Inspiration
Yangshuo, 20th January 2014
Today I travelled from Singapore back to Yangshuo, the heart of the Guilin Mountains in China, famous for being featured on the back on the 20 dollar Reminbi bank notes. Over the next 3 days I will attend a design workshop with the full consultants team to establish the design direction for a resort project we are working on here. While you may wonder that 3 days seems a long time away from home, the length of the trip is also dictated by the limited number of flights in and out of Guilin. Today we travelled from Singapore via Hong Kong and Guilin after I got up at 5.30 am this morning. After a one and a half hour car drive from Guilin into the mountains, we finally checked into our Yangshuo hotel at around 5 pm. I guess that is part and parcel of these type of destinations…beautiful, magical, but a journey to reach!
The rich history, local culture and geographical background provide a lot of inspiration for a lighting concept! Some of the sceneries are magical and over the centuries have been the subject of Chinese paintings. The mist hanging between the mountains inspires diffuse lighting, silhouetting, combined with their reflections in the meandering Li River.
During the day we see a myriad of light and shadow in play which at night is somehow reversed. During the day the mountains show silhouetted against the bright sky, at night in and around Yangshuo the mountains that are lit (a great sound and light spectacle plays there every night) as one of the main tourist attractions show their majestic shapes against the black night. Lighting effects that can all serve as a base for the lighting concept that is to be developed…
Light Watch 5-6: Yangshuo impressions…
Candle light
Singapore, 17th January 2014
As lighting designers of this day and age it is understandable that our prime focus is on designing around and with today’s lighting technology. Obviously if you are a new generation lighting designer you probably know little else then what is currently available in the market which is basically LED lighting. You cannot have any discussion anymore with any client or developer or they will ask or prompt you in regards of LED. Who still talks about compact fluorescent lighting, metal halide, halogen or even incandescent?
Yes us, the older generation of lighting designers who were brought up with these technologies, we rant, we complain about the good old times, but slowly but surely we are sucked into the LED tsunami that has taken the world. Uttering suggestions about “old” technologies is basically showing your age and for some showing that you have rusted in old ways of designing, not a man of these times. I have blogged and ranted about it in my blogs many times in last season. I have made my point very clear. If you don’t know the past it is hard to appreciate the future and vice versa.
I have sat around a campfire playing guitar with friends…who still does that? Even candle lit diners nowadays have become LED candle lit! The more we move forward with LED the more we will lose touch with the charms of the past. So I was upright when I read about London’s Sam Wanamaker’s Paly House reintroducing candle light in the theatre. The new Theatre on London’s South Bank has been designed to loosely resemble the 17th century Jacobean Theatre complete with candle light. I can only imagine how the candle light bring a feeling of intimacy and connectedness. None of us today would have known candle lit theatres I would venture. Great initiative that brings us back to where we started…with candle light!
Light Watch 5-5: Images of the play called The Duchess of Malfi currently running at the Play House in London. If anybody saw it please let me know and share the experience!
Priorities…
Shanghai-Singapore, 16th January 2014
I wrapped up my stay in Shanghai with some outstanding design work but I have to say with travel in the afternoon, albeit the later part of the day, it still cuts your day in half. It is an aspect of our business that many of our clients not necessarily comprehend. I am currently in a fit with another client about the timing of a meeting that is planned at 8.30am in the morning in Jakarta, the day after a long weekend. This means that to comply I have to travel the night before in my private time. While I have done that many times and it is common practice to put “work” as first priority in this part of the world, as I am getting older I value my personal time more and more to the extent that it has shifted to first in terms of priority. I have earned my stripes and don’t have to prove anything to anybody and certainly not bending over backwards to satisfy the whims of my clients. That is to say if the relationship is a one way traffic where clients only have “demands” without showing any form of professional respect or appreciation.
I have many great clients who show their true respect and appreciation for the service we provide and one thing is sure… I go out of my way for these clients because I know it is appreciated…
Light Watch 5-4: Designing is also a matter of making choices and decide what has a higher priority…I spent the morning working on a lighting concept that will have to harmonise with that of the lead architect. The choices I am faced with are in regards to the direction I want to take the design…there is a creative component that makes abundant use of natural lighting effects versus a more pragmatic approach that is more efficient and functional and with an expected friendlier budget. But it is not “spectacular” and does not have the “wow” factor. So I decided to make the wow my priority because I know that is what the client expects from me…I can always fall back on plan B…the client will respect me for that.
Below images of the concept as developed by the lead architect that heavily depends on natural light and shadow…
On top of the world…
Shanghai, 15th January 2014
After a day of successful meetings and design workshops I had a great sense of achievement. The meeting had been postponed several times since late last year because of conflicting schedules, but when we finally made it today it was all good and satisfying for all concerned. The design stage has been signed off so we can now officially move on to the next stage. In our line of work signing off on specific stages of work is crucial, not only to avoid abortive work but also to have a clear progress marker on which you can invoice your client. Contracts and payments are generally built on stages of work progress, so it was a good one to get under our belt.
Specifically meeting in person helps breaking down barriers certainly when there are cultural and language barriers. We had actually in good faith progressed to the next stage, but as often they wanted the boss to give an “acte de presence”. Done and dusted today and we are looking ahead towards the next deadlines which as many of you working in Asia/ China will know are unreasonable and rushed, specifically with Chinese New Year coming up in a little over 2 weeks.
In general I feel the Chinese market has slowed down from its heydays, but honestly compared to many developed countries like the US and Europe as far as I can see from my position, China is still booming ahead. I am therefore maintaining my presence here to follow up on ongoing and future work…
Light Watch 5-3: Feeling on top of the world is a special thing and today, sunny with not a cloud in the sky (rare for Shanghai) I decided to make good on one of my bucket list of to-do things…a visit to what is claimed being the highest observatory in the world, the sky deck of the Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC). While the building is already dwarfing the adjacent Jin Mao Tower and the Pudong Pearl Tower, it is amazing to see that the building construction next door has already overtaken the SWFC. On one of the pictures below taken at 450m height you see the construction on your left of a building I believe will be the second highest after the Burj in Dubai. I arrived just at sunset and enjoyed the slowly setting in of the night, with the Shanghai skyline coming to life…what would we do without light…! 🙂
Travelling light
Shanghai, 14th January 2014
Back to my old stomping ground…I don’t come to China as often as I used to in the past when I was in Shanghai at least one week every month, but walking good old Nanjing Xi Lu tonight back to my hotel showed again how fast this city is developing and keeping up (or should I say overtaking) many western cities. Shanghai certainly leads when it comes to implementing lighting on building facades. I had dinner with my local team here and enjoyed walking this stretch of the city which has seen and is still seeing many new commercial, corporate and residential developments. What strikes me specifically is that Shanghai tries very much to lose its image of “copy goods” capital and now has practically all top luxury brands in high end shopping malls and shops; Jingan is fast developing as a top destination for the real deal luxury brands area!
Gone are the days of shoddy looking shopping centres or cheap looking retail shops. Shop fronts are state of the art, with expensive looking material finishes and of course an abundance of LED lighting. I can only imagine the amount of money spent on this. Even though I know that LED prices have come down and that in China specifically LED prices are under tremendous pressure, I have to admit that I saw little LED failures…generally a sign of shoddy workman ship or poor quality products. Now many of the installations are new so maybe I am speaking before my turn but in general I was impressed.
Light Watch 5-2: See here a series of façade snapshots taken from some of the branded luxury shop facades along Nanjing Road…
2014!
Singapore, 13th January 2014
Season 4 ended with a number (1000!), now I am starting the new year and new season with a number; 2014! Happy New year to all of you, your family and loved ones! It feels to me like 2014 is going to be a cracker of a year, for many reasons personally, but also business wise this coming year of the Horse is going to be a good one. Considering that I am a “Horse” this should be my year! We ended 2013 with a bang, on a high so to speak, with surprisingly many of our clients deciding to pay up before year end, which left us floating into the new year with a satisfied feeling that all the hard work we had put in over the past year had paid off…we all enjoyed a great holiday with peace of mind…
For now it’s back to work, we have been back at it for a week now, I choose to gradually revv up my work commitment by staying back in our Australia office for a week. Last weekend before flying back from Perth to Singapore I “enjoyed” a searing hot heat wave with temperatures reaching 44 degrees C on Saturday…wow that’s hot! Now back in Singapore the 28+ degrees feel cool! Everything is relative, which is something that holds truth for everything, specifically in lighting design! I had my first full day in the Singapore office today, catching up with the team, setting out directions for our project commitments and even had an outside project meeting with an architect. Slowly but surely the work pace is stepping up back to full speed… I think at the beginning of the year, after a well-deserved rest and quality time with family and friends, we kind of want to preserve that relaxed feeling as long as possible, but I know that as always it won’t be long before we are all back at it and wonder how quickly the holidays went past! For me it starts tomorrow when I am off to (cold) Shanghai…
Light Watch 5-1: I want to leave you with some mood images from the Perth sunsets I enjoyed over the weekend… Happy NEW YEAR!
ONE THOUSAND!!!
Singapore, 2nd December 2013
A milestone reached! Never did I think I would end up writing 1000 blogs when I started to write my first one on a cold but sunny afternoon in Berlin, late October 2009. Now 4 years (and a book!) later I look back on an incredible ride! It has become a daily routine to the extent that I feel incomplete when I go to bed late having not been able to write my blog…it has happened occasionally. It has become a great way to look back on a day gone past, reflect on issues I had to deal with, things that happened in my practice or in the lighting world in general. We tend to just steam along and this little daily moment of reflection has been very gratifying and educating in the process. Most of all it has given me a way to communicate with my friends in and outside the industry. The feedback and encouragement I still receive are heart-warming and stimulate me to go on. Thanks to all who reacted with their well-wishes. Thank you, I am grateful for your support!
For now I am taking a well-deserved break and will be back with Season 5 (!) when I resume work in the New-Year. Till then I wish you and your families a fantastic year end, great Christmas holidays and may 2014 be a bright and successful year for all of us in the lighting industry! Take care and till then…
My wish for the New Year: That we still may find ways to treasure and sustainably use our incandescent lamps and not just burry ourselves in LED being the one and only lighting solution!
Please add your well wishes for the New Year….
The power of solar
Singapore, 28th November 2013
2 Two more to go…actually I should say 1 more after this!… 🙂
I am counting down to my 1000th blog post next week and this is nr 999…! Please send in your wishes, comments and feedbacks on how you have experienced the blog, what you have learned from the blog, what you like about the blog, how it has helped you in your life and so on, it does not matter anything you would like to say. Thank you to all of you out there that have supported me and have taken the time to read my blog, some I know nearly every day.
Staying away from LED’s (I know it is difficult…) I read this morning about a Japanese smart town, the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town in Kanagawa Prefecture, which is being built by Panasonic for about 3000 people, about an hour’s drive from Tokyo. The town will have a solar system that supplies power to about 600 villas and 400 apartments each with their own storage battery. The concept was developed and presented a few years ago and is expected come to life between now and 2018.
Energy efficient lighting systems (can’t seem to escape LED… 🙁 ) will be crucial to allow sustainable lighting. And as I have been educating my clients, sustainability is not only about watts/m2 but also very much about creating a “liveable” environment in terms of comfort quality, safety and security. I of course approach this from a professional lighting point of view. While I am not involved in this project, I would be very interested to understand what sort of capacity exactly can be provided with the solar power and what the limitation is in terms of lighting power footprint per household and most of all what sort of lighting quality can be achieved within that foot print. Those who know me, know my adagio that we design for people, not for lux or energy meters…so while the concept looks great and ambitious, will it be humanly liveable when it comes to lighting?
An interesting thought to ponder on…where are we going with our energy drive and LED lighting system developments as we move to a sustainable future?…
Light Watch 4-206: Here are some pictures that give you an impression of the township that is currently being built in Japan. Here is a video link as well: http://youtu.be/ss0jhOZPARY
Zero energy…
Singapore, 28th November 2013
3 Three more to go…
I am counting down to my 1000th blog post! I would like to take this opportunity to ask all my readers to send in your wishes, comments and feedbacks on how you have experienced the blog, what you have learned from the blog, what you like about the blog, how it has helped you in your life and so on, it does not matter anything you would like to say; all things that that I will then feature in my 1000th blog as a thank you to all of you out there that have supported me and have taken the time to read my blog, some I know nearly every day. Thanks to those already reacted! Please let me hear more from you.
With all the LED “wars” going on I would like to divert attention a bit to something different. We are currently engaged to develop some beachfront lighting in Australia and one of the key considerations in the lighting approach (also for conservation purposes) is to design around a zero energy strategy. In other words no electrical power supply, no cabling, all powered by natural sources. There are already some solar powered bollards installed and even some solar and wind powered streetlights. You may have seen those strange contraptions that besides a street light also have a solar panel and a wind turbine attached to the pole. It looks horrendous if you ask me, similar as those gimongous wind turbines you see nowadays spread through the landscape and sometimes even in sea parks! There is a risk of these things overtaking our environment, much like antennas (used to) do that on the roofs of buildings or overhead electrical cable towers still do in many countries where the electrical network has not gone underground yet.
One of the possible answers could be the use of materials that produce light through luminescence; the glow in the dark products that we know, only now applied in a far more professional way. During the day it just merges with architecture and landscape as a natural material, during the night it suddenly comes to life as it re-emits the sunlight it has absorbed during the day. Is this a material technology that could be further developed in the future? It still has the “draw back” if you can call it that way, that you can’t control it (switch it on or off) and it gradually fades out over time (a few hours maximum). But if we can master the absorption and re-emission of light and possibly even find a way to manipulate it, perhaps it could grow into a much more usable application…with zero energy…
Light Watch 4-205: From a glowing driveway, to glowing cars, skate parks and carpets…who knows what the future holds…
Quantity over quality
Guangzhou-Singapore, 27th November 2013
4 Four more to go…
I am counting down to my 1000th blog post! I would like to take this opportunity to ask all my readers to send in your wishes, comments and feedbacks on how you have experienced the blog, what you have learned from the blog, what you like about the blog, how it has helped you in your life and so on, it does not matter anything you would like to say; all things that that I will then feature in my 1000th blog as a thank you to all of you out there that have supported me and have taken the time to read my blog, some I know nearly every day. Thanks to those already reacted! Please let me hear more from you.
As I round up may trip to Guangzhou and on my way back to Singapore, I cannot but think about the enormity of the LED business. I wasn’t able to join todays’ organised factory visit due to tight timing with my flight, but I have been in some mega LED factories before and have seen also many pictures during the event. I know what I was “missing”. My overriding thought though about all this, is that in China specifically it seems to be all about quantity…more, rather than better. As I mentioned yesterday quality and comfort seem to take a back seat to faster, brighter, bigger.
Yet the general opinion of the Chinese is one of acceptance. Part of the conference program was a night river cruise on the Pearl River which winds it way through Guangzhou, passing by many of the cities’ landmarks, bridges and not to forget the Guangzhou or Canton Tower which stands more than 600m tall in all its LED glory. All along the river there was an abundance of LED lighting on the buildings, bridges, running all the colours of the rainbow, a real cacophony of light and colour; one bigger and brighter than the other.
The point is that I observed many of the installations to be faulty or not properly working; when we passed illuminated bridges I could see the shoddy workmanship; on some of the buildings many of the lights were either not working, not in sync or of different brightness. Did anyone on the boat care…no, not really, it was like a trip in Disneyland with “ooohs” and “aaahs”…everyone happily snapping away pictures. We as professional designers see how it could have been done so much better (quality). But average Joe public, doesn’t, and seem to accept that this is what LED’s are all about…
Light Watch 4-204: The Guangzhou Pearl River cruise…
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