Nulty and Studio N appoint Business Development Manager
(UAE) – Nulty and Studio N have appointed Angela Abou Antoun as Business Development Manager for the Middle East and North Africa.
An experience lighting designer with an MA in Lighting Design and LED Technology, Abou Antoun joins the Dubai studio following a six-year period working for iGuzzini in the Middle East. During this time, she gained valuable technical expertise and local market knowledge, working on lighting projects in the hospitality, residential, retail and urban sectors. This role also saw her travel throughout the region to conduct lectures and training sessions on the benefits of light and lighting design.
Abou Antoun’s position as Business Development Manager for Nulty Dubai and Studio N
will see her build long-lasting relationships with architects, designers and developers. For Nulty, she will drive expansion across key regions including Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the team are already involved with a number of high-profile masterplan and lighting design projects. Her goal for Studio N will be to realise the growth potential of the brand in the hospitality, retail and luxury residential sectors, where the team are focused on producing creative project work coupled with a versatile approach to working with clients.
Paul Nulty, Founder of Nulty and Studio N, said: “I am delighted to bring Angela on board at such a pivotal time for both brands. Her background in lighting design and knowledge of the MENA market are exactly what we need to maximise opportunities on both a large and small scale. She has the strategic mindset needed to enhance Nulty’s global presence and the passion required to take Studio N to next level. I’m confident that she’ll be great asset to our Dubai team.”
Abou Antoun added: “I’m very excited to join Nulty and Studio N and look forward to working closely with everyone in the Dubai studio to build on the great work that has been achieved so far.”
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Apple Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
One of the latest additions to Apple’s beautiful array of retail destinations, Apple Marina Bay Sands is a glowing orb that sits beneath Singapore’s impressive skyline. Foster + Partners explains the design concept behind this landmark store.
With every new Apple store that opens around the world, there comes with it a fervent buzz of excitement not typically seen for retail settings.
Owing to a long-standing relationship with Foster + Partners, the tech giant has over the years become almost as renowned for the beautiful design of its stores as it has for the products on show inside, turning the locations into landmark destinations in and of themselves. Indeed, it’s rare to see an Apple store not alive with activity as visitors come to experience the eye-opening locations.
One of the latest additions to its impressive portfolio of retail destinations is Apple Marina Bay Sands. Opened to the public in 2020, the store stands as a distinctive presence on the already iconic Singapore Bay, a stone’s throw from the Moshe Safdie-designed Marina Bay Sands hotel.
A floating orb on the water, the 30-metre-diameter structure is a fully glazed dome with a black glass base, complementing its sister pavilions through its scale and materiality. Appearing as an island in the water, it is only tethered to the promenade by a small bridge.
Described as its “most ambitious retail project” to date, the design of the store is, as with all recent Apple stores, the result of a close collaboration between Apple’s design teams and the integrated engineering and design team at Foster + Partners.
David Summerfield, Head of Studio at Foster + Partners, said: “Apple Marina Bay Sands is all about the delicate interplay between transparency and shade. The structure dissolves the boundary between the inside and outside, creating a minimal platform that floats gently in the water, looking out over the bay and the spectacular Singapore skyline.”
Alongside the gentle ramp that leads from the bay’s boardwalk, the store can be accessed via The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, a nearby shopping complex; a beautifully curved stone entrance, flanked by Apple’s signature Avenue display on either side, a 45-metre-long underwater tunnel leads directly to a set of dramatic escalators that take visitors on a “kaleidoscopic journey” into the heart of the domed space.
The transition from the heart of the retail centre to the serene environment of the store gives customers a dramatic, exhilarating experience that culminates with spectacular views across the bay and towards the city.
Structurally, the dome acts as a hybrid steel and glass shell, where the grid of the steel sections supports the weight of the glass and shading, while the curved structural glass panels restrain the steel elements laterally and stiffen the overall form against lateral loads. Each of the 114 panels of glass is carefully selected to meet glazing indices as prescribed by BCA Green Mark, Singapore’s own sustainability rating system, while integrated solar shading devices keep the interior cool.
Each of the multifunctional concentric baffles reduce in size as they progress towards the top of the building, providing acoustic absorption for the store. More importantly, they diffuse and reflect the daylight to the baffle above, creating a magical effect and dematerialising the structure. At the top, a semi-opaque oculus provides a dramatic shaft of light that travels through the space, reminiscent of Rome’s famous Pantheon.
Stefan Behling, Senior Executive Partner at Foster + Partners, added: “The dome appears ephemeral. The effect is very calming, and the changing intensity and colour of the light is mesmerising. It is not only a celebration of Apple’s incredible products, but a celebration of light.”
Indeed, lighting design, also created by Foster + Partners, was an integral element of the project from the outside. During the day, the transparent dome reflects the colours of the surrounding water and sky, while the interior is flooded with natural light, while caustic reflections bounce off the water’s surface and onto the baffles. In the evening, subtle interior lighting transforms the appearance of the dome. As daylight fades the concealed baffle lighting slowly ramps up, emitting a warm, glare-free glow.
The baffle lighting is carefully integrated within the dome’s architectural fabric, to ensure that the linear light source, or any of its reflections, is not visible from normal viewing angles. The intensity is set to a gradient, which gradually tapers off towards the lowest baffle.
At floor level, custom table-mounted lights provide local task illumination on the display tables, allowing the remainder of the floorplate to be lit by indirect baffle lighting. By keeping the ambient light levels lower, reflections in the glazing are reduced to help reveal the spectacular, panoramic views of the Singapore skyline through the 360° curved picture windows.
Viewed from the exterior, the restrained, subtle interior illumination makes the dome’s interior space appear as an almost seamless continuation of the Marina Bay waterfront – the overall concept idea for the lighting was to emphasise the dome structure without losing the transparency at night.
This feeling of continuity is extended into the interior design of the store; the “Garden City” ideal of Singapore flows from the promenade into the interior spaces, with 10 trees placed along the perimeter, providing additional shading and soft shadows through the foliage. Set within leather-topped planters, this creates a comfortable seat for visitors to enjoy the view of the aby. The shading provided by the baffles is designed to deliver ample diffuse daylight to sustain the health of the trees.
Although ambitious in its scope, and in its design, Apple Marina Bay Sands acts as not only a celebration of the brand’s highly sought-after products, but as a celebration of light, and the delicate interplay between transparency and shade. Where many retail environments are designed with the idea of showcasing merchandise and encouraging sales, Apple Marina Bay Sands is remarkable in the way that it is designed as a space to linger, to relax, to enjoy the space and experience the beautiful views of the Marina Bay Sands.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, UK
One of the oldest theatres in London’s West End, the Grade I listed Theatre Royal Drury Lane has recently undergone a £60m renovation. BDP delivered the new lighting, merging heritage and modern elements in one harmonious scheme.
The Grade I listed Theatre Royal Drury Lane has been standing in London’s West End, in some form, since 1663. One of the oldest theatres still in use in the city, the site has been rebuilt three times across its history, most recently in 1812 by Benjamin Dean Wyatt, although his auditorium was lost in 1922 in that refurbishment.
Now owned by renowned composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, the theatre has been through a full restoration over the last few years, reopening to the public in July 2021.
As part of the extensive work, BDP revitalised both the exterior and interior lighting, bringing a new light to the space while carefully honouring the original 19th century lighting features.
“Our approach was to consider how we could create contemporary lighting effects that clearly drew inspiration from the past,” said Jono Redden, Senior Lighting Designer at BDP.
“On day one, what was apparent was that the client was looking to provide a modern experience within a traditional theatre. The lighting needed to reveal the architecture, provide drama and atmosphere without distracting from the historical relevance of the building.”
With this in mind, BDP developed a concept that shone a spotlight on the heritage lighting elements, which was then highlighted and accentuated with subtle, modern additions.
Colin Ball, Lighting Director at BDP, added: “The concept fuses a combination of stage technologies and the latest low energy LED lamps with the 18th century process of glass cutting and low-level integrated candelabra to create a warm ambience in keeping with the historic interiors and Wyatt’s original drawings.
“Theatre Royal Drury Lane has always been at the forefront of lighting technology, whether whale oil, gas or electricity – and this scheme is no exception. We merged lighting methods of the 19th and 21st centuries; dimming technologies used previously on stage and in the auditoria have been adopted throughout the whole building to maximise flexibility and balance the same level of sensitivity and ambience across all areas of the visitor experience.”
Throughout the design process, BDP worked very closely with architect Haworth Tompkins, undergoing extensive research, even including determining how each paint finish looks in daylight and under artificial light. Drawings, financial records and publications from the long history of the theatre were studied to determine the focus of the lighting in each space, whether low level standard, wall sconce or chandelier.
Ball continued: “Each individual space looks to the original design of 1812 to determine the focus of the lighting. Using this as our starting point, we employed a series of hidden fixtures to reduce contrast, wash ceilings, spotlight artworks or integrated details to fixed furniture, steps, or handrails. This collection of hidden details suggests that the light emanates from the historic light fixtures.
“Sections by Benjamin Wyatt unearthed from the national archives revealed his desire for low level candle lanterns integrated within the handrails. Although technically very difficult to achieve with modern systems, cable was threaded through original stone and handrails to remain faithful to this intent.”
Another key example of modern technologies used to honour the historical significance of the project came with the recreation of some of Wyatt’s original lighting fixtures; a lantern from one of his surviving stately homes was laser scanned and a virtual model was created and adapted to the theatre proportions, with 3D printed new moulds produced to cast the iron posts using traditional methods appropriate to 1812. One of the last remaining blacksmiths in the country then created the lanterns using the same original technique dating from the theatre’s inception.
“The new torchieres were painstakingly detailed and fixed directly onto the original balustrades with minimal alterations,” Ball explained. “A carefully calculated internal void allowed all cabling to route internally without affecting the thickness or structural integrity of the main body.”
Meanwhile all diffusers in the chandeliers and sconces were handblown and cut, according to 19th century techniques, including ironmongery and cut glass.
From an architectural perspective, a central part of the project’s vision was to reveal and restore Wyatt’s foyers and staircase – “arguably the most impressive Georgian sequence of public interior spaces in existence”, according to Ball – and to “democratise the previously segregated circulation into the auditorium”.
“For the first time in almost a century, the auditorium can be entered directly from street level without needing to go via the basement level,” Ball continued. “A new lift, along with fully accessible circulation at each level, has ensured that every audience member can now experience the grandeur of the architecture, and by opening up the original foyer entrances on three sides and removing later accretions, the front of house foyer has been restored to its former glory.”
The close working relationship between BDP and Haworth Tompkins extended to the specification process as well, as Redden explained: “Each new lighting type specified started with a conversation on the space, before BDP used our knowledge to find a suitable product.
“We then did thorough sample reviews with the architects, looking at aesthetics, fixing details, light quality, and custom finishes. Almost every fitting on the schedule has in some way been changed from standard. Haworth Tompkins were open to us leading the specification and as the project progressed and trust developed, we were able to influence each other’s packages to ensure the best results.”
Despite revamping the lighting throughout, one of the key tenets of BDP’s scheme was for light levels to be kept as low as possible throughout the day and evening; the optics and finishes of the corridors and spaces were designed with vertical illumination to ensure that the eye could comfortably adjust from daylight, into the 50lx interior of the auditorium. Each corridor leading to the auditorium is lit with a flexible gallery system of accenting paintings, so that while transitioning through these spaces, the eye imperceptibly adjusts to darker light levels. Each change of level or collection of vertical details are illuminated locally to create a space that appears ‘warm’, rather than ‘dark’.
To further add to the ‘warm’ aesthetic, while paying homage to the classic Georgian finishes, BDP used modern technology to give the revamped lanterns a traditional feel, with a theatrical control system creating a “simulated flicker” to be broadcast through the standard lamps, matching the original 1812 lighting scheme as closely as possible.
Redden added: “Flicker speed intensity and times of activation were carefully reviewed to ensure the “candlelight” never became a gimmick and always felt effective.”
While BDP and Haworth Tompkins worked tirelessly to ensure that the heritage elements of this Grade I listed venue were preserved and showcased, Redden explained that it was not without its difficulties. “A huge amount of research was done between the lighting designers, architects and client heritage expert, Simon Thurley,” he said.
“There were constant issues of getting cables to new fittings, where and how to fix original fabric and how to build in flexibility. From a heritage perspective, a big challenge was ensuring what we were proposing provided the right experience for this type of building. The lighting had to add to the drama and atmosphere but never overwhelm or detract from the building’s original form. Safety and inclusion were also challenging and where light levels were kept to a minimum, we had to focus light onto multiple surfaces to increase the perception of brightness and provide contrast to changes of elevation.”
The biggest challenge for BDP though, came with the integration of modern lighting within the historic interiors. In the 1920s auditorium, just as the architecture changed the geometry of the seating and the balconies, the lighting had to deliver expected contemporary standards without a change of appearance.
“We had to take each ‘Empire’ fitting and local ceiling moulding to redistribute and increase the density to provide a uniformity to a modern standard,” Ball explained. “This required a series of fittings to be duplicated with all original fittings improved to the same finish quality. Existing fittings were tested and input into calculation models to demonstrate in advance the lighting improvement. Where the visual duplication was known to fall below requirements to read programmes, a series of discrete hidden ceiling details were included to ensure that every seat had a good light level, but also angle of light, to read a programme.”
Elsewhere, the Grand Saloon repurposes large chandeliers found in storage and re-shaped, moulded and recast in Georgian proportions, while wall lanterns were created from pencil sketches found within the archives. The crystal pendants in the foyer were scaled up to two metres in diameter and fitted with both diffuser and chrome spotlights, remaining true to their original appearance but with hidden projection. Meanwhile, a series of private rooms are mostly lit from perimeter paintings and localised furniture, enabling the crystal pendants to stay dimmed to 10%, while hidden spotlights in the chandeliers provide table accenting.
Redden added: “As a lighting designer, doing too much or too little was always a concern as interiors changed and we moved further away from some of the original concepts.
“The light output needed to be soft and diffuse without becoming too ambiguous. All the new lighting needed to complement the traditional fitting both in terms of form and in light output.
“For instance, the hidden Erco spotlights in the roof void lighting the artwork on the walls provides a broad, soft wash of light rather than focused frame lighting, as that would be too much at odds with the textured light given from the torchiere crystal diffusers.
“The concealed spotlights above the cornice in the Grand Saloon create a soft, dappled uplight to create the impression of uplight from the chandeliers. With the exception of the building exterior crown, linear fittings used opal diffusers to avoid typical architectural graze lighting that would have been inappropriate in this type of interior.
“Where possible, we used discrete architectural lighting to supplement the heritage lighting. However, the “traditional” lighting was essentially designed and built from the ground up to ensure the correct period aesthetics whilst being purposeful lighting elements.”
Despite the various challenges that the design team faced, Redden can now look back on the finished scheme with a lot of pride, especially having seen how it benefits the theatre as a whole. “Keeping the project going through two years of Covid shutdown required vast amounts of courage and determination from everyone involved, we are very happy with the results and to have contributed our part.
“The feedback from the client and public has been very positive,” he said. “We were invited to a soft opening and dress rehearsal performance of the new show, and it was fantastic to experience first-hand exactly how the lighting both supports and complements the venue.
“It should be taken as a compliment, but sometimes the success of the lighting also means the level of work done is not easily recognised. People are often surprised to discover the torchieres didn’t exist prior to the refurb, or that the chandeliers have taken years of development. A lot of the lighting goes unnoticed, as it should.
“One of my favourite aspects is the picture lighting. By turning each space into a gallery, we’ve created a much more unique approach to providing a low level of general lighting that makes sure each room feels welcoming as you move around the building. The architecture, interior design and lighting have an equal balance and the level of coordination is evident between each discipline.”
The Boutique at Inside Burj Al Arab, UAE
One of the most iconic buildings in Dubai, the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah has become synonymous with luxury hospitality and awe-inspiring architecture since its opening more than 20 years ago.
Within the landmark hotel, the Inside Burj Al Arab tour gives guests and tourists the chance to visit previously inaccessible areas within the building, including its illustrious atrium and Royal Suite.
One of the spaces within this tour, The Boutique at Inside Burj Al Arab, is a luxurious, high-end retail environment in keeping with the grandeur of the wider building. Lighting for this space came from Nulty, which was appointed by lead designer Killa Design to work alongside interior design firm KCA International and retail specialist Umdasch to design a lighting scheme that faithfully maintains the high level of refinement for which the Burj Al Arab is known.
Ahmed Saliem, Projects Director at Nulty, explained further: “Burj Al Arab Jumeirah is one of Dubai’s most beloved and enduring icons. The history and legacy of the hotel informed our brief for the boutique and wider tour. Our role was to use light to celebrate and enhance the splendour of the hotel – every design decision was in essence a standing ovation to the structure itself.”
The concept for the store, Saliem explained, was to “create a world class retail environment in the mould of a luxury hotel experience”.
He continued: “The original design scheme for Burj Al Arab Jumeirah set the bar very high, so we felt a duty to replicate the grandeur and precision that came before us. We looked at how we could balance layers of light to enhance the way guests experience that space, which evolved into a design philosophy of ‘hidden in plain sight’. In the boutique, this meant carefully concealing light to allow the opulence of the interior design scheme to stand out. Where luminaires are visible, they are beautifully understated and work seamlessly with the overarching interior scheme.”
Within the Boutique, Nulty looked to balance the principles of retail lighting with hospitality, to enhance the ambience within the space while maintaining a consistent design language with the rest of the hotel.
“We used light to elevate the retail experience from both an aesthetic and ambience point of view,” Saliem continued. “On one hand, light helps to emphasise all of the high-end materials that the interior design team have used throughout the space. We concealed laser blade lighting in the reflective ceiling panels to preserve the mirrored ceiling and perfected the colour temperature of the lighting to reveal the depth of the exquisite metallic textures and natural stone finishes on show.
“On another level, light helps guide the eye through the boutique and envelops you in a sense of luxurious comfort.”
The laser blade lighting is concealed between a series of reflective panels to preserve the scheme’s oval-shaped mirrored ceiling. Cove illumination frames the mirrored section of the ceiling by creating a soft glow of light around the perimeter of the feature. Meanwhile recessed downlights have been used sparingly throughout, serving the fundamental purpose of boosting light levels to enrich the overall visual impact of the space.
Elsewhere, integrated joinery lighting has been discreetly incorporated in the scheme at a lower level, highlighting key merchandise such as branded souvenirs and high-end fashion and accessory items. Track fittings are deliberately understated and have been recessed into the ceiling so that only the elegant gold luminaires are visible. The tracks are fully flexible, allowing the system to be adjusted to accommodate different display configurations.
Keeping the lighting minimal was a deliberate design decision from Nulty, done as a means to keep focus on the high-end merchandise and luxury finishes. Saliem explained: “Concealing light within the space was fundamental to the design. Our design was minimally invasive so there are very few visible fittings in the space. Where luminaires are noticeable, they have been chosen to complement the material palette. Joinery lighting picks out merchandising displays and track lighting to add a layer of ambient illumination. The concealed laser blade lighting achieves a shimmering effect across the ceiling and keeps the reflective ceiling as clean as possible. Recessed downlights were only used where absolutely necessary to boost light levels. Nothing that you see from a lighting point of view detracts from the stunning interior.”
To further add to the luxurious feel, the team fine-tuned the colour temperature of the lighting to enhance the overall mood of the space and highlight the metallic textures and natural stone finishes used to accentuate the high-end interior aesthetic. The overall effect is warm and welcoming, and crucially ensures a seamless flow from the boutique to a wider hospitality scheme.
Saliem explained how the lighting complements the various textures and finishes within the space: “Understanding how light works in relation to different materials and finishes is challenging but part and parcel of the role of a lighting designer. You can’t predict how finishes will respond to different light sources if you haven’t done your due diligence, which means taking the time to properly read the aesthetics of a space. This is especially true when you’re working with reflective finishes such as polished stone, mirrors, and glass like we were here. We were conscious of avoiding glare, so we used a balanced level of diffuse illumination and positioned light sources carefully throughout the space.”
Although the Nulty team has a great deal of experience in working with high-end retail projects, for the Boutique at Inside Burj Al Arab, the combination of hospitality and retail lighting principles was a new challenge for the lighting designers – one that Saliem relished.
“We had a lot of fun applying the principles of hospitality lighting to a retail setting,” he said. “It was about balancing the functional requirements of the boutique with the expectations that illuminating a hotel like Burj Al Arab Jumeirah adds to a project. This added a layer of complexity to the lighting design because the boutique doesn’t exist in isolation.
“It was first and foremost an integral part of the Inside Burj Al Arab tour, and secondly an extension of the 7-star hotel itself. We couldn’t allow any shift in terms of atmosphere because this would jar the overall experience of being a guest at Burj Al Arab Jumeirah. Retail schemes can often be fairly neutral in terms of the designs and functional when it comes to the lighting design. The Boutique at Inside Burj Al Arab is the opposite; it’s warm, embracing, and rich in detail.
Throughout the design journey, Saliem explained that there was a constant collaboration between all partners, with every team member pulling in the same direction to create a space that would be in keeping with its luxurious surroundings – one of the biggest challenges of the project.
“Hospitality projects often come with a set of structural constraints that lighting designers have to navigate and negotiate, but we were lucky here to be working with a blank canvas. The boutique was a completely new area of the hotel, so this gave everyone working on the project the scope to think freely and creatively,” he said. “The flipside of this was that the pressure was on to replicate the essence of Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in a newly designed space.
“We took our cues from the building itself though; everyone involved with the project had a collective desire to pay homage to the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah and its long-standing architectural heritage. But within these parameters we were given the freedom to be creative with our lighting design concept.”
Looking back on the completed project, Saliem is satisfied that the Boutique at Inside Burj Al Arab not only complements the wider architecture of the building, but also brings a new experience to the already iconic landmark for Dubai. “This was a unique project because the building itself is the star of the show,” he said. “Burj Al Arab Jumeirah is the Goliath of hospitality design, so our lighting design needed to successfully reinforce the interior design, which needed to successfully complement the architecture.
“It’s reassuring that when you walk through the boutique, it feels like it’s always been there. The space works cohesively with the rest of the hotel, and lighting is integral to this transition.”
Sky Westfield, UK
Opened in December 2021, Sky Westfield is the first flagship store for the telecommunications company to showcase its new retail concept. With a lighting scheme from dpa lighting consultants, the store fuses traditional retail lighting with a warmer residential feel.
In retail lighting projects, the focus for designers is always to create a balance between highlighting the product and creating a welcoming environment for shoppers.
For its new retail store concept, Sky has taken that welcoming environment one step further, introducing a much more residential feel in order to effectively showcase its home entertainment systems.
The first flagship store to utilise this new concept, at Sky Westfield White City in London, was completed in December 2021, with the telecommunications company recruiting dpa lighting consultants to develop the lighting scheme.
Gary Campbell, Partner at dpa lighting consultants, explained to arc the brief for the new lighting, and how this shaped the final concept. “The client gave us quite a clear but simple brief, in that the new concept had to be flexible, with particular focus on the product displays, a lower ambience and more ‘residential’ feel.
“Since a big part of the product offer is home television/entertainment-based, it was important to try and achieve a slightly softer, more residential feel than normal retail. A CCT of 3000K and high CRI was considered very important, after testing a warmer CCT of 2700K that was deemed too warm for the overall design. The focus of the customer was to be at eye level, onto the product and not upwards to the ceiling, so there is an emphasis on integrated furniture lighting for visual interest and product highlighting. The concept then evolved a little to include feature pendant clusters over the key VM position.”
From there, dpa lighting consultants developed a lighting concept that saw a simple, flexible track and spot solution suspended within the open ceiling, using different beam angles as appropriate with anti-glare and beam shaping devices. This provides a varied light pattern with focused highlighting of the product displays and a comfortable, warm, ambient effect. At lower levels, linear halo lighting to display panels, backlit graphic panels or concealed lights underneath centre floor units provide further visual accent and interest.
The main space within the store also features two “hero pieces” in the form of semi-custom pendant features; based on a standard Orb pendant from Stoane Lighting, these have been adapted to operate with RGBW light sources. As standard they are set at warm white with a periodic sequence, with additional colour sequences for special events or times of the year also programmed. Seven specific Sky brand colours are included within the programming.
These feature elements, though striking in their final appearance, proved to be one of the larger challenges to actualise within the project, as Campbell explained: “The main challenge was in the sourcing and development of the RGBW feature pendants, and specifically how these would be installed structurally as two clusters together with their remote power supplies, drivers and controllers.
“This was quite an unusual one for the contractor, but we had great support from the suppliers, Stoane Lighting, and then Artistic Licence, which provided technical assistance, supplied the drivers and control system, and commissioned and programmed the pendants with the client and ourselves. It became a slight challenge from a construction programme perspective, but there was a great team effort to make it happen.”
These “hero” pendants merge with the more traditional architectural lighting elements to help create a warmer, more residential ambience within the store, and Campbell explained how this balance was achieved. “The buzz word these days is of course ‘customer experience’. The interior design had a more residential feel than would normally be expected, but it was still important to make a bold statement with the feature lighting to launch the retail brand, and with this being the first flagship.
“The overall lighting scheme relies on the layering between different lighting elements to create an interesting three-dimensional effect. The additional integrated lighting to furniture, steps, handrails, and columns very much accentuates that 3D lighting scheme.”
The store also features several Experience Booths – private rooms that were designed to simulate a home environment to showcase Sky’s home cinema systems. These booths were developed with dimmable, automated lighting, as Campbell explained: “The rooms were specially designed to promote the new Sky Glass TV system, and to show the customer the functionality of the system on a personal level. The lighting for these rooms was part of the room AV system, such that a pre-programmed dimmed sequence is triggered once the TV handset is activated.”
As the first location to utilise Sky’s new retail concept, Campbell explained that, while for some brands there may be a pre-existing ‘house style’ to adhere to, this was a completely new concept, meaning that dpa lighting consultants, and interior designers The One Off, were given the freedom to create something totally new.
“Prior to this project, there had never been a standalone Sky retail store, so this was very new for both client and design team. A new retail concept was developed from scratch, but with a strong brief from the client of their vision, which was then brought to life with lead designers The One Off.”
The collaborative nature of the project is something that Campbell believes was integral to its success, with the Westfield store setting the benchmark for future Sky stores going forward. He concluded: “The lighting design is closely intertwined with the interior design concept, and it was good to see that the final effect matched very closely with the original CGIs. The final effect looks fresh and vibrant, with many interesting feature elements accentuated by the lighting.
“This store is in a mall situation, and definitely draws the eye in comparison to its neighbours. It really looks like a step up in visual quality. What I think works well is the combination of lighting elements at eye level and in and around the product displays; it really feels like a three-dimensional scheme.
“It sounds like a cliché, but every project that turns out very well has to have a great team behind it, and this was definitely the case here. From the client to the retail designer, project manager, the different sub-consultants and contractors, everyone pulled together in a proactive, can-do way.”
Prof. Dr. Thomas Römhild
After more than 20 years as head of Hochschule Wismar’s Architectural Lighting Master’s Programme, Professor Thomas Römhild is retiring this summer. Here, arc speaks with Römhild about the formation, growth and success of the course.
Since 2001, the German city of Wismar has become synonymous with lighting design, thanks to the world-renowned Architectural Lighting Master’s programme at Hochschule Wismar University of Applied Sciences: Technology, Business and Design.
Established by Professor Dr. Thomas Römhild, the course was the first Master’s degree on the subject of architecture and light in Germany, and has, since its formation, become one of the leading qualifications within the lighting design community, serving as a marker of quality for its more than 600 alumni.
Following the course’s 20th anniversary last year, Prof. Dr. Römhild is retiring from his role as course leader this summer and as such, arc sat down with him to discuss the formation, and continued success of the course over the years.
Prior to establishing the Architectural Lighting course, Römhild was a professor in the Department of Architecture at Hochschule Wismar, and with the growing recognition of lighting design as an independent profession, he spotted an opportunity for an educational programme on the subject.
He recalled: “In the previous years, independent designers in Europe began to organise and describe the job profile of lighting design, and it was clear that this also included an opportunity for education in lighting design. We understood that only a university level Master’s programme would fulfil the importance and complexity of the subject.
“Wismar is far away from the centre of the lighting industry in Germany, but the university still offered ideal conditions for the creation of such a course; there was a newly founded architecture course and an education for interior architects and product designers based on the traditions of the old design school in Heiligendamm. There were also departments for mechanical and electrical engineering, which also reoriented themselves – all courses that can make relevant contributions to a new range of courses for lighting designers.
“I recognised this potential and brought the necessary players together. With external advice from Prof. Jan Ejhed and Prof. Dr. Heinrich Kramer, considered one of the founding fathers of lighting design in Germany, a study programme was developed that is essentially unchanged to this day.”
The study programme in Wismar was the first Master’s degree in light application that was founded in an architecture department, a move that Römhild feels “manifested a new perspective on lighting”.
He continued: “The reference to architecture, and thus the view of the people who use the space, expands the understanding of spatial design with light in relation to social and cultural aspects.
“This holistic approach is certainly one reason why this course has established itself as pioneering and has proven to be very enduring and successful. Another advantage of the course being taught in English is that it attracts students from across the globe, which has created an international network of graduates.”
Alongside the interdisciplinary approach, the fundamentals of the course are rooted in the methods of architecture training, namely through project-oriented teaching. Over the course of the Architectural Lighting programme, students are given several lighting design tasks that cover all facets of a real project. Necessary specialist knowledge is then developed through various tasks, with students learning how to develop, apply and deepen their knowledge. “It is important that the methodological skills for the lighting specific design process are trained,” said Römhild. “In addition, the various forms of influencing lighting are dealt with in a variety of practical exercises – “Light in the Box” and “Light Material” to name just two examples offered by colleagues Prof. Blieske and Prof. Rohde, are seminars that deal with the interaction of light, space, and material. In these practical exercises, students examine the design possibilities with light to experience the influence on visual ambience, the intuitive behaviour, and the function.
“The workshops in which the students design and implement atmospheric light installations for or at events are of particular importance. In this way they come into direct contact with their audience, receive feedback and learn to critically evaluate their creative skills. For the same reason, we try to choose the project tasks in such a way that real stakeholders evaluate the students’ results.”
Within these practical, architecture-inspired elements, the lighting design programme is based on the fact that projects with different thematic focuses are processed into three modules, with the basic knowledge and problem awareness conveyed to students through their work on various assignments – it is a formula that Römhild believes has been “tried and tested” over the years.
“Building on the basics that are taught in the compulsory subjects of lighting design and daylight, as well as lighting science and, in the second semester, light and technology as well as light and sustainability, this method-oriented training enables students to acquire the current knowledge required for the respective projects and to apply it,” he added. “In addition, the Light and Economics module, and an excursion to the lighting manufacturers, are compulsory.
“What is special about the course are the numerous compulsory electives, which enable the students to set their own priorities. For example, one of the electives I offer is called “Light and Symbols”, which deals with the different aspects of light in the context of culture, history, and art in relation to natural phenomena. Another elective offers an opportunity to deepen the knowledge base in technical and conceptual terms for development of new interactive, dynamic indoor and outdoor lighting scenarios.”
With such a tried and tested programme in place, Römhild explained that while the course has grown in prominence over the years, its fundamental, interdisciplinary offering has remained relatively consistent.
“At the beginning, we set up the course across faculties together with colleagues from mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. Within the faculty, colleagues from architecture, product design and interior design were also involved. Over time this collaboration has diminished, mainly due to downsizing and organisational changes, but the interdisciplinary approach has still remained.
“Organisational changes and the involvement of individuals from much broader or more specific backgrounds have added unique value to the content and the character of teaching. However, this does not mean a fundamental change, but rather the advancement of content. The diversity of projects also means that no two semesters are the same, and that new tasks are constantly being introduced into the course.”
That being said, the technological advances within the lighting industry have meant that certain elements of the programme have adapted over the years, as Römhild elaborated: “Our teaching method comprises of a situation-related, dynamic conceptual approach towards design projects. But initially the approach was mainly related to static architectural and mono-functional aspects. Over the years, a more dynamic view on the tasks is possible and dynamic solutions made feasible, at the same time employed to more user-centred lighting. This is accompanied by research projects and teaching subject areas of controls and daylight as a natural model for constantly changing dynamic lighting.
“At the moment, three full-time professors teach and research on the course: Prof. Michael Rohde, with a focus on Light-Space Communication; Prof. Jan Blieske on an endowed professorship, with a focus on Light Applications in Architecture, half of which is also used for research; and myself, focusing on Design, Building, Climate and Lighting Planning.”
One of the driving forces behind the adaptation of the course, Römhild explained, was the introduction of a part-time “blended learning” course in lighting design 10 years ago. The course, offered by Römhild together with his colleague Prof. Dr. Marcus Hackel is a combination of face-to-face and online classes and fuses topics surrounding architectural lighting design and design management to span the spectrum from architectural lighting through planning practice to the professional management of lighting projects.
“In development of the study programme, with contributions by Prof. Dr. Harald Hofmann, I also invited many well-known colleagues to be part of the programme, such as Roger Narboni, Paul Traynor, Nathan Thompson, and colleagues from KMUTT in Bangkok – Prof. Dr. Chanyaporn Bstieler and Prof. Dr. Acharawan Chutarat,” Römhild continued.
“This introduced new content, which in turn influenced the on-campus course as well.”
Through it all though, Römhild said that there is an overarching philosophy within the Architectural Lighting programme at Wismar, that he has sought to instil within his students over the past 20 years. “Lighting design means shaping light, or shaping space with light,” he said.
“Lighting design can be described as a creative process that aims to achieve functional, atmospheric, and emotionally touching lighting in a specific physical environment, according to the situation defined by the task, the expected behaviour, and the social position of the user, taking into account the demands of human physiology and psychology, as well as the environment.
“The aim of the training is to sensitise the students to the complexity of the task. I like to say that the students have to learn to see light, they have to recognise the importance of light as a mediator between people and space.
“The interaction of people, light and space with the corresponding interfaces to lighting technology is the core of the education. Lighting designers trained at Hochschule Wismar not only have the ability to creatively design lighting, but also have knowledge of the relevant areas of architecture and interior design, as well as electrical, photometric, and building climate control.”
With this in mind, the teachers offer various tasks to integrate into the various modules, with practical exercises – where students develop a concept for an existing architectural structure and experiment with in-house luminaires – a very important part of the course.
The faculty also includes a light laboratory, led by Bipin Rao, which offers a large experimental space for students. The space contains an artificial sky and an artificial sun, as well as movable ceilings and variable walls.
“Bipin brings his expertise to the hands-on workshops and gives classes that help students with simulation programmes and lighting control,” Römhild added.
While the course has adapted with the times over the past 20 years, modifying certain modules and focuses in line with technological advances and attitudes towards architectural lighting, Römhild explained how the faculty has, alongside other higher education facilities around the world, kept abreast of industry developments to ensure that its offering is always up-to-date.
“Through various research projects in the field of daylight, lighting of public spaces, light and health or light in the preservation of monuments, we have worked with researchers from other universities to deepen relevant topics.
“We have strengthened the resulting network through symposia such as the regular Light Symposium in cooperation with Aalborg University Copenhagen and KTH in Stockholm, the Dynamic Light conference and Licht Campus 2019, which was organised in cooperation with several universities, and a new row of conferences named “Light and Heritage”. All colleagues involved in both courses are practicing architectural lighting designers also.”
After more than 20 years as the head of the Architectural Lighting Master’s programme, Römhild is set to retire this summer, and while he has largely withdrawn from the organisational work in the lead up to this, he said that he still works with students “with undiminished intensity”, particularly now that students are back on campus in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite his impending retirement though, he is showing no signs of slowing down: “Together with my colleague Prof. Dr. Marcus Hackel, I hope to be able to continue managing and teaching in the blended learning programme for a few more years,” he said.
“I was also elected Chairman of the LiTG, Germany’s lighting society. The now 110-year-old association of people who are professionally involved with lighting is an incredibly exciting association in which various aspects of light are dealt with, be it in research and the communication of research results, further education, as well as in the practical application of how lighting knowledge is offered by the members of this community.”
As he begins to look to the future, Römhild doesn’t know for sure what will come next within the lighting industry, however with the extensive experience he has gained since starting his doctorate on the symbolism of artificial lighting 40 years ago, he can offer some predictions: “My work at the university and in the LiTG gives me a good insight into future developments, but I don’t have a crystal ball,” he said. “As with everywhere else, the discussions are currently very much in the direction of sustainability. But what does sustainability mean for lighting and the lighting industry? For industry, the further development of production methods seems to be moving in the direction of product flexibility with resource-saving use of materials. For the user, the focus is on the possibility of individual use of light with low energy consumption and undesirable side effects such as light pollution.
“We held a conference last year to celebrate 20 years of Lighting Design at Wismar, and one of the results of lectures and discussions at the event was the demand for sufficiency of lighting – i.e., only providing the light that is needed. In the research project ‘Dynamic Lighting of Public Spaces’, we examined how the design process would have to look in order to really be able to offer lighting that meets people’s needs. It has become clear that static lighting systems will become more and more questionable in the future and that a lighting system must enable a variety of scenarios. That brings us back to the requirements for industry. In addition to the versatile lights, control systems and interfaces must also be offered that enable customised lighting situations.
“For the lighting design, especially for a dynamic solution, similar to software design, it applies that an individual, interdisciplinary task is a prerequisite for successful planning. The holistic planning approach makes it possible to develop lighting that is understood as a prerequisite for a differentiated, atmospherically dense, multifunctional, resource and environmentally friendly urban space in the morning, evening and night, and not as a necessary addition to be planned purely in terms of lighting technology.”
With this in mind, Römhild shared the key piece of advice that he has given to students over the years: “One of the results of the 20 Years Lighting Design conference was the demand to get by with less light in public spaces. When it comes to lighting, sufficiency can be summed up in simple words: We use as little light as possible, but we also need as much light as necessary. Only a precise analysis of the task can lead to the determination of the required quality, quality in the holistic, sustainable sense. This can then result in an individually optimised solution that meets the requirements of the user.
“It takes time and commitment don’t let yourself be put under pressure, do your job properly!”
With more than 600 graduates from Hochschule Wismar’s Architectural Lighting programme over the last 20 years, it’s safe to say that, on the eve of his retirement, Professor Dr. Thomas Römhild has been doing his job properly for some time.
Sanjit Bahra
As conversations surrounding diversity continue to grow across the lighting design industry, Sanjit Bahra, Founder and Director of DesignPlusLight opens up on the lack of representation he has felt throughout his career.
Over the past 12 months, the topic of representation and diversity has been ever-present within the lighting industry. From our own interviews, to panel discussions, to wider conversations, there is a continuous examination of privilege, and how we can make this community more diverse, more equitable and more accessible.
These conversations have been warmly welcomed by Sanjit Bahra, Founder and Director of DesignPlusLight, who, as a gay man of colour, has felt that since he first entered lighting in the mid 90s, there needs to be greater representation within the industry.
“When I started in lighting, there was hardly any male persons of colour in the industry”, he told arc. “I’d walk into award ceremonies and be confronted by a sea of white faces. It’s something I have become used to in life. However, It’s exhausting feeling like I have to jump through hoops, overly compensate or adjust myself to suit the narrative before me. It might be a feeling or a perception, but it’s a perception that has been nurtured over the years.”
Growing up, Bahra recalled going to school in England the early 80s “where in a school of 350 there were only two brown faces and no black kids. From an early age I was constantly reminded that I was different.
“Every person of colour knows that they have to work twice as hard to get the same opportunities, generally, in the west,” he added. “When you have that awareness, it’s like you have to turn up the dial, you never quite relax. The continual experience of ‘otherness’ creates a layer of hyper vigilance, performance and adaptation. A survival mode that can follow throughout life.
“That’s why representation and the conversations around privilege are so important – it makes you feel like you are being seen. When you see yourself being reflected back when you enter a room, switch on the TV or open a magazine you are being told that there is a place for you in this world, in this industry, in the space that you inhabit – unedited, unfiltered, just as you are.”
These conversations have inspired Bahra to step forward and put himself out there, to give emerging designers the figurehead that he never had. “I never saw anyone like me when I entered the lighting design industry, but I’m no longer the young kid on the block. I’m approaching 50, I have my own successful lighting business. I need to be the one standing up and saying ‘here I am’ to people who look like me and say ‘you can do it too’.
“I know that within my culture, for Asian men, the career stream is often the well-trodden doctor/lawyer/finance route, or architect/engineer if it’s within the design field. Lighting is such an obscure niche and I feel that if the younger me could have said ‘hey I want to be a lighting designer’ and pointed to another ‘me’ that had made a success of it, my path would have been easier. As an Indian man who runs my own lighting design business in London, I would like to say to my culture and to the wider world that there is a place for you here, this is a viable avenue.”
As for his own entry into lighting design, like many in this field, Bahra says he “just fell into it and it all makes sense retrospectively”. “The charm of the industry is that everybody comes from different angles and backgrounds, so you get a very mixed team. Diversity is already inherent within the industry and that does make for a wider and more accepting perspective,” he said.
Bahra’s background was originally in medicine, as he trained to be a doctor, before leaving in his fourth year of studies. He explained: “I got through school on an art scholarship, but because I was also good at sciences, I went to the sort of schools and come from the kind of background where academia is promoted over art. So medicine seemed like the obvious choice. I was in an environment that believed that art was ‘more of a hobby’ if you could do something else. When I decided to leave medicine, I thought ‘if I’m going to do it, I better leave properly and go in completely the opposite direction’. So, I left to do something artistic, with more of a dream than a plan.
“But rather than requalifying and starting from scratch, I did a Master’s in Ergonomics at UCL – whilst I was studying medicine, I got a BSc in Psychology there. So I felt this was a way that I could bridge the gap into something a little more creative without having to do a foundation in art as it was building on my current degree.
“During my Master’s there was a module in lighting that was taught by Kevin Mansfield from the Bartlett School of Architecture. That was the only thing that really excited me and I went on to complete a thesis with the Bartlett. That’s how I found out about lighting.”
After completing his Master’s, Bahra recalls sending his CV out far and wide to lighting design and architecture practices. “I probably could have wallpapered my bedroom with the amount of rejection letters that came through,” he said.
“The whole reason for me leaving medicine at the age that I did and not finishing was because I was young enough and stupid enough to do it. The longer that you leave things in life, the harder it gets to make a change. I knew that I was gung-ho enough to do it. I think the sheer hutzpah of it all meant that people would even entertain me.
“And so, right place right time, Lighting Design International had an opening. I went to them, spoke to Sally Storey and said, ‘I am a blank slate, I’ll learn and work hard’. She took me on, and I started from ground zero.
“It was interesting because I hardly knew anything about the world of architecture and interiors. I was sitting in meetings not knowing what a pilaster was, but I would nod and make notes and then do the research. I bought a book on architectural terminology, because there was no Google in the 90s, and found out about corbels and lintels and credenzas. I kept my mouth shut, my ears open and I grafted hard. Timing is everything and this was a good time and place to learn.”
From this entry point, Bahra spent 12 years with Lighting Design International, rising to the position of Associate Designer, before making the decision in 2008 to leave and establish his own studio, DesignPlusLight.
“I set up my business because I wanted to be involved in the majority of my projects, and having the company be the size that it is means that I can do this and pick and choose the type of work we want to do,” he explained. “One of the first jobs that I did was Les Ambassadeurs casino, which was a phenomenal job to start out with. Starting a business just before a huge financial crisis was not the easiest thing to do. However, there have been so many ‘unprecedented circumstances’ in the past 14 years that I am so well versed in thinking ‘ok so what’s coming next?’”
Since establishing DesignPlusLight in 2008, Bahra’s aim for the studio has been to “bring tasteful, discrete, beautifully-designed lighting to all projects”, but he explained that his wider mantra has been “just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should”.
“I think the quiet space is very important,” he continued. “Once you know how to be a lighting designer, you can put lights anywhere and everywhere, and certainly that’s possible with the technology that we have now. For us, it isn’t about ‘can we light a space?’ – we can. What separates us is the quiet space, the bits that we don’t light.
“Being a good lighting designer, you have to take your ego out of it, because it’s not about you, it’s about the client; the same space would be lit differently depending on who the client or the interior designer is. It’s about what is right for the client and that process is like divining for water. It’s an art, a kind of dark magic art where you feel your way through the process. That’s what keeps us excited.”
Throughout DesignPlusLight’s portfolio of projects, the firm has worked on an extensive range of hospitality and high-end residential projects. While Bahra doesn’t have a favourite project, there are areas that he particularly enjoys working on. “I love spas, I always have, because you can’t get away with anything in spas,” he said. “In a restaurant or a hotel, you have a lot of ambient noise, be it visually or acoustic. If things don’t go quite as planned there are always last minute tricks that you can use to overcome or disguise the problem. Whereas in spas, there’s very little interior design softness that you can bring into a space. There’s a hardscape of interiors, and the senses are so magnified that you’ve got to get the journey right, the acoustics right and the lighting right. If something isn’t on-point then you notice it immediately. That’s where the magic of lighting design really shines through.
“I love gardens as well, because what you get during the day and what you get at night are two different experiences. And that takes careful consideration – too little lighting and a garden can feel disjointed and sparse at night. A tad too much and you slip into ‘gauche’, which is so often done. I find on high-end residential projects, working with the budgets and high calibre interior designers, that kind of design is unparalleled - you really get to stretch your wings and create the sublime. We aim take that experience and deliver it across the rest of our range of work.”
While parallels could be drawn between Bahra’s interest in spas and wellness, and his educational background in medicine, he is unsure whether this more scientific-based entryway into lighting has shaped his approach. “I don’t know because you don’t know anything other than yourself,” he said. “I always wondered how it would all make sense in the end, and what’s interesting is the wellness aspect of lighting. The science and physics of it all is becoming more prevalent, and there isn’t an aspect of it that I don’t fully understand. When we talk about the melanopsin receptors in the eye, I know the anatomy of the eye inside out, I know how rods and cones work, I know about the neocortex and the trigeminal nerve, because I had to learn all of that. For me, it’s just another string to my bow, and I feel very privileged to have had that knowledge – the anatomy, the biochemistry, the physics – and then to have had a career in the more creative aspect. It creates a unique and well-rounded perspective.”
Despite entering the world of lighting from a medical background, rather than from a formal design education, Bahra feels that the best way to effectively learn about lighting design is through hands-on experience. “You can’t just study lighting,” he said. “I mean, you can (and I did) but a lot of people come into lighting thinking they know it all because they have a degree in it. It really helps to know the theory of lighting, but you can only learn lighting and interior design by grafting. You need to put the time in. I feel very lucky that I’ve had that time. The reason I left my previous profession at the age I did, was because I knew I needed time to learn and graft and get the notches on the bedpost.
“You cannot shortcut it. It takes a while to really understand, eat, feel, breathe and master a skill. Be it lighting or interior design or anything else. I think they call it the 10,000 hours rule.”
Now that Bahra has more than 25 years’ experience within lighting design and is beginning to consider himself an “elder” amongst the community, he is hoping that he can use his position as a prominent business owner to boost the profile of people of colour within the industry – a decision that came to him after speaking with Nishi Shah, Creative Director at Lighting Design International and former colleague.
“I spoke with Nishi after she spoke at the Women in Lighting Global Gathering. She said it’s not the kind of thing that she would normally do, but she realised that she had to represent,” Bahra recalled. “She said to me ‘there are quite a lot of women of colour and Asian women in the industry, but not many of you’. I realised that she’s right – I then asked myself why.
“I think there is a cultural perception that women can enter into more ‘fun’ jobs and that perhaps design is not perceived to be that ‘masculine or serious’ a job unless you’re an architect. Putting all generalisations and presumptions aside, all I really want to say is that there are other avenues. By putting my best foot forward, it educates people about this.
“It’s not necessarily about colour, it’s about representing the industry as a whole, showing all the different feathers in the industry, like Nishi has done, and like Sally Storey did – she was one of the first women in lighting, and I am sure it was tough for her. In the mid 90s the only two people of colour in the industry at the time were myself and Nishi – a woman and a gay man. We just have to keep putting ourselves forward, showing up and saying that there is space for everyone.
“Being a lighting designer means you traverse and mingle the full gamut of the built environment, from getting mucky on site with contractors, being technical and all ‘physics-y’ with electricians, to being all high level inspirational with designers and clients. It takes a great deal of skill and confidence to see a project through and across all of those elements – each of them bringing their own set of challenges. That’s why representation matters – it helps to navigate all of that without feeling ‘othered’ – that you are accepted and respected. That applies to a whole range of categories: colour, sexuality, gender. That’s why no one person can claim the whole narrative - it takes many to fully represent.
“Some of the reasons why I kept my head below the parapet were those reasons of not being represented, and it can be exhausting and isolating. Unless we talk about these things, you sometimes think that you’re on your own but there is a commonality, and you can ask for help. I come from a generation and a time where you did things on your own, but you don’t need to anymore. In a post-pandemic world, you can ask for help and lean on people a bit more. There’s a community and support there if you ask.”
However, Bahra added that he has always felt a level of support from his peers. “The lighting design industry has always been a bit more aware of difference and we’re a very accepting bunch. I think that’s because we fit in between every other discipline. I’ve never felt that as a gay man I couldn’t be myself within the profession. There is an awareness and an acceptance, we just need to talk about it more.
“A really wonderful and heart-warming recent moment was when we led the talk about diversity and representation at [d]arc sessions in Mykonos last year. A cis, straight, white, 50-year-old man entered the conversation and said some really amazing and impactful things in that forum. I really loved that, and I love that we’re in a world where issues like toxic masculinity and stress and diversity can be discussed. We’re lucky that the profession supports this. We just have to keep at it, keep raising the profile for all the different minorities within the industry.”
Going forward, Bahra is hoping that he can continue to add to the dialogue, and maybe serve as the mentor that he wishes he had. “I always ask myself ‘what value am I bringing?’ I don’t want to be another person chatting for the sake of it. What can I do to help the industry with my experience, to make it better and easier for other people? Even if it’s being an ambassador to teach the wider design industry about lighting. If the availability of lighting to the wider industry is raised, then we all win.
“The future is collaboration,” he concluded. “I think it would be wonderful if teams of designers come together rather than grow apart. Collaboration rather than big overarching companies doing everything, is how you keep the design fresh and how you keep your narrative current. The future can be exciting. There is so much beauty, elegance and serenity that humans are capable of creating and it’s such a privilege to be a part of that.”
Edward Bartholomew
As part of an ongoing mission to examine how lighting can address societal inequities, Edward Bartholomew has, alongside friend Mark Loeffler, formed online platform Light Justice. Bartholomew sits down with arc to tell us more about Light Justice and its goals.
What is Light Justice?
Light Justice is the practice of planning, designing, implementing, and investing in lighting for historically neglected communities through a process of stakeholder respect and engagement; it is a movement, a forum, a resource, and a platform to change the practice of lighting design to address lighting inequity.
How and why was it formed?
During the social justice uprising that occurred after the brutal murder of George Floyd by the police, I started to look again at the practice of lighting, and how it tends to only serve the wealthy and well-funded, but neglects poor, under-resourced communities, especially in the Black and Brown communities that I grew up in. During walks with my wife during the pandemic, we discussed how lighting could address social justice issues. At this time, my good friend Mark Loeffler began to mentor me as I was restarting my firm. Our conversations evolved into a common interest to look at lighting through the lens of environmental justice, especially in outdoor lighting. This developed into a well-researched talk called Light + Justice that explored the historical use of light as a weapon of oppression, including current policies deployed in New York City called “Omnipresence”, which places temporary diesel-powered floodlights in public housing developments to deter crime but end up making the spaces feel like crime scenes. Omnipresence is an egregious example of the “weaponisation of light” on poor, mostly Black and Brown communities that is happening today. We presented Light + Justice locally and at LightFair in the Fall of 2021. In addition, we have authored articles, and I have partnered with my friend Glenn Shrum to present an expanded version of the talk to the lighting community throughout the country. But this is not just an American issue; it shows up in Britain and throughout the world where poor and marginalised people are subjugated to substandard lighting due to negligent and unjust design.
What are your core goals?
Our core goals are to show light’s social and environmental justice impact. And how lighting has been weaponised in poor, under-resourced communities. Also, to show that engaging these communities in the design process as “citizen designers” can enable good lighting design and beneficial darkness that lifts up communities.
What are you doing to reach these goals?
I am sharing the principles of Light Justice at conferences and with design professionals, and I practice these principles in the projects I pursue and by using the ideals of “design justice” as I work with marginal, under-resourced communities. I am incredibly excited about projects where I get to collaborate with these communities and learn about the impact of lighting on their neighbourhood.
Light Justice talks about the “increasing imbalance” in public realm lighting. How and why do you think it exists?
In my research, I have found several factors that drive this imbalance, but most of them are based on systemic racism. This impacts why these communities are located near unhealthy industrial zones, and why they are deprived of the resources to improve their environment. Finally, the use of over lighting to reduce crime based on erroneous studies has only exacerbated these conditions.
How do you hope to redress this imbalance?
First, identify vulnerable communities where lighting has been poorly planned and has caused environmental injustice. Second, engage these communities to acquire the resources and educate them regarding lighting quality to support the lighting redesign of their communities. Lastly, to be a resource for these communities to navigate the city and utilities to remedy the lighting in these neighbourhoods. Light Justice is a resource for all designers to have an impact on neglected communities, to enable us to use our talents and gifts to have a positive impact on neglected communities with light.
What sort of response have you had so far?
So far, it has been positive. We are gaining supporters through LightJustice.org and developing tool kits and best practices so that designers working can use lighting to transform their communities. Currently, my firm is working with a local community to create a neighbourhood lighting design plan that we hope will be an example of what cooperative lighting design can achieve.
Where do you hope to take it going forward?
We want to extend the frame of environmental justice to interior spaces and even address the discrepancy in access to daylight and views for marginal under-resourced communities. We all know that light has power, but we should share this power equally, to help everyone experience the benefits of good lighting and beneficial darkness.
Paolo Creati: Lighting Design as a strategy for inclusion
As a teacher of students with special educational needs, Paolo Creati has recently conducted research into lighting for students with visual impairments. He explains more about the research project here.
The number of people with low vision is constantly increasing, as shown by the World Health Organisation (WHO): there are 36 million blind people in the world and 217 million moderately or severely visually impaired people, out of a population of 7.3 billion people. It is also estimated that 253 million people live with 21 sight problems. The epidemiological data refers to a study published in The Lancet, according to which the number of blind and visually impaired is constantly increasing. A correct lighting organisation can play a crucial role for subjects with visual sensory disabilities. Specifically, the concept of light comfort has been defined in the United Kingdom; the ESFA (the Education and Skills Funding Agency) says that is important to guarantee flexible and multifunctional lighting arrangements in school environments that allow people with visual difficulties to enjoy the learning spaces. Following these premises, the design of a classroom that encompasses the objective of improving the lives of learners through a flexible spatial organisation and which focuses on the use of light can also be a fundamental element. From these considerations, I’ve begun to research the predisposition of light as a possible strategy for the creation of flexible and personalised school spaces.
The power of light
As a teacher of students with special educational needs, I deal with many different disabilities and for this research, I concentrated my interest in visual sensory disability. The mission is to guarantee the inclusiveness of people with disabilities, so I had the idea to realise the principle of inclusion, in particular for visually impaired students, by exploiting the resource of light. A recent study testifies that, in humans, exposure to natural light is responsible not only for the circadian rhythms but also for the regulation of the attentional, learning, and psycho-emotional sphere, having beneficial effects that contribute to the success of one’s self-realisation. Why not consider the application of lighting design inside a classroom?
As we know, exposure to natural light and our position on it is also closely related to our way of acting. A non visually-impaired individual certainly has the possibility of improving their cognitive and psychic functions through the instrument of light, both natural and artificial.
Inspired by the lighting design industry, introduced to me by Martina Frattura from Whitepure studio in Lisbon, I had the chance to know how much power light could have and how it could be versatile and adaptable in different fields. My project proposal was also inspired by the museum of the Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo, Italy, which through the new illuminations, offers the opportunity to improve the visual experience of the masterpieces of art and facilitates the orientation of visually impaired people, in this way it is possible to observe the realisation of the concept of cultural accessibility. Schools are places where we should guarantee the possibility for all students to be part of the learning process and to have accessibility to culture, so a well-designed classroom that allows enjoying the wellness of light can help to achieve these goals.
Interview with lighting designers
My research started from the point that the organisation of a school space where light is exploited can have an inclusive value for all students, in particular for those with visual sensory disabilities. I conducted the study using a qualitative approach that involved a survey submitted to a sample group of lighting designers coming from the United Kingdom, Kuwait, and the United States. Combining the collected data and the theoretical framework about the potential role of the light, it has been possible to elaborate an arrangement of an inclusive space for learners.
The result is the creation of a classroom in which a lot of elements required attention, for example, the floor must be a colour that is a strong contrast with the walls to guarantee a better orientation, the size and arrangements of the windows are of fundamental importance because, during the hours of the day, natural light is the first, and often only light source in the classroom. In the presence of cases of visually impaired students, visual discomfort could be increased by glare disturbance, which could happen in the case of bad management of natural light. The use of filters that refract and diffuse light rays is a solution within everyone’s reach, which does not alter the quality of natural light in an inclusive class. Near the walls, we have the ceiling and the floor, with similar and different functions. The ceiling, as well as the vertical surfaces, has the characteristic of being able to help in the general perception of space. Any room will be considered more or less high based on the colour of the ceiling and the walls: a lighter ceiling will give the appearance of a greater height; a darker ceiling will create a cave effect. For sighted people, this effect does not cause particular visual disturbances, while in the presence of high contrast, a visually impaired student, considering the importance of this visual signal, could suffer an overload of information and in the worst case could lose attention. The ceiling should therefore remain a neutral colour and/or conform to the walls.
Once that “box” has been checked, we move on to the internal components: compared to the standards, the desk of the visually impaired student, depending on the type of visual sensory disability, may have to accommodate more tools, which leads to the need for a broader plan. But the larger surface area also translates into a higher possibility of reflection of light rays, coming from both the window and the lighting fixtures, which could lead to a malaise. Having a tilting desk is a simple solution to this problem and is compatible with the various possible positions of the desks inside the room. Of great importance is also the blackboard. In the case of digital whiteboards, it is a real self-illuminating screen. Despite the great advantage of the possibility of intensity adjustment, if necessary, it is advisable to apply an anti-reflective filter. The glossy or semi-glossy surface of the screen could become a means of uncontrolled reflection of the incident rays. The same precautions must be taken when the student uses a computer. In the case of a classic blackboard, the mechanical devices of positioning and inclination, as for the desks, are useful, but the choice of the other type is still preferred.
The use of the space depends also on the correct design of artificial lighting, during the darkest hours, but also in the morning to improve vision in case of low levels of dim light. The level of lighting required by students can vary both between sighted and non-visually impaired students, but also depending on the type of visual impairment of the student. Some students may be extremely sensitive to light, in cases of malformation of the retina or lens, or the opposite, in cases of an absence of visual acuity. To determine the best lighting, the student and the teacher must experience the different lighting conditions, and this, today, is possible thanks to LED lighting, it can afford a variation in intensity, flow, and colour of the light. In terms of visual comfort, it is allowed to vary the intensity and colour temperature of the source during the day.
Conclusion
The research aims to formulate a design in which different connected elements contribute to the building of an educational environment that takes into account the didactic and individual needs of students, in particular those with visual sensory disabilities. For years architecture and pedagogy have been dialoguing with each other, undergoing a mutual influence, and this has led to increasingly current reflections on the active role that the student plays during the learning process. It is known that, for a proper learning process, the teacher must not base their activity on the simple transmission of knowledge, the student learns through interaction, individual discovery, and experimentation, and the space has the task of satisfying these needs and improving the teaching experience. Visual comfort is one of the elements that most affect the type of indoor environment and the wellbeing of the user. Therefore, for there to be an improvement in the vision of the space, it is necessary to take into account a design that involves correct lighting design of the environment.
Through the involvement of professionals in the lighting design sector, we tried to understand how the organisation of space, modulated by natural and artificial lighting can improve user performance. The design proposal of the classroom represents the attempt to put into practice the principles of Design for All, characterised by flexibility and thinking in a preventative way concerning possible obstacles. Light plays a central role in any space; an essential element for human wellbeing, which can not only be a function of empowerment but also of inclusion. The design of a classroom where a correct lighting installation is applied receives the beneficial effects of light at the highest levels and also considers people in conditions of visual sensory disabilities through careful preparation of their personal space. This is possible by using solutions moulded on the visually impaired or blind individual, who will be able to achieve visual comfort and enjoy, like their peers, the positive effects produced by a correct predisposition to light.
The space designed to enhance the light-resource guarantees a positive action at a psychophysical level that will allow the pursuit of learning objectives and at the same time can contribute to developing their relational skills, especially because human relations are regulated by the way with which we relate our body with the environment.
Designers Mind: Wellbeing becoming work's partner - part two
Continuing the conversation about the relationship between work and wellbeing, Kaye Preston is this time joined by Designers Mind contributor Kael Gillam to talk about the importance of rest.
In the last issue I discussed the importance of considering wellbeing as work’s partner and how prioritising our health can lead to improved performance, creativity, productivity, better focus and ability to make decisions. This month I want to follow up with a “Part Two” on the subject, focusing specifically on the importance of rest. I’ve also asked Kael Gillam, Principal Lighting Designer at Hoare Lea and Designers Mind contributor to join me in exploring the topic further.
Before we dive in, I felt that this quote from Alex Pang, author and former tech consultant – “Rest is not work’s opposite, rest is work’s partner” – was worth revisiting, as it plants a seed for changing our mindsets. It sparked the idea for these two columns while highlighting the importance of taking breaks throughout the day.
So, what does rest truly mean for our working day?
Taking rest is as essential an act as working because one cannot exist without the other. When we choose to rest, it means that we’ve identified a need to change focus from the world outside us to the world within. Resting is, in a way, about setting boundaries with yourself; it’s knowing how long you can be active and productive without wearing away your mental and physical energies, and acting on that self-awareness.
Knowing your limits will be a process that’s very personal, but there are some more universal signs of fatigue that might accompany them. This can take the form of either physical – experiencing eye strain, headaches, or musculoskeletal pain – or mental signals – lack of creativity, feelings of isolation, and inability to make decisions.
Viewing rest as a positive action can be challenging in the face of deadlines or personal hardship. It’s easy to feel that rest is ‘cheating’ or that it’s not ‘deserved’ until a goal is met. But if we ignore our body’s signals to rest, then the feelings of overwhelm, tension, and fatigue begin to mount until they are unmanageable and begin to edge towards burnout. And to be clear, rest does not mean ‘sleep’, though we would certainly encourage regular and quality sleep as a boon to both mental and physical health.
Rest can mean writing in a journal, going for a coffee, visiting friends, or taking a holiday. Taking time away from your computer does not mean you’re not still working, it simply means you’ve displaced yourself from your work station. Good ideas and problem solving need not happen in front of a screen; they can happen on a walk through a garden or a trip to the store. We can also plan rest into our day much the same way that we plan meetings or appointments. Blocking out time in our day for ourselves is a reminder that there is no compartmentalising ‘work’ you and ‘life’ you: wellbeing doesn’t get put on hold when you’re in working hours.
Our process as creatives is just as fluid and changing as the energy we bring with us, and we should be open and honest about how much and what kind of rest we need on a daily basis. Some days we feel more focused and ready to work on strenuous tasks, some days we are only able to give fleeting moments of attention. Learning your rhythms and signals will allow you to know your boundaries and act on your intuition when you need a break.
And, if you work in an office, you might just be a positive influence on others when you make these choices. If your rest looks like finding the company of others, you can take walks or get coffee with colleagues. If rest looks like finding time on your own, you can look for a quiet spot around your workplace to sit and collect your thoughts. No matter what form your rest takes, it should encourage and invigorate you to continue through your day.
What does the research say?
Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab conducted a study (Mar 2021) investigating the impact of taking breaks on our stress levels. The study focused specifically on taking breaks between meetings and the effect having back to back meetings can have on our levels of stress, fatigue, focus and engagement.
“Our research shows breaks are important, not just to make us less exhausted by the end of the day, but to actually improve our ability to focus and engage while in those meetings,” says Michael Bohan, senior director of Microsoft’s Human Factors Engineering group.
The research was clear, rest between meetings allowed the brain to reset, increased the ability to focus and decreased levels of stress overall. Now what if we applied this research to all tasks and changed our mindsets about the importance of taking breaks throughout the day? It may feel counterproductive to take time away from our desks and work but the research shows the opposite to be true.
Here are five strategies to build more rest into your day:
1. Take advantage of natural pauses between tasks. Instead of diving immediately into the next thing, take a few moments for yourself to reset.
2. Plan wellbeing time into your day. Things that aren’t planned often don’t get done. Treat your wellbeing practices like you would a meeting and schedule in the time.
3. Set reminders on your phone. Use tech to your advantage to help create new habits around taking breaks and building moments of rest into your day.
4. Be intentional about meetings. Consider what you want to achieve and also the length of time actually required.
5. Choose activities that calm the mind. Meditation, breathing exercises or a walk outside in nature can all help reduce stress levels.
Let’s change our mindsets around rest and start seeing it as a productive part of our day. A partner of our work, an ally to our creativity and focus, a supporter of our physical and mental health, and key to our overall wellbeing.
GreenLight Alliance: Our Time on Earth
Benz Roos, Senior Lighting Designer at Speirs Major explains how the lighting of the Our Time on Earth exhibition at the Barbican echoes its message of creative responses to climate change.
We felt extremely fortunate to be asked to design the lighting for the exhibition Our Time on Earth, conceived and curated by Barbican International Enterprises (London) and co-produced by Musée de la civilisation (Québec City). The exhibition is themed around positive, creative responses to climate change and pressures on the earth’s fragile ecosystem.
To quote guest co-curators Caroline Till and Kate Franklin: “The conversation about the climate crisis until this point has focused on depicting the scale of the problem – an approach that, while valuable, often evokes a sense of shame, helplessness and even paralysis. But we know that many brilliant artists, designers, and technologists are creating ways to help combat the climate emergency. We wanted Our Time on Earth to carve out space to imagine a constructive way forward.”
In the spirit of the exhibition’s message, the design team’s brief was to design as sustainable an exhibition as possible to house the art pieces. The architects, Universal Design Studio, created a palate of natural and/or recycled materials such as Honext, corrugated hemp fibre sheets and hemp fabric for the exhibition design; and we challenged ourselves to design the most sustainable lighting scheme that we could.
The exhibition hosts 18 distinct artworks, each requiring its own unique atmosphere, with most of the artworks containing projections or screen-based content. The digital nature of the works contrasts noticeably with the natural material palette of the exhibition design. We aimed to softly highlight the innovative sustainable materials of the exhibition framework without distracting from the art installations.
Many video installations also include sculptures made from organic materials such as wood and recycled fabrics. Dramatic and focused light illuminates the sculptures in balance with the luminance levels of the screens and projections. For example, Liam Young’s Planet City film is accompanied by mannequins displaying the costumes by Hollywood designer Ane Crabtree. Traditional high-level spotlights illuminate the costumes, and in addition, linear diffuse glowing luminaires behind the sculptures interpret the film’s cinematography. This backlighting methodology also renders the beautiful textures of the fabric.
Inspired by the artworks and the exhibition’s theme, we prioritised the consequences of our design decisions in parallel with designing for people’s experience of the exhibition. Early design discussions with the Barbican and the architects included ideas ranging from shades made from plant seeds to cable ties made from recycled rubber. The concept eventually settled on a few simple principles.
1. Utilise as much existing equipment as possible.
2. Design with minimal equipment in mind.
3. Specify products suitable for the circular economy.
4. Make sure the visitor experience is excellent.
Circular economics and minimal (embodied) carbon were crucial principles from the start of our design process. The life span of exhibitions is usually shorter than lighting for buildings, and Our Time on Earth has a proposed life span of five years. The exhibition will travel once the show ends at the Barbican in August, so its temporary nature puts the question of ‘what happens to the products after their use’ into sharp focus. The relatively new CIBSE guidelines TM66 and TM65 helped us direct the specification towards circularity, and low embodied carbon.
We inherited a selection of older fixtures – Soraa Arc 100 track-mounted spotlights – from the previous BIE exhibition at the Barbican. The embodied carbon and circularity credentials are unknown for these luminaires; however, dedicated exhibition luminaires are very flexible by nature, so the lowest embodied carbon starting point was to re-use what was already available on site. The Soraa fixtures feature a snap-on system that is an easy and highly effective way of changing the beams to create the right ambience for each artwork. It made us realise that some traditional track light fixtures already contain circular principles in terms of in-built flexibility and ongoing use for different types of shows.
The exhibition required new luminaires in addition to the existing track lights. Having assessed the market, we found that the Stoane Lighting ZTA spotlight range was the natural choice for the equipment, particularly as Stoane Lighting is spearheading the circular economy in the UK. Its KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) with Edinburgh Napier University and the Government’s Innovate UK allowed a complete project assessment of the circularity and carbon footprint of the design to be made. PhD chemist Dr Irene Mazzei assessed the overall design data, and her fascinating evaluation showed us the full carbon consequences of our specification and design decisions for the first time. Her study concludes that the total embodied carbon for the new luminaires in the exhibition is 2,262kg CO2e. To put this in context, 38 seedlings would need to grow into trees for at least 10 years to offset this emission to become carbon neutral. The TM65 study breaks down the material composition of the fixtures, telling us that raw materials, largely aluminium, make up at least 50% of the overall embodied carbon. At this point, the ZTA is a useful product because it is circular by design. The luminaires can be easily adapted and refurbished into new products with different light technical specifications or even mounting methodologies. The Barbican could utilise the product for new shows or light other spaces at the end of the exhibition.
The study also showed that electronics such as drivers significantly contribute to the overall embodied carbon of the lighting installation. Drivers are responsible for approximately 472kg CO2e (20%) of the 2,262kg CO2e. For future projects, we should keep this in mind; if, as is the case with this exhibition, we can design systems that share drivers, it might be possible to make further reductions in embodied carbon.
Dr Mazzei’s tables and diagrams have been an eye-opener in approaching lighting design. Until now our studio has always put the experience and the visual effect of the light as the primary focus at the concept stage, with the choice of the equipment that will deliver this not considered until later in the creative process. This relatively small project has allowed us to begin to adjust our approach, as designing with circular and low embodied carbon principles requires a slightly different attitude. To quote activist Clover Hogan: “Solving climate change is not your responsibility because it’s outside your control. What you are responsible for is the thing inside your control, indeed the only thing that has ever been inside your control: your mindset.”
Thinking towards the future, we can see that addressing climate change requires a new mindset for lighting design. We ought to dream much more extensively beyond beautiful lighting experiences. Some design ideas, like the shades made from seeds, which can be planted and grow after their use, make a captivating story. However, on working through the concept and discussing the embodied carbon, it becomes apparent that these ideas are little more than ‘green’ gimmicks. One of the artists, Biofabricate, presents a near future in which the fashion industry utilises bio-fabricated materials made by living cells. Using bio-fabricated materials is not a gimmick because it is not only about designing a fashion piece but also takes the entire system of production into account. As lighting designers, we have a responsibility to think more holistically about our approach.
Regenerative design expert Sarah Ichioka has a good analogy for thinking about systems and consequences. For example, she urges shampoo manufacturers to create melanges that are good for our hair and rivers – where shampoo might end up. Similarly, lighting designers ought to consider the consequences of their specifications. Specifiers should ask questions like; what happens with the equipment after its use? How is the luminaire manufactured? Which materials are involved? It is immensely encouraging that CIBSE TM65 and TM66 provide some in-depth direction.
However, we should aspire to challenge ourselves further and interpret engineering guidelines creatively. Nairobi-based design studio Build X and Mycotile exhibit the material mycelium. Mycelium is part of the fungi kingdom and is the network of threads, called hyphae, from which mushrooms grow. Ikea is planning to replace all its use of polystyrene with this bio-material, and various decorative luminaires utilise mycelium already. It is easy to imagine components of technical fixtures could also utilise this material. The Soraa Arc is predominantly made from plastic, with a cast aluminium heatsink. But what if mycelium replaced the plastic components to reduce embodied carbon? After their use, when luminaires are dissembled for recycling or re-use, some elements would be able to biodegrade and become part of the ecosystem again. These components could become food for the 38 tree seedlings, allowing them to flourish and offset the embodied carbon for the lighting equipment of this exhibition.
One of the key aims of the curators is to send a positive message to visitors. They want to present a positive future with solutions to climate emergencies. As designers, we have a lot to catch up on. Still, this exhibition has helped us take steps towards a lighting design process with holistic sustainability considerations built in from the beginning.
Our Time on Earth is currently open until the end of August at the Barbican in London. We would like to thank the Barbican for the opportunity and Dr Irene Mazzei and Stoane Lighting for their support and insightful study.
This series is curated by Roger Sexton of Stoane Lighting, roger@mikestoanelighting.com
LUCI Association launches LUCI Cities & Lighting Awards
(France) - To mark the 20th anniversary of the LUCI Association, it has announced the new LUCI Cities & Lighting Awards.
Designed for cities and local authorities, the awards have been created to recognise urban lighting projects that reflect the multi-disciplinary nature of urban lighting and show a positive impact on economic, social and cultural development.
The ambition of the new awards programme is to celebrate cities that have driven lighting projects that aim to improve sustainability and quality of life. Entries can be submitted by cities and other organisations, in agreement with or on behalf of a city, and will mainly be judged on project design, implementation and evaluation.
The LUCI Cities & Lighting Awards ceremony will be organised during the LUCI AGM Busan (South Korea) on 19-22 October 2022. Applications from around the world are encouraged; entries can be submitted via email to awards@luciassociation.org by 9 September 2022.
More information is available on the LUCI Association website.
