The week that was…19-23rd February 2018
Singapore
Weekend 24-25th February 2018
A busy week it was! I have so many pots cooking on the kitchen stove that it was quite a juggling act this week to make sure everything cooked along nicely. RFP’s keep coming in with another few new projects confirmed this week, keeping the flying start to the new year well alive! Is this a sign of a great year to come? Fingers crossed…
PLDC update
PLDC work picked up again after the CNY holidays with further searches for a large size gala dinner venue able to accommodate 500 to 1000 people a challenging task (suggestions anybody?) and approaches to the government to explore cooperation in the preconvention program. The Via team worked on some introduction brochures to go with our approaches and further progress was made in regards to the potential excursion program.
LDoT
One of my prime missions now is to develop LDoT (Lighting Design of Things). There is no doubt that the industry is changing rapidly and I am reaching out to potential IoT partners to make sure proper lighting design is not shoved aside by IT engineers ignorant of the importance of lighting, blinded by their strive to implement IoT. Where lighting is used as host for data/ IoT functions a lighting designer needs to remain involved at all times, hence my relentless efforts in this matter. and implement IoT. I immediately jumped in to question their responsibility when there was talk about LiFi and using light as a host. I have now been invited to do a presentation to the team about what we can offer in the LDoT…thank you! I am more than ever convinced that we as a profession need to quickly wake up and jump into action before the IoT train has left the station! I certainly will be on it!
IoT Pole
For the lighting manufacturers the same holds…you need to embrace the IoT or be prepared to be left behind. It will be our key focus during the upcoming Light & Build in Frankfurt, to look for the latest in IoT lighting developments. One company who is taking the lead in Singapore is the Passionate Lighting group, who’s founder and principal, Michael Chia was recently awarded Entrepreneur of the Year 2017. Michael and his team are developing an IoT pole, named I-Core, and I was privileged to have a sneak preview this week. While still in full development, I am excited about the concept and predict it will be a winner in the near future. As the name suggest it is built around an IoT core to which modular elements (lighting and non-lighting elements) can be added simply…to be continued!
Fast evolving smart technologies
During the week reading through some LikedIn posts I happened to read about a number of new innovations and smart developments including lighting drones. I mentioned the 1200+ lighting drones used in the Olympic Games opening ceremony 2 weeks ago, this week I saw a report about the Bellaggio Casino in Las Vegas (the one with the fountain) that had added a permanent (250) drone light show above its building every night! Click here
Then there was the LED drive over road crossing tested in London with road embedded LEDs creating a LED zebra crossing activated by approaching pedestrians changing back in a normal road after the pedestrian crossed the road…is that the future? Click here
Finally two stories about charging. One where light is used to charge devices and one where roads have been designed with embedded charges, allowing motorists to charge their car while driving over that stretch of charge road…clever! The other one using light to charge devices like mobile phones and tablets. Click here
We live in an ever-changing world where AI and IoT are gradually taking over. We definitely have to become experts in the LDoT if we want to survive as lighting designers in this world!
Have a great weekend!
The week that was 12-16 February 2018…
Perth – Singapore
Weekend 17-18 February 2018
Happy Chinese New Year of the Earth Dog
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Exploring new opportunities…
The week that was…5-9th February 2018
Perth
Weekend 10-11 February 2018
Winter Olympic Games
As I start writing my blog I am watching the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PeyongChang, South Korea. In a master move both South and North Korea will compete under one flag, the joy of the sport stars when they entered the stadium together spoke volumes…some world leaders (no names) should take a cue from that and stop their ego and power play! It is nice to see how sport can unite…Opening ceremonies are generally a showcase of the latest in lighting and lighting technologies…light is and remains magic! And just to show how connected our world already is, within the hour the most memorable pictures of the ceremony could already be found on the net (see below)! Watch also the unbelievable show by more than 1200 illuminated drones create magic here:
PLDC 2018 – Update
As one of the Steering Committee members of PLDC in Singapore I intent to update you weekly on the progress and developments in the lead up to the event. Past week was a big week in the PLDC preparations. The PLDC team of Joachim, Louise, Allison and Krsitina travelled to Singapore last weekend to sign the contract for the venue, review and select speakers from all the submitted papers and meet with government authorities, university representatives and the local lighting community to discuss the upcoming event and their potential involvement.
The Sunday was fully spent in reviewing all the papers that were submitted, assessed, rated and scored by an international panel of experienced lighting designers. Close to 100 papers were received out of which we needed to select the speakers for the two days. The Singapore format also only has two tracks, contrary to the 4 tracks you are used to in the previous European editions. Even though all papers had been pre-assessed and rated by the expert panel on content, relevance and suitability, it still took a full day to decide and allocate speakers to the related tracks. Tough task, not as easy and straight forward as you would think! But we got it done and 90% of the program is now decided.
On Monday the team went to inspect the venue, discuss the final arrangements and officially sign the contract! Marina Bay Sands is one of the most iconic and recognisable buildings in the world and having the event there is totally in line with the high end professional image and identity of PLDC. We are very excited…
After the official signing we went to the Nanyang Technical University to discuss potential opportunities for their involvement in an educator’s forum as well as meet with Kaoru Mende and his team to discuss potential visits and activities that could be organised as a part of the PLDC.
On the final day of their lightning visit to Singapore we first met a local publisher and editing company in regards to media opportunities followed by a lunch meeting with the local lighting community, a mix of manufacturers’ representatives and leading brand agencies to get their input and feedback for the event.
In the afternoon we met with several government authorities to discuss their possible involvement in PLDC through pre-convention meetings, key note speakers and other ideas we brainstormed. More about that when it gets’ s more shape and form! I am now further following up over the next couple of weeks and meet with other relevant bodies and representatives to determine feasibility and opportunities.
IES Perth
Midweek I flew to Perth for a long outstanding catch up with my office and some project clients. As it happened the IES chapter of Western Australia had organised a talk presented by Patrick van der Meulen, Xicato’s business development manager, about the exciting developments of Bluetooth low energy networks that are operable through their new generation LED modules. Great stuff. The presentation also allowed participants to collect some valuable CPD points, for their continued professional development.
Have a great week-end
The week that was…29th January- 2nd February 2018
Singapore
Weekend 3-4th February 2018
Back on the blog!
The new year has really started with a bang firing on all cylinders and on all fronts! So much so that I really only now have found the time to sit down and re-start writing my blog, its 9th season already! As it was at PLDC 2009 in Berlin that I actually started writing my daily blog, it seems kind of fitting that I am now nearly 10 years on I am blogging towards having the PLDC in my adopted home city of Singapore! A great finale, as I think that after PLDC 2018 I may hand the baton for my blog to the new generation of my team…it has been a good run!
PLDC 2018
First an update on PLDC. As I am part of the Steering Committee I am obviously right in the middle of things and will try to update everyone on the progress. This weekend will see the whole Steering Committee converge in Singapore to review all papers submitted to make a final selection of speakers, identify key note speakers, inspect the venue, and put together the final main and preconvention program. Specifically, with the preconvention program we would like to offer a platform to interact between the Singapore government and the international lighting design community. We will have our work cut out over the next few months!
SILF / LET 2018
While I am putting my heart into helping put PLDC on the map in Singapore I have not forgotten my other ongoing passion in helping the regional community get a better awareness of the benefits and opportunities of better quality lighting through our events in Bangkok and Shanghai. The programs are taking shape and to make things even more exciting PLDC will add the events as warm up events in the lead up to the Singapore event in October. We have finalised the booth redesign and our now talking to a host of manufacturers to support the events as well as engaging with the local city authorities and design associations to get their endorsement.
New Projects – Maldives trip
On company level (yes I still run a company as well 😊) the year the year started with a boom with the sign off of a couple of new projects and some projects restart. As a result I had to hop into a plane for a kick off site visit just days after arriving back from Holland where I had spent Xmas and New Year with the family. The good news was that we went from the cold and rainy, wintery weather of Holland to the tropical sun of the Maldives…As I got two fast track resort projects in the Maldives, I a likely to be back there on a regular basis. The projects are renovations so we can stay on location…life could be worse! I rather walk the beach for a site inspection then a busy downtown street! Hopefully the lightning start to the year is a good sign of what is ahead as last year end had been really slow.
LIT Awards
This week we also got the exciting confirmation that no less then 3 of our projects had been honoured with lighting design awards in the inaugural LIT awards competition! Again exciting and motivating for the start of the new year. Our stunning Atlas Bar in Singapore, designed by our team in Singapore, recently voted best new bar in the world for 2017 (!), received a lighting design award in the category of hotel and restaurants and the façade lighting of His Majesty’s Theatre, designed by our Perth team, excelled with a lighting design award in the heritage lighting category. In the light art category, the magical Wexford Apartments received an honourable mention. It is always nice and motivating for the team to be acknowledge amongst your peers. Well done to all. Another one to go on the wall of honour…
His Majesty’s Theatre: http://litawards.com/winners/winner.php?id=2454
Atlas Bar: http://litawards.com/winners/winner.php?id=2438
Wexford Apartments: http://litawards.com/winners/winner.php?id=93&mode=hm
Magazine cover
Lighting Today Magazine’s January issue (Vol 2018 Q1) came out with a 8 page spread on the Atlas bar with a great photo on the cover…the second magazine cover after last year’s September issue with His Majesty’s Theatre. We ordered some extra copies for the team and client…
Gooee and LDoT
Finally the biggest news his week twas the official media press release about our partnership with Gooee, the world’s leading IoT data infra-structure provider using lighting points as a host. Gooee provides an open platform that allows its technology to be integrated in any brand or system. Both KLD and Gooee have entered into this partnership with the aim to redefine the role of the lighting designer as lighting no longer is about lighting only. With the internet of things taking an ever-growing stake in the functions of a lighting point, lighting designers need to re-evaluate their role. We need to have an understanding what the IoT means for a lighting point and what the options are that may need to be integrated. At the same time the IoT/ data analytics people need to appreciate that the lighting points ( and thus the lighting design) still need to comply to standards and building codes, that spaces still are a visual environment where mood and human comfort are quality criteria that need to be achieved. Hence the lighting designer’s role will get the added function of gate keeper and guardian of lighting quality within the the new world of Big Data. Where the IoT is making an entry into lighting there now will be a need for LDoT, Lighting Design of Things. That is exactly why we have entered into partnership with Gooee, to define what LDoT is. KLD is getting ready to be one of the worlds first LDoT companies. See below press releases.
Arc Magazine featured press release: https://goo.ee/2DMLU1K
LEDs Magazine featured press release: https://goo.ee/2DLwDy1
Have a great week-end
The week that was 11-15th December 2017
Singapore
Weekend 16-17th December 2017
An eventful week!
It was a real mixed bag of everything this for last week of the working year! We finalised the dates and venue for PLDC 2018, with the Via-Verlag team issuing the call for papers, I had a midweek trip to Hong Kong for a crucial project design meeting, two articles saw the daylight, one my long awaited interview with the now renamed Arc magazine (formerly Mondo Arc) and a feature report on our Lighting Design Agora in Shanghai that was held in September. To top of the week I presented a paper about the future of lighting and lighting design at a networking event for young tech entrepreneurs at District 6 here in Singapore and discussed the same in meeting meetings with Gooee and Philips with an eye on the Big Data revolution and the development of Light as a Service. A busy week for sure. Along the week a steady stream of customary panettone’s and Xmas hampers found our way into our office in appreciation of the collaboration with our business partners in the year gone past.
PLDC 2018
First an update on PLDC who have now listed me officially on their website as their steering committee member in Singapore: https://pld-c.com/about/steering-committee/
During the week final negotiations went on with Marina Bay Sands to log in the venue and the dates which are now officially confirmed. In the week from 23rd to 28th October 2018 we have the venue of our choice allowing for bump-in and pre-convention activities 23-25th October with the official 2-day convention scheduled for 26-27th October…mark it in your calendars! It will be a historic event and the venue could not be more iconic and representative of what we want to achieve! With the dates now fixed a call for papers was issued yesterday which can be found in this link: https://pld-c.com/call-for-papers/. The four tracks to choose from for either a presented paper or self-running poster presentation for PLDC 2018 are:
1- IoDT – the Internet of Design Things
2- Hospitality Lighting
3- Experiential Environments
4- Professional Practices issues
The Experience Room, always a crowd favourite, is also available for selection. Sponsors have been alerted and invited to link up with the Asian lighting design community in the a networking exhibition space.
Hong Kong
My midweek trip to Hong Kong was for a design presentation to the Hong Kong Jockey Club, an institution in Hong Kong for more than a century surely, where we are involved in the lighting design of some packages of the new to build massive 8 storey club house. I remember Happy Valley from my early Philips days (Philips provide the lighting for the race course at the time) and being invited at the VIP Lounge for dinner and watching the races was a cool conclusion to an otherwise successful day of meetings with the client and project team. I could not resist taking a bet and was stunned that my pick for race 6 won! At nearly 5 to 1 a neat little win (which covered for my losses in the other races 😊)
District 6 and the future
On Thursday night I presented a paper about the future of lighting and lighting design to a group of young tech entrepreneurs here in Singapore who all operated from Singapore’s latest co-working space, District 6 in Odeon Towers. It was their annual year end networking night to which they invited me as the guest speaker of the night.
Purely coincidentally I met with Gooee and Philips the next day in separate meetings to discuss exactly this future, the control of big data using light as a host and the future outlook of light as a service. Both, in my opinion will have tremendous impact on our future (just think of the likes of Uber, AirBnB, Amazon, etc) and understanding the role of the lighting designer and crafting our place within this revolution is one of my key interests at the moment. Gone are the days of individuality, in this new interconnected service world partnerships will be the way to go…
Magazine publications
Finally to top of the week, my long-awaited interview with (Mondo) Arc Magazine (issue 101) was published on line. Read the full article here: https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/arc_101/72
Thanks to Paul James and Robert Such for the article. Knowing how much work goes into distilling a readable feature from all the information and pics provided, I can only appreciate the result. Well done. Coincidentally sister magazine Mondo Arc India, published by Amit Gupta and his team, featured a report on our highly successful Lighting Design Agora event in Shanghai earlier in September. Thanks for the acknowledgement of a lot of blood sweat and tears to get it organised! https://issuu.com/stirmondoarcindia/docs/mondo_arc_india_issue_17_nov_dec201/150
This will probably be the last blog of the year, as we are closing our offices and winding down our activities in the coming week and ready ourselves for a well deserved Xmas holiday.
To all our business relations and friends, thanks for your support this year, have a great Xmas and see you back in what shapes up to be an exciting 2018! All the very best! 😊
Have a great week-end
The week that was 4-8th December 2017
Perth
Weekend 9-10th December 2017
PLDC 2018 in Singapore!
Though I knew last week I was under embargo not to tell, but now that the Via-Verlag team has officially announced their strategy for the next few years I can share this news also via my blog.
It has always been a tradition to announce the next PLDC during the gala dinner that concludes the proceedings of the event, so it came as a bit surprise that no announcement was made during PLDC 2017 in Paris…it got tongs wagging, but I bet that very few people had seen coming that PLDC would move to a yearly event and most of all would move into the world, outside its trusted European home! Not surprisingly the proposed motto for PLDC 2018 is “move it”!
So, Asia, and more specifically Singapore, will be its first stop in 2018. It then returns to Europe in 2019 (for its regular bi-annual main event) to move onto New York in 2020…The event in Singapore is not expected to reach the same level of attendance as in Paris (more than 2000 enthusiasts attended, with more than 50 sponsors!) but it is still anticipated that around 500 people will make the journey to Singapore. Considering that many in this region did not make the journey because of the costs to get to Paris, it is likely to find great interest. In Singapore alone, there are many sizeable professional lighting design practices, who’s staff would be eager to participate. I will certainly support my staff for to attend this unique opportunity.
Steering Committee Member
With my experience in organising lighting events, preparing speaker programs and sponsor support combined with my nearly 30 years active practice in Singapore as a lighting designer, I guess it made sense for the Via Verlag team to approach me to become a steering committee member and help organise the event in Singapore. I am humbled and grateful that they thought of me to help them organise this historic event in Asia and excitingly look forward to make this a great success, setting a bench mark for the future!
Marina Bay Sands
Over the last 2 weeks we have been scouting and discussing possible venues, but there is no doubt that the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel and convention centre would be the place of choice. To be confirmed soon!
Singapore design hub and smart nation
The Singapore government has a long-term strategy to make the garden city a design hub for the region and is very supportive of design related initiatives. Singapore is also the home of many big design practices, architects, interior designers but also property developers, hotel operators and many others. Singapore is also a leading country when it comes to the application of smart technologies. The governments “smart nation” strategy can be found everywhere. New developments are all encouraged to integrate smart technologies. We recently completed a lighting master plan for Punggol, an area north of Changi Airport earmarked for future development with educational, corporate and leisure facilities. The latest smart lighting systems and network systems were included as part of the strategy. Having PLDC 2018 in Singapore with a focus on design, the IoT and smart technologies therefore makes extra sense.
Event Program
To differentiate the Asian and American legs from its traditional European star event, the program will be downsized from a 3-day to a 2-day event with 2 instead of the usual 4 tracks. The event theme and program are currently being developed with the call for papers expected in the coming week. There are further plans for pre-conference activities involving the government, local associations and relevant bodies with an eye on Singapore’s desire to be the world’s leading smart nation and design hub. The traditional welcome party and gala dinner will surely be part of the proceedings! Singapore does know how to party!
Looking forward to welcome you in magical Singapore!
PLDC expands to Asia and America and changes to an annual event
Have a great week ahead!
Somewhere in Europe…
New York, New York!
Singapore
Weekend 2-3rd December 2017
End of the year…
We are into the last few weeks of the year and as usual they are pretty hectic as many clients and activities want to round up the year and get ready for 2018. By all accounts next year is shaping up to be a very exciting one. We are at the start of what I am perceiving as a big shake up for the lighting industry.
Light as a Service and the IoT
The two biggest emerging trends that we are noticing right now are Light as a Service and Lighting and the Internet of Things (IoT). The world around us is changing rapidly and will have a direct impact on lour lighting industry and very likely our lighting design profession. First of all, the fact that the world is moving towards a service driven economy with the likes of Uber taxi’s and AirBnB accommodation as example. Uber does not own the taxi’s nor the drivers, they provide the platform for you to get in touch and book affordable transportation. Likewise, AirBnB does not own the accommodation, they provide the platform for you to find suitable accommodation…it’s called a service and happens within the wireless world of the internet. Light as a Service combined with the Internet of Things is potentially a life changing development for lighting designers …where do we fit in, how do we remain relevant in the lighting industry as other “things” are gradually invading our lighting design space? These are questions that we will need to address, questions I present to my audience when I talk about the future of lighting design and to which I do not yet have a good answer.
The biggest question in my opinion is how do we keep lighting design profession relevant and objective in a service driven industry, who should be the provider of the services and where is the lighting designer in this structure? Lighting manufacturers like Philips are positioning themselves as the go-to company to provide these services. They have already set up Philips Capital to allow them to finance the lighting installation (as the idea of Light as a Service is that the client/ end user has zero capital investment, other than a monthly “usage fee”) and are reportedly in advanced discussions with Amazon as the service provision platform. While Philips has indicated to me that they will still use lighting designers to determine where and what lighting to propose, I see a major issue with the approach…a client would get the best Philips approach, not necessarily the best lighting solution!
With the internet of things moving up the hierarchy of importance, data collection, control and management is quickly becoming the number one priority. In other words, new buildings (or even renovations) will now first need to decide what kind of data infrastructure they will need for their building! Therefore, the question of who will design the lighting infra structure is moving further down the line! If data providers start to dictate the location of the lighting points and even what kind of lighting fixture, lighting designers will quickly become irrelevant!
GOOEE
But wait! This does not need to be the case…One of the fastest rising stars in this service providing lighting industries is GOOEE, in my opinion the GOOGLE of lighting (I think they may even have chosen the name for this reason…). Using the cloud and anything wireless, the GOOEE platform offers the most elaborate data infra structure that not only includes room and usage data collection, but also all relevant lighting data measurement, control and management. It is an open platform (contrary to what specific lighting manufacturers are offering) that allows any luminaire and any control protocol (DALI/ DMX/0-10V/etc.) to be used.
This sounds really good, and most of all it would provide the necessary opportunity to include the lighting designer as the gate keeper and watchdog to assure compliance to lighting standards and but most of all to provide that independent and professional lighting design advise! In my opinion therefore GOOEE is the ideal platform and company to provide Light as a Service, since it is an open platform, will allow us to connect to the internet of things as they use light-as-a-host and most of all provide our clients with the best possible professional data and lighting solution.
See for more info: www.gooee.com
Have a great weekend
The week that was 20-24th November 2017
Singapore
Weekend 25-26th November 2017
PLDC – Paris 2017
Over the years I have attended all PLDC events, London, Berlin, Madrid, Copenhagen, Rome so I was really looking forward to attending this year’s edition in Paris, in what I consider my second home town! It was not to be for the sad reasons you know. This year however I had my senior designers to join me for this experience and being there first time attending this event, I thought it would be nice to let them report back on their experience attending PLDC.
Grace
This is my 1st time joining a PLDC event that allowed me to broaden my knowledge and open my view. The convention started with an official opening party where we had the opportunity to meet with people from different backgrounds such as lighting designers, manufacturers and suppliers from different parts of the world. Subsequently Joachim Ritter, the Convention Chair, addressed the crowd with his welcome address. As this was my first PLDC, I really looked forward to the next 3 days.
The program started with a keynote speaker for each half day session with a speech traditionally being a view on lighting from a non-lighting design perspective, I attended all of them. Among all the keynote speakers, I personally found the presentation from Kathryn Gustafson, UK, the most interesting topic. Kathryn is renowned for creating distinctive sculpture landscapes which engage at a fundamental human level. During her speech she shared her experiences and problems that she faced during her works. One of the key issues was that of minimum lighting level requirements for plants to survive in areas that do not have any exposure to sun or natural daylight at all. She pointed out that plants that grow in European countries require different minimum lighting levels than those in tropical countries like Singapore. However, these lighting level requirements remain unknown to her and no one could advise her on this issue.
The program then continued with presentations from different lighting experts. It was impossible to attend all these presentations that were divided in different categories, as they were held at the same time in different rooms. These categories were: Urban Life, Professional Practice Issues, Lighting Application/ Case Studies, Philosophy & Debate, The Challenge & Research. Each of these categories had interesting subjects. The most interesting topic to me was “Living in the colours of the colour-blind” by Zhuofei Ren. She might not be the best speaker at the convention, however her study was one of the most interesting subjects. People with defective colour vision have difficulty differentiate colours. Having a colour deficiency can greatly impact our ability to function on a daily basis. The purpose of her research was to comprehend the impact of light on persons with defective visual systems, explore lighting solution that enabled colour deficient individuals to perceive the coloured objects with more distinction. She had done many experiments comparing different lighting properties such as spectral power distribution, lighting levels, colour temperatures of light. By controlling the light reaching the human eye, she found out it was possible to help colour blind persons to distinguish between different coloured objects. She stated that with dedicated design strategies, there is indeed an opportunity for lighting professionals to provide persons with defective colour vision more perceivable colour experiences. Well said. I hope she will continue doing researches on this topic and bring more good news to people with defective colour vision.
I enjoyed being able to attend this year PLDC and hope there will opportunities in future.
Cheryline
This is my first time attending PLDC in my nearly 10 years of being a lighting designer. One of the reasons I have remained in this industry is because I feel that there is still so much I can learn about lighting and light remains such fascinating subject to me. This was being reinforced at the conference, with so much more to learn about lighting and its relationship and effects to human beings. As I never had the opportunity to be formally trained in lighting design at an institution, I find every opportunity to learn about the lighting design industry to be very exciting and interesting.
I had the opportunity to attend previous two Light+Building Fairs in Frankfurt, which had been great opportunities learn about the latest lighting technologies available to professional lighting designers, while listening to the excitements of the lighting manufacturers explaining their latest innovations.
The PLDC conference is a rather different event, being mostly focused on lectures sharing expert knowledge by fellow lighting designers. I find that we have so much to learn from each other and yet there are not many platforms to share and learn. PLDC is a very good platform so I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I get to hear how fellow lighting designers share about their projects, passions, ideas, findings but also their concerns about lighting design. Although I would not say all the lectures were impactful or satisfying, I attended a few good ones that were real good mind and eye-openers.
What left me the greatest impressions are the following:
1. People interested about lighting design are wide and varied! I saw a great range of age groups at the convention, from students to grey-haired people, as well as people with all kinds of skin colours!
2. Light is such an important element of life, just as water and air. Artificial lighting is becoming key in city life, yet there is so much more we need to learn about lighting the impact of light on our life. We can never assume we know enough to say we can confidently design with light to regulate human life; light can harm as well!
3. There are many people suffering from the new forms of lighting, enough people to set up an organization to create awareness for it (Light Aware). I can really relate to it since I suffer from several chronic conditions which led me to realize about some of my food intolerances such as wheat, which is such a common item everywhere; yet I can choose the food I eat, while these people cannot choose the light that is being installed everywhere in their environment.
4. Lighting design has become rather complex due to LED and the technology and possibilities that comes along with it. Designing lighting in our increasingly intelligent world with illuminated media cityscapes, requires the participation and collaboration between many experts to achieve a good integrated design. (Artificial) Light is no longer just simply a standalone device to turn on and off!
So what is the work of a lighting designer? I find that it is about education. We need to educate people about the values of light, values of lighting design and doing it right, harms and cost of doing it wrong, just as I continue to seek to be educated about lighting as it continues to evolve.
Amanda
Being first time going to PLDC and also first time to Paris, I was really excited and looking forward to it. When the Convention started, it made me feel being back in school when we joined various speakers presenting talks about different subject at different timings. In addition to what my colleagues shared, I would like to share one other speaker’s presentation; “Lighting for Cities Inhabited by People, Not Cars – By Malcolm Innes/UK.
Malcolm started his presentation by comparing the role of a designer from both an owner’s point of view as well as from a designer’s point of view. It was interesting to see that all present seemed to agree that the design stage, from the designer’s point of view, is the most time-consuming phase in a project. He then brought up a project of lighting up corridors walkway around heritage building in which he had asked the help of residents staying around the area, a new way of engaging residents to team up with the designer to come up with a lighting design for an area which they are familiar with in their everyday life. With this collaboration, the resident becomes co-designers or curators of revitalized spaces, providing some interesting and meaningful ideas that the designer can incorporate to make it happen!
Enjoy the weekend!
The “month” that was 24th October- 17th September 2017
Singapore – France – Netherlands – Bangkok – Singapore
Weekend 18-19th November 2017
My Dad
It has been silent for a while for a sad reason…my Dad just passed away two weeks ago and as a result I had to cancel my attendance to PLDC to be with my Dad and with my Mum and family in the time that followed. It is important for me to take a moment to reflect on this, a stage in our lives that everyone goes through some times unfortunately early, sometimes late in life. My Dad was in his 90-iest year of life, one he lived without regret and to full satisfaction. He passed away peacefully and without pain with all of us present, which was all we could wish for. In the knowledge that he lived a good life and was still active till very recently (he had bought a new car earlier in the year at 89! and was still playing golf a month before he died!) his passing was hard but accepted with peace of mind by all of us.
I have many friends and colleagues who have lost their dad but until you experience it personally it is hard to grasp the magnitude of it. Your Dad is always in some ways your leading beacon, the one who sets the standards of your life, who leads by example. We may not always agree but very often find that he was right after all…I realise that I have taken on many things from my Dad and if others are to be believed even some of his mannerisms. I am proud of it and will do my very best to uphold his values and lead my kids (and my staff) by example. Gone forever, but for always in my heart.
Thailand Lighting Fair, Bangkok 2017
While my Dads passing away is life changing, life goes on and after having made sure that my Mum was well taken care of, I left back for Singapore last weekend to prepare for my appearance at THLF in Bangkok, were Kaoru Mende and myself were the VIP keynote speakers for the event. I value these events very much as this allows us to keep promoting the quality values of good lighting design and the opportunity to speak in front an audience estimated at between 700 and 800 people, mostly architects, designers, developers. While Kaoru shared his wide experience in city master planning, a topic very much alive in this part of the world, I had decided to lead my audience through a path of discovery in regards to the challenges we face to day as professional lighting designers. The simplicity from just a switch and an incandescent light bulb are long gone as today we have irreversibly moved to LED technology including its complex infra-structure of software, smart functions and the internet of things (IoT). Lighting design is no longer lighting design as we know it…we know have to consider a wide range of (non-lighting) options and smart functions including circadian lighting, LiFi and other mobile app based lighting control choices.
I also introduced my audience to that other major change that is about to happen, called Light as a Service (LaaS). There is no doubt that our world is moving towards a service driven circular economy (rather than the waste economy on which the lighting industry is currently based). Just like Uber and AirBnB for instance, lighting is poised to move to a service platform. In the Uber model, Uber does not own the taxis or the drivers, in AirBnB they do not own the accommodation, they just provide the service. There are already pilot projects implemented based on this service model for lighting. As the end-user you do not own the lighting, it is installed, operated and maintained for you. You just pay a fee that guarantees you an agreed amount light quality and energy consumption. In this model, like any other service model you have no upfront costs or investments and the responsibility for the lighting performance over time is shifted back to the consortium (lighting manufacturer/ investor/ contractor) that provides you the lighting.
With the world around us changing there is a strong need to re-assert the position of the lighting designer within these changes as well. A lighting designer can in my opinion no longer operate as a unique entity. While the coordinating role with architects and other design consultants will always remain, there will be a new leading role for the lighting designer integrating, guiding and managing the non-lighting functions as a cohesive proposal to our end clients. There is no doubt in my mind that regardless of the IoT, LiFi or LaaS the lighting designer will need to lead from the front, but re-think the way the services are delivered…
While I was not able to attend PLDC, my senior design team did and in next week’s blog we will review impressions from PLDC Paris…
Enjoy the weekend!
The week that was…16th – 20th October 2017
Singapore – Shanghai – Zhengzhou – Singapore
Weekend 21-22nd October 2017
The Zhengzhou trip
“U moh dlings?” I looked up at the flight stewardess, not understanding what she was trying to tell me? My quizzing look made her repeat the question: “U moh dlings? I was flying from Shanghai to Zhenzhou on a domestic flight and the Chinese attendant was doing her best to communicate with me! She then pointed to my empty glass…Ah…I got it! “You more drinks”…Whether I wanted another drink! Yes, please…
This week I am back in China to see a client, a big Chinese developer with whom we have already done some projects with our local team, but who had asked me to come in to kick start a quality drive and help convince the project team of the importance of good quality design and good quality (lighting) products. While my Shanghai team had been working with this client in Zhengzhou for a while I had not been back there since 2010 when working on the 300m high Zhengzhou Tower. It was great to see that the tower still shines in all its beauty without any noticeable LED light failure! The gold and cool white shades of dynamic light are still looking great…I am still happy we decided not to go for colour, except for the crown feature…great and powerful design, and still the major landmark in Zhengzhou!
It is hard to comprehend the culture and mindset in China if you have not experienced it first hand. Of course there is the lost in translation like described above, which at times can lead to comical situations, but that in itself is just a nice challenge and as you get used to it, you understand it better. If you throw in some Chinese like xie-xie; hen hao, mei quan xi, mei want ti, piau liang etc you quickly find yourself connecting with them.
But what surprises time and again is their lack of safety measures on work sites and their creativity to resolve problems with little means. Rather then your typical (glaring) work floodlights they had bought the cheapest of cheap linear flex light that hung as garlands from space to space. Who cares about colour or brightness consistency, or even failing light sections…! The perfect application for these $10/100m china made strip lights! Localised work lights was done with simple miners head lights…light where you need it at minimal costs! Work safety protection however, is practically non-existing.
China is still a happening place, mega projects where you look, certainly in Zhengzhou. When driving around from site to site I saw cranes and worksites wherever I looked! I added
some quick snaps of the sales office site model to give you an impression of just one of these projects…
My Zhengzhou client is into residential and hospitality projects and one part of our project work is developing a strategy to light up his high end residential carparks…in these case more than 5000 car park spaces in 4 locations. Worth developing a sensible (and smart) lighting strategy. Hence their request for me to come down to Zhengzhou to meet their team as the disconnect between the designers and contractor team is glaring. Where the architect shows beautiful renderings we only saw the cheapest of cheap suspended fluorescent look-a-like LED tubes hanging disorderly from the ceiling. Supposedly presence sensor driven the lights were all over the place, on when they were not supposed to be and vice versa…What happened to the design concept? I was re-assured and told to disregard what was installed and just “do my thing”. Though the light costs (complete fitting, LED tube and sensor) only 30 RMB (about USD 5! Who signed off on this??) it seemed still a lot of lights to scrap as I certainly am not going to use them!
Enjoy the weekend!
Video of the Zhengzhou tower
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