Romare Bearden Park, USA
Opened in the summer of 2013, Romare Bearden Park in Charlotte, North Carolina was created to enrich the lives of the community, providing opportunities for intellectual, social and physical well-being.
Envisioned to grow into an established landmark and destination, it provides space for urban recreation and gathering in the heart of Charlotte’s city centre. The $11m space commemorates the life and artistic achievements of internationally regarded black artist, Romare Bearden - born in a long-gone house at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Graham Street, Charlotte in the early 1900’s near to where his namesake park is located today. Bearden became an internationally known creator of original oil and watercolour paintings, drawings and abstract art collages, up until his death in 1988. Although Bearden moved north as a child, some of his art depicts Charlotte’s early 20th Century African-American community.
Located near the entrance of Charlotte’s new Triple A baseball stadium, the park is actively enjoyed by many who visit this newly popular city setting. Boasting 5.4-acres, the park covers an entire square city block, formerly home to a city bus parking lot. It was designed with several distinct areas, each inspired by facets of Bearden's life and his career-wide acclaim that grew steadily over decades. In creating Romare Bearden Park, its design was awarded to the landscape architecture company LandDesign, who has offices in Charlotte, NC amongst others and artist Norie Sato. LandDesign followed its corporate philosophical underpinnings of honouring the land and allowing it to accommodate a vision for a special place. Its sensitivity to location ensured people and land were brought together in a manner that provided a powerful, encompassing personal experience.
LandDesign’s master plan for the park evokes Romare Bearden and his artistic use of his own memory, for what he termed 'triggers' for key inspirational points when he was designing and executing his artworks. The influence of Bearden resulted in an eclectic mix of urban park elements that include two adjacent multi-acre gardens and greens with adjoining courtyards. Moveable in-park tables and chairs evoke thoughts of Paris, where Bearden travelled to and lived for one year. Courtyards are shaded by substantial natural, indigenous canopies of trees throughout the park, and on park sides of adjoining city streets.
A large formal event common, known as Big Moon Green, transitions into an open area for informal children’s activities, as well as for structured events for people of all ages. Gardens named Madeline’s and Maudell’s, recall previously articulated memories by Bearden of gardens his mother and grandmother had, that inspired several of his artworks. The park also has interactive digital chimes and waterfalls.
Working alongside LandDesign was architectural lighting designer Randy Burkett, founder and principal of Randy Burkett Lighting Design, headquartered in St. Louis. Burkett and LandDesign agreed that lighting for Romare Bearden Park should subtly serve as a complement to Bearden’s lifelong artistic sensibilities, and his evolved appreciation for lasting good design in the creative, artistic sense. Built upon this strong visual imagery, the lighting design further exploited the metaphors into the night.
Ordinary pole-mounted street lighting would simply not do. With this in mind, Burkett selected Hess America Fiora and Riva pole-mounted luminaires on inverted tapered poles, which distinctively light main pathways and an interactive play area in the park.
One main pathway, known as The Evocative Spine, runs diagonally through the site, allowing visitors to see and experience individual park vignettes as they walk. Fiora, a striking feature pole from Hess using light reflected from a faceted disk, is used along the Spine’s edges to clearly define the pathway when seen from the far reaches of the site. These luminaires are primary components of the park, integral to its overall design and function.
On the whole, the lighting played an important role in establishing visual hierarchy and scale for the park’s pedestrian pathways. Along many walkways, conventional pole and bollard path-lighting techniques are eschewed for those emphasising reflected illumination from surrounding vertical surfaces.
This approach provides soft, welcoming facial light while helping to fortify visitor orientation and enhance wayfinding. This lighting of walls, landscape and art became a toolbox of sorts, used extensively throughout the project.
Visible from numerous high-rise residential, hospitality and office towers nearby, the park’s individual experience zones are articulated after dark using variations in light intensity, boundary light reinforcement, source colour and subtle dynamics. Views of the park grounds from the surrounding elevated structures bring to mind the artist’s passion for collages.
Water features are cast in an important role in visually animating space. Nighttime enlivenment comes from colour, generated by submerged LED RGB sources. More subtle light effects, however, reinforce the park’s underlying messages, like the stone niches seen through a waterfall’s veil revealed by light, suggestive of a distant and hazy memory. A dispersion of low-level pathway lighting forms an organic arrangement of circular LED wafers embedded within the paving material, symbolising the ever-changing journey along life’s path.
Pronounced shadows are revealed throughout the gardens by well-positioned precision accent light clusters mounted to poles. Lighting has helped create an authentic urban experience that celebrates Charlotte’s history and culture. Both orientation and wayfinding are reinforced by insightful arrangements of lighting equipment, with respect to the various activity nodes.
The park’s design memorialises Romare Bearden, through thoughtful use of architectural lighting, inviting people to walk through and enjoy the venue’s design and amenities.
Cooper brand goes to Eaton
(USA) - Cooper Lighting brand to be dropped in favour of Eaton's Lighting Division. Brand names acquired in acquisition including Halo, Metalux, Lumark, Corelite, Neo-Ray, Fifth Light and Greengate to remain.
Ever since Eaton Corp. acquired Cooper Industries in 2012, it has gradually been shifting the emphasis in its lighting branding from the Cooper name to Eaton. Now, Eaton has made it official with a statement from Mark Eubanks, president of Eaton's Lighting Division:
“In the nearly three years since Cooper became part of Eaton, a worldwide leader in power management, we have been gradually transitioning from the Cooper Lighting name to the Eaton brand. This month, as Eaton's Lighting Division, we take the next step in brand transition: going forward, we will refer to ourselves as Eaton.
“While this name for our business may feel new, customers will recognize the same commitment to innovation, reliability, customer service and market leadership that they have come to expect. Our valuable lighting and controls product line names, such as Halo, Metalux, Lumark, Corelite, Neo-Ray, Fifth Light, Greengate and more, will remain unchanged and will continue to lead advancement of new integrated lighting and controls technologies and solutions within our industry. Eaton is committed to being the most admired company in its all of its markets, including the lighting industry.
“Eaton is a recognized leader in the residential, commercial and industrial electrical markets, and we have grown over the past 100-plus years into a global power management company focused on helping customers manage power more reliably, efficiently, safely and sustainably. The company has expanded its expertise and portfolio of products by integrating the competencies of some of the most respected names in the electrical industry, including our well-respected lighting and controls portfolio. The scope and scale of our global business makes it most effective to speak to the market from a unified and consistent platform - the Eaton brand.
“While our name may have changed, our customers can rest assured that we have the same unwavering passion and commitment to provide innovative products and solutions our customers can rely on.”
EucoLight arrives
(Belgium) - Brussels based association to focus on regulatory framework for lighting waste recycling.
A new European association focused on WEEE in the lighting sector has been established. EucoLight has been created to give a voice to WEEE compliance schemes that are specialised in managing the collection and recycling of lamps and luminaires.
The WEEE Directive, as recast, has greater impact on lighting than on any other industry sector. Despite being an individual product low in weight, there are a greater number of lamps collected and recycled in Europe than all other types of electrical equipment. Furthermore, unlike most other items of WEEE there is no value associated with waste lamps. Most lamps are also fragile and hazardous, making them difficult to transport, and requiring specialist recycling facilities.
Brussels based EucoLight has been established to respond positively to these challenges, and to engage effectively with other European bodies and trade associations. EucoLight will work to enhance the regulatory framework for lighting waste and associated level playing field, support the development of appropriate international standards, provide guidance and support to its members.
EucoLight membership is open to any non-profit WEEE compliance scheme fulfilling the Extended Producer Responsibility of lighting producers established in Europe. WEEE schemes from a total of sixteen different EU member states are members.
Mr Juan Carlos Enrique, the newly elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of EucoLight and Managing Director of AMBILAMP (Spain), said: "the creation of EucoLight is an important milestone for WEEE compliance schemes in Europe that focus on lamps and lighting who will now have a face and voice in Brussels. EucoLight will help to strengthen its members' activities and services around Europe, thus helping them to promote a better lighting products recycling service, aiming to an efficient circular economy."
Nigel Harvey, Chief Executive of Recolight, who has also been elected to the board of EucoLight said: “There are a number of changes to WEEE being considered at a European level. EucoLight will work to ensure that those changes are appropriate for the lighting industry. I am delighted to be on the board and to support the ongoing work of the lighting industry at a European level.”
In his tasks, he will be supported by Mr. Hervé Grimaud, Managing Director of Recyclum (France), as Vice Chairman; Mr. Béla Kovacs, Managing Director of Electro-coord (Hungary) and of Recolamp (Romania), as Treasurer; Mr. Nigel Harvey, Managing Director of Recolight (United Kingdom), as Secretary to the Board and Mr. Diederik de Stoppelaar, Secretary General of LightingEurope. LightingEurope is an affiliated member of EucoLight.
darc awards shortlist judging panel announced
(Worldwide) - An international panel of independent lighting designers to create shortlists for each of the project categories. Public voting by independent lighting design community to begin on July 13th.
The shortlist judging panel for the darc awards has been announced and has immediately began work on choosing ten projects per category to go forward to the public vote.
The shortlists can be viewed here... www.darcawards.com/view-entries
The panel consists of Kaoru Mende (Japan), principal of Light Planners Associates; Karolina Zielinska-Dabkowska (Poland), a lighting architect and researcher; Chiara Carucci (Italy), Lead Coordinator of Light-Related Organizations for the International Year of Light 2015; Emma Cogswell (UK), Projects Manager for the IALD; Liz Peck (UK), President of the Society of Light and Lighting; Lara Elbez (Spain), lighting designer; Christopher 'Kit' Cuttle (New Zealand), lighting designer, author and academic; Naama Steigman (Israel), a partner at Studio Twilight; and musson+retallick (UK), artists who regularly use the medium of light in their work.
“The panel is a mixture of experienced and up-and-coming designers, academics and representatives from our key associations,” announced darc awards director and publishing editor of mondo*arc and darc magazines Paul James. “They are from the UK, Europe and Asia so they will be able to give a well-rounded view on what should go forward. I'm also delighted to say that six out of the nine judges are women.”
There were over 400 entries for the darc awards, an amazing response to an inaugural competition and proof, says James, that designers are looking for something new and refreshing.
“Of course we had a good idea that the awards would be well-received by the lighting design community but we have been blown away by the amount of entries that have been submitted. There is certainly a big buzz about the awards and I can't wait for the public vote on July 13th.”
Once the judging panel has chosen their shortlists for the project categories, the voting is then opened up to all independent architectural lighting designers making this the only peer-to-peer lighting design awards in the world.
Product categories go straight to the public vote so that lighting designers can genuinely vote for their favourite products from the last three years.
Votes will be cast on the darc awards website, www.darcawards.com, from July 13th with the awards event, darc night, taking place in London on September 24th during London Design Festival.
All independent lighting designers that vote will be able to attend darc night free of charge (manufacturers will be subject to a charge) turning the traditional awards ceremony protocol on its head. The awards evening itself will be completely different with free street food and drinks all night, lighting installations by lighting designers who have teamed up with the manufacturer partners, and a completely different format for presenting the evening.
Manufacturer partners are Concord (who are teaming up with Speirs + Major); Cooledge (Light Bureau); Griven (Paul Nulty Lighting Design); Innermost (Elektra); KKDC (dpa); L&L Luce&Light (LDI); LSE Lighting (Troup Bywaters + Anders); Lucent (Michael Grubb Studio); Lumino (Electrolight); Megaman (Design In progress); Reggiani (BDP); and Zumtobel (Arup). Technical partner is XL Video and the event is part of the the International Year of Light 2015 programme.
Tryka L.E.D. establish Middle East office
(UAE) - New subsidiary of the UK LED lighting company based in Sharjah and headed by Ramprasad Nayak.
After many years of successful trading in the Middle Eastern marketplace, Tryka has further strengthened its position in the region by forming Tryka L.E.D. ME.
Based in Sharjah, UAE and headed by leading lighting industry professional Ram Nayak, Tryka LED ME will provide a new market presence and support for both existing and new customers in the region.
Nayak said of the launch: “People already perceive the Tryka LED brand to meet and exceed the stringent market requirements of Middle East conditions. Based on our commitment for innovation and focus on quality and services, I see no reason why we should not be yet more successful in the Middle East and Northern Asian region. Our existing customers have high regard for Tryka LED for offering them extremely effective and reliable technology during the early days when LED technology was new to the market. We will now build on this excellent reputation.”
The company has been involved in many high profile projects in the Middle East including the new National Assembly Building in Kuwait; the King Abdullah Financial District development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and KIPCO Gentlemens Club and Kuwait Credit and Savings Bank.
Chris Rolph, managing director of Tryka, commented: “Tryka L.E.D. has been successfully supplying projects across the Middle East for over ten years and are specified on many key projects currently on the drawing board. We felt the time was right to branch out to enable us to support these projects on a more local basis to ensure we service the exact needs of specifiers, designers and installation contractors alike. The new Tryka L.E.D. ME company is well positioned to take the existing successes in the Middle East onto another level. With the experience of the new U.A.E. management team combined with a proven knowledge of the market, while being solidly supported by the UK based company, now in its thirteenth year of trading, we are all very excited about the future of the Tryka brand.”
ESL French distributor for Visual Productions
(Netherlands) - ESL will distribute full range of Visual Productions lighting control products to all areas of Entertainment and Architectural markets.
ESL France, established in 1992 has offices in both Montpelier and Paris. They introduced one of the most comprehensive catalogues of stage and entertainment lighting products to the French market which continues today to be a staple requirement for industry professionals. Coupling distribution and excellent technical service, ESL have built a strong network of dealers and customers throughout France. In 2013 they introduced the architectural division of ESL in the Paris office.
The teams at Visual Productions and ESL have long standing business friendships with each other, that over the years have allowed both companies to see the strong direction they can now grow in the market together. With the ongoing development of the CueCore family of Solid-state controllers and the recent addition of the Cuety App, Visual Productions now offer a complete range that comprehensively suits the ESL customer base.
ESL stated: "The products are the only in the market to operate both Mac OS, Windows and Linux. They have powerful solutions that address both live and permanent installations. Around the Cuelux and CueluxPro softwares, comes a nice set of solid-state devices. In short everything you need for a well-managed network."
Visual Productions' Zoe Castle said: "With a strong large sales force working with dealers throughout France, a comprehensive catalogue and highly competent technical team, ESL is a perfect fit for for our full product range from Cuety in DJ/ LJ market through to the high end solid-state architectural installation products. The true bonus is of course to work with such a dedicated, friendly and fun team of people!"
Recolight celebrates successful year
(UK) - Introduction of dual use, new BIS targets for lamp recycling and increases in membership.
Recolight's CEO, Nigel Harvey said: "The last twelve months have seen a number of positive developments in the UK. In particular, the decision by the Government to introduce dual use is an important step in making the UK WEEE system even fairer, and more sustainable."
Harvey also commented on the UK lamp recycling rate: "Lamp recycling rates have dropped for the first time since the start of the WEEE regulations. The 2014 rate was 29%, a decrease from the 53% recorded in 2013. However, this lower figure was expected. It reflects a change in the legislation, which means for the first time, the 2014 data included LED lamps as well as Gas Discharge Lamps. The inclusion of LEDs in the calculations has inevitably reduced the rate significantly as large quantities of LEDs have been sold with very few being returned as WEEE."
He added: "I am also pleased to report that we have seen the rate of growth of our membership accelerating. Sixteen new producer members joined us in 2014 - and a further 20 have already joined in 2015."
The dual use system, which came in to force in 2015, extends the scope of the household definition to include virtually all lamps. This will result in a fairer system with more lamp producers responsible for their share of recycling in 2016. It is important to note that Producers must now classify a product either as B2C or B2B, a change from the previous system, in which it was possible to record a proportion of a product as B2B and B2C.
The move to LED integrated luminaires has triggered many large scale LED luminaire roll-out projects. This year has seen a marked increase in the number of major banks, retailers and others seeking confirmation that all of their waste is recycled responsibly when carrying out such projects. Recolight has been able to support its members through its integrated lamp and luminaire waste collection service.
"Recolight's top priority this year has been to work with the lighting industry to improve the UK's WEEE system" explained Harvey. He continued: "With the many developments that have taken place, we believe that the UK now has one of the best WEEE systems in Europe. The country reports one of the highest tonnages of waste lamps recycled in Europe, second only to Germany."
To ensure that the WEEE system continues to operate well for the UK lighting industry, Recolight is also giving greater focus to longer term proposals for change at an EU level. Representing Lighting Europe, Harvey recently attended a consultation session at the European Commission to discuss the calculation of future WEEE targets. It is expected that the new WEEE generated approach will result in better, smarter targets.
In 2015, the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) set the national lamp recycling target at 2,680 tonnes, a figure much higher than the 2014 target of 840 tonnes. The new target follows the dual use decision. BIS have stated that the target "is in the mid-range and balances the additional costs to household Producers against the risks to lamp recyclers and certain PCSs."
SGM illuminates Ishø¸j roundabout
(Denmark) - As an extension of the forecourt at Ishøj Station, ÅF Lighting completed lighting for the city centre including the adjoining urban areas and a roundabout.
The lighting concept for the station forecourt is based on artistic interpretations of the element water which create a visual link to Ishøj’s maritime environment and to the Museum of Modern Art, Arken. Water being the creative starting point, is expressed in architectural light settings of colour tones and projected images that create narratives and a unique atmosphere.
In order to create a coherent lighting for the entire area, ÅF Lighting extended the lighting concept and assigned an element to each project area. Water for the station forecourt; Fire for the high facades of the city centre; Earth for the city park and Air for the bridges.
A special challenge was provided by the roundabout in front of the west entrance of the city centre. ÅF Lighting’s intention was to stage the roundabout with a watering motive similar to the ones used at the station forecourt. Due to the size of the roundabout a pole-based solution proved to be ineffective and would have had a negative visual impact on the appearance of the area, especially during daytime. The use of the several individual luminaries would furthermore have required the division of the projected image into smaller parts that needed to be joined perfectly in order to create a seamless watering projection.
Frederik W. Borello, Electrical- & Lighting Engineer said: “We found a quite unusual solution to solve the challenge and placed a G-Spot luminaire 50 meters from the roundabout on the top of the 35 m high building, with the intention of creating a perfect, sharp and spectacular projection of 3 different water rings.”
To verify the solution ÅF Lighting, with support from SGM, carried out a test lighting that proved the G-Spot to be just the right fixture.
Borello said: “The product was perfect due to its high IP rating (IP65) and its high efficient LED technology combined with a great optical system that allows optimal focus and zoom of the three projections. The colour blending of the multicolour LED is very uniform, and the projection has the same high quality as watering at the station forecourt, where we used metal halide. The result is very satisfying.”
Franziska Bönecke, Lighting Designer and Project Manager said: “The beam throw from the top of the building to the projection surface is approximately 60-metre and required the smallest beam angle to fit the diameter of the roundabout. The gobos are custom-designed and keystone corrected by ÅF Lighting to assure perfectly round water rings that follows the layout of the roundabout. Once a month the water rings change shape and add a little variation to the night-time scenery.”
The luminaire was furthermore custom-painted in white by SGM to minimise its visibility on the roof top during daytime and to blend in with the other technical equipment on the roof.
Bönecke said: “As the lighting is tailored to fit the roundabout, glare and negative lighting effects for drivers and pedestrian are avoided. Many spectators are under the impression that the water rings magically appear as no light sources can be detected in the nearby surroundings. When having a closer look, they might be able to spot the single luminaire that is placed on top of the high building far away from the installation.”
The combination of innovative thinking and state-of-the art-technology has created a lighting project that impresses by night and is invisible during daytime.
Simes Cool
Part of a new generation of Simes products that maximise the potential of LED technology whilst minimising size and energy consumption. The striking lighting effects from the solid volumes of aluminium and glass, reflect the continuous efforts aimed at reducing and simplifying the luminaire and emphasising the architecture and its visual comfort. The Cool family has recently seen its range grow with new dimensions and new designs creating more stylish solutions applicable to different contexts.
Agabekov AGA-LED Clip
Agabekov has developed a four-position linear luminary using AGA-LED Generation 2 light sources. The light source can be oriented and the direction of the lit area changed without altering the position of the profile.The system is very simple, practical and operates by manually clipping the LED on its support, with four positions possible. The advantage of this unique system is different lighting effects are obtained depending on the position of the lighting sources.
Design LED Products Edinburgh
Design LED Products offers the world’s thinnest shelf solution in an ultra-slim luminaire design at only 6mm. The elegant Edinburgh provides an efficacy of 105 lm/W and high product illumination. The integrated optics delivers light where required without shadowing allowing an energy-efficient lighting solution. Edinburgh is ideal for showcases, displays, under cabinet lighting and kitchens, easy to install in lengths of up to 10m and smart control options are available.
Aurora VersiTile
Aurora’s new retrofit LED range, VersiTile is more than just a standard flat panel, it can be used for offices and commercial lighting as it meets a UGR (Unified Glare Rating) of ninety. Testing by LIA laboratories, it showed performance up to 110lm/W and exceeds ErP compliance. Covered by a five-year-warranty and available in a range of mounting options and sizes, CRI (Ra) is 80+, lifetime is 40,000 hours to L70, and being IP44, it exceeds legislative requirements of CE marking.