers and smiles, possibly not even remembering any of the previous night’s dishonourable conduct. It was not the first time I have experienced this so I just let it blow over my head and sat tight. The project’s end-result will be great; it has all the markings of it!
Thursday, 23 Nanjing – MUR Review
Today we had the official review of the MUR and after all expressions of frustration last night and the late night’s work (we went back to the site to finalise the lighting) when all the dust had settled the MUR looked great. For a first shot it looked outstanding and with minor tweaks (improving the lighting quality and performance) it will look stunning, with million dollar views; an award winning project in the making, at least I think so. I particularly like the simplicity of the controls, something we have been working on in several of our projects now. One control panel at the entrance that provides the master switch, a number of scenes (including day and night time mode) as well as an overall up and down dimming option; no other switches in the room. The hotel will provide an additional IPad with lighting controls for the “geeks who want some further play with light but otherwise without it, it is clean and simple. I love it, way to go. What I learn most of these reviews is the synergy of lighting and architectural interior design, when it gels, it gels, even if the lighting quality still is to be improved; the feel was there. I have done many MUR’s in my life; sometimes the design team gets it right straight away, sometimes it can take many revisions, my record experience is 8 times! Most of the time it is the stinginess of the client that is at the origin of success or failure; quality pays; as clearly was proven here again!
Friday 24 Shanghai – Human Bowling
I made my way back to Shanghai for meetings and catch up with my local team at the office and like the trip to Nanjing, the way back was a great experience in “human bowling”. For those familiar with busy cities with a lot of people the “human bowling” refers to the fact that you can’t really move around without bumping into people. The more people there are, the lesser people seem to be considerate. No-one really wants to go out of the way keeping their line and so inevitably and constantly being on a collision course with someone else with the same inconsiderate mind. We took the high speed train both ways and walking through the humongous train stations of Honqiao and Nanjing, both looking like huge airport terminals, bowling your way through the thousands of people. It is understandable therefore they keep the platforms empty till just a few minutes before the train’s arrival. The huge train station’s platforms look eerie and empty when you descend on them in comparison of the loud and stuffed waiting areas with hundreds of people trying to push their way in front of you as if you are not there. You have to give it to the Chinese, their railway system is impressive and with high speeds of 300km/hr the trip from Shanghai is just one hour! But once a full train of sometimes up to 2000 people unloads and mixes up with other train loads of people (and vice-versa) you get an unbelievable bowling alley. The Shanghai underground at peak hours is much of the same… as I write my weeks of adventures I am sitting in a spacious and comfortable seat high up in the sky on my way back to Singapore…have a great weekend.
PS: On an interesting lighting note, the Shanghai and probably other cities undergrounds as well, have this long LED screens on which images move along with the train at the same speed…I first though they were multiple images displayed on a multitude of screens, but no, they are running images, running at the same speed as the train. I had to rub my eyes a few times to understand its working…very clever!
The week that was…
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