LIA issues response to UK Government’s proposed lighting regulations
(UK) – The UK Government this week issued a press release outlining the impact of upcoming new lighting regulations that, it claims, would see the sale of halogen light sources banned from September, with fluorescent lights to follow.
The ban is part of a move to boost energy savings, and it is estimated that it will cut 1.26 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year, the release stated.
Under EU-wide rules, the UK began phasing out the sale of higher-energy halogen lamps in 2018, and it is thought that the plan will help continue the shift towards lower-energy LED sources, which currently account for around two-thirds of lights now sold. Officials said that it is expected that LEDs will account for 85% of all sources sold in the UK by 2030.
However, the news has been met with confusion among suppliers and consumers alike, with the Lighting Industry Association (LIA) claiming that the official release contains “a number of errors”.
In an attempt to clarify the situation, the LIA released the following statement:
“The UK legislation, due for publication in the summer, mirrors that also applying in the EU and relates to the “placing on the market” of products, this allows products in stock at manufacturers, retailers, etc. to continue to be sold until stocks are exhausted. It is not an instant sales ban. There is a legal definition of “placing on the market” which may mean that certain goods in suppliers’ warehouses are already considered as such.
“The proposed UK legislation, which applies from 1 September, is expected to have a one-month transition allowance.
The following lamps cannot be placed on the market after 1st October 2021:
- Self-ballasted Compact Fluorescent retrofit lamps (caps B22, E27 etc)
- Linear Halogen R7s lamps over 2,700 lumens
- 12V Halogen reflectors lamps (MR11/GU4, MR16/GU5.3 etc)
- Lower performing LED lamps
The following lamps cannot be placed on the market after 1st September 2023:
- Linear fluorescent lamps T8 2 foot, 4 foot, 5 foot
- Mains voltage Halogen capsules with G9 cap
- 12V Halogen capsules with G4/GY6.35 cap
“Lighting fixtures/fittings (luminaires) with non-replaceable/fixed lamps are not banned but this type of design is being discouraged in the future with a technical justification being required for these designs.”
The LIA has highlighted the following errors within the Government’s official release, which it believes is leading to the confusion:
Halogen light bulbs to be banned from this September – with fluorescent light bulbs to follow suit
“This suggests that all halogen lamps are banned from this September – this is not the case, some will continue until 2023. Those lamps that are banned from 1 September may still be available for sale if they were first placed on the market before that date,” the LIA state.
Legislation being brought forward this month will also include the removal of fluorescent lights from shelves from September 2023.
“This is also not the case, only some lengths of T8 fluorescent lamps will be banned from September 2023, other types of fluorescent lamps will still be available.”
The new legislation would mean retailers will no longer be able to sell the majority of halogen bulbs for general household use in the UK from 1 September.
The LIA responded: “This is incorrect, retailers will be able to sell through existing stocks and any products placed on the market before 1 September may also be sold. Some types will continue to be allowed after 1 September (as above).”
The plans also include a ban from September on the sale of lighting fixtures with fixed bulbs that can’t be replaced – meaning the fixtures have to be thrown away.
“This is misleading – new measures have been introduced which encourage the design of light fittings which can be repaired, or the light source and control gear replaced. There is not a blanket ban on lighting products where these components cannot be replaced if the manufacturer provides a technical justification for this case such as safety, water ingress or other reason.”
The LIA has communicated these errors to the Government department responsible for the press release.
LED Linear: The Ultima Family
The Ultima family focuses on efficient design that uses as little material as possible. LED Linear addressed the core issue designers and architects face when selecting a luminaire: smaller products mean less light, while robust products compromise on resources and design but are more efficient. The company's drive was to combine the best of both worlds and develop the smallest and most efficient luminaire for the market.
With a high degree of variability and minimalist compactness, the Ultima family allows new design freedom in architectural lighting. By using innovative nano-optics, the luminaire size could be reduced to a cross-section of 10x13mm while improving lighting effects. From spotlight to batwing, a total of seven precise light distributions with maximum colour consistency are available. The glare control (up to UGR < 13) means that the light source remains hidden.
ULTIMA-S (Stand-alone)
Ideal for integration on grid ceilings or as surface mounting, but also for furniture integration, showcase or display lighting.
ULTIMA-T (Track)
The luminaire system is ideal for offices, galleries, museums and generally for rooms where different types of lighting are required within specific areas. The pendant track variant will complement the ULTIMA-T series in autumn.
ULTIMA-P (Pendant)
ULTIMA-P is ideal above counters in entrance areas, hotel receptions, bars, but also above work desks as well as tables in meeting rooms.
Studiotech enter creative partnership with Venture Arts
(UK) – Specialist architectural lighting company Studiotech has entered into a creative partnership with Manchester-based arts charity Venture Arts.
The award-winning charity, who supports people with learning disabilities to reach their full potential through visual arts and culture, will work with Studiotech on a series of projects, together finding new and dynamic ways to bring artwork to life and present illuminated work in unusual public settings.
The partnership begins with the installation of a giant cube light sculpture for Manchester Flower Show – a city-wide trail of floral displays, green installations, outdoor dining and entertainment, which began on 29 May.
Venture Arts consulted on the aesthetics and design of the sculpture, created by Studiotech, alongside partners Sutton Creative, which incorporates snippets of writing cast in thought-provoking shadows on the floor.
Positioned in a prime location in central Manchester, the installation features an additional cube with fully programmed pixel boards that can be controlled by members of the public. This allows for bystanders to change the colour of the artwork via hashtags on social media.
Venture Arts Director Amanda Sutton said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Studiotech and to be working together on the first of a series of highly visible and dynamic projects, which will enable our artists to marry their artistic vision with technology and to see a unique project brought to life in the centre of Manchester as a vibrant and innovative piece of public art for all to enjoy.”
Natalie Critchard, Studiotech Marketing Manager, added: “When we discovered that Manchester was hosting a flower show to ‘bring the city back’, reunite communities and build confidence, we knew that it would be the perfect platform to present our new partnerships with Venture Arts and Sutton Creative. For Studiotech, the sculpture represents collaboration, hope, diversity and awareness. We are delighted to have this opportunity to showcase our work and the incredible art from Venture Arts to our local community.”
Studiotech Creative Lead Karen Owens continued: “When we first met with the Venture Arts family, there was an immediate connection. We knew that together we could create magic and evoke wonder in others. Through the mediums of art and light we will be bold and raise awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion. Together we will make our world a brighter place.”
www.studiotech.co.uk
www.venturearts.org
Lucent Lighting: TubeLED High Output
The newest addition to Lucent's TubeLED range is the TubeLED Mini HO (High Output).
Designed to deliver maximum performance whilst maintaining the Mini's small form and flexibility, the fixture is ideal for retail and gallery applications with its high performance and architectural aesthetic form.
For track mounting either on mains or line voltage or 48v low voltage tracks incorporating integral drivers, it is available in surface, recessed and trimless monopoint options with integral driver.
Women in Lighting Awards to be held on 10 June
(Online) – The winners of the first ever Women in Lighting Awards will be announced in an online presentation on 10 Jun 2021 at 1pm BST.
Inspired by the Maya Angelou poem, “Still I Rise”, the awards were created to seek out and celebrate the achievements of women and those who support them, especially in light of the challenges that we have had to endure over the past 18 months.
“The WiL Awards are like no other. They are specifically to highlight the achievements of the WiL community and its supporters. We want to seek out and celebrate the things that you achieved in 2020. They may be large or small, but we still want to know and share them with the world,” said Women in Lighting of the Awards.
Participants were invited to nominate people under the categories of Achievement, Initiatives and Supporters. The winners of each category will be revealed in the online presentation.
The winners will be announced on a live video on YouTube here.
Women in Lighting: Florence Lam
After being awarded the 2020 SLL President's Medal, we take a look back at Florence Lam's interview with Women in Lighting, where she explains how she rose to the position of Global Lighting Design Leader at Arup, and breaks down her approach to lighting design.
Video courtesy of Light Collective.
www.womeninlighting.com
www.arup.com
Nichia: Luxury Store Lighting 101
In this webinar, presented by Nichia, a panel of experts discussed the key aspects for lighting for store locations representing sophisticated retail brands. The speakers describe lighting designs based on brand alignment, the fixtures that work best, and the most effective LED solutions that you can deliver.
The expert panel included:
- Nicolas Martin, Sustainable Store Planning Manager, LVMH
- Claudio Scaroni, Corporate Client Manager, FLI and Folio
- Paulo Giovane, Senior Lighting Designer, Metis LIghting
- Alessandro Afeltra, Lighting Division Manager, Nichia
The webinar also featured a live Q&A session, moderated by arc's Matt Waring.
Designers Mind and Women in Lighting to host wellbeing webinar
(Online) – Designers Mind and Women in Lighting have come together to host a conversation about the work culture in the design industry, and the impact this has on our wellbeing.
The session, hosted by Designers Mind’s Kaye Preston and Kael Gillam, alongside Martina Frattura, Women in Lighting R.A.W Blogger, is titled ‘Can our Work Culture Co-Exist with our Wellbeing’, and will discuss the challenges that are faced in the design world, and the changes that can be made. Areas such as openness, setting boundaries, managing expectations and priorities will all be on the agenda.
Intended to have a relaxed, informal feel, the session will be a ‘Clubhouse Style’ talk, where the speakers will open the conversation, and then ask the audience to join in.
The session will take place on Tuesday 22 June at 2.00pm BST. Registration for the event is free, and participants can sign up here.
www.designers-mind.com
www.womeninlighting.com
Florence Lam awarded SLL President’s Medal
(UK) – Global Lighting Design Leader of Arup, Florence Lam, has been awarded the 2020 Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) President’s Medal, becoming the first woman to win the award in its 10-year history.
The award, the highest accolade presented by the lighting professional body, recognises significant and lifetime contribution to lighting. Lam, an internationally renowned, award-winning designer, is recognised as an expert in daylight, visual perception and holistic lighting, with more than 15 national and international awards to her name.
Lam co-founded Arup’s lighting practice in 2000. Under her leadership, the lighting team grew from four members based in London, to a global practice of 130 designers across 12 countries. The practice offers a broad spectrum of creative design and technical capabilities. In 2015, Florence was appointed an Arup Fellow by the Trustees Board in recognition of her talent, design, technical excellence and vision – not just at Arup – but across the global industry.
Over her 30 years of working in in the industry, Lam has been responsible for delivering a range of lighting projects from the London Olympic Games in 2012 and the Acropolis Museum project. The Latter of which won her an Award of Excellence, as well as Award of Sustainability at the 2010 IALD Awards. In 2013, Lam became the first woman to win the coveted ‘Lighting Designer of the Year’ at the Lighting Design Awards.
Outside of project work, Lam led a ‘Lighting in the Urban Age’ campaign to address the ‘over-illumination’ issue cities of today are facing. As part of the campaign to raise awareness about lighting’s role in promoting sustainable development, an exhibition was designed that allowed visitors to understand the issues with urban lighting and how these could be overcome, as well as a report which emphasised the need for a more context-sensitive design approach and holistic integration of lighting into urban areas. The campaign was recognised in 2016 by the Management Consulting Association (MCA) as highly commended for the ‘Best Use of Thought Leadership’.
Speaking of the achievement, Lam said: “It is an honour to be awarded with the Society of Light and Lighting’s President’s Award. It is particularly exciting to be the first woman to receive this award and I am humbled by the recognition of my work with Arup over the last 30 years. This acknowledgement is a testament to Arup’s lighting practice, and I hope it inspires the next generation of designers to spotlight the important role of lighting in the built environment.
“My commitment to broadening the influence of the industry from human to humanity-centric and driving innovation to light our way, towards a more sustainable and regenerative future remains as strong as ever.”
[d]arc room to exhibit at Design London
(UK) – UK-based lighting exhibition [d]arc room set to join Design London with a pop-up event this September.
Recognising London’s profound influence over Architecture and Design specification, [d]arc room pop-up @ Design London (previously 100% Design) is a new and enhanced event experience underpinned by the wealth of knowledge of both [d]arc media and Media 10, organisers of Design London.
In previous editions of 100% Design, the lighting contingent was sporadically positioned throughout the exhibition.
This year will see [d]arc room pop-up as an established lighting area within Design London giving lighting specifiers a destination within a destination.
In addition, [d]arc awards installations will be displayed at Design London for the duration of the event with a [d]arc night party on 23 September.
Featuring a highly curated selection of brands, [d]arc room pop-up @ Design London provides a unique in-person platform to meet with leading lighting designers, architects, interior designers, developers and retailers at what will be the must-attend event during London Design Festival and the first in-person lighting exhibition of the year in the UK.
Jonathan Speirs Scholarship Fund 2020/21 winners announced
(UK) – The Trustees of the Jonathan Speirs Scholarship Fund (JSSF) have announced the winners of the 2020/21 award – Laura Carcano and Lawrence Lynch.
Currently studying architecture at London Metropolitan University, Carcano has a First degree from Politecnico of Milano, following which she spent a year working as an architectural assistant. Having understood the power of light to affect aesthetics and atmosphere, during the course of her research she found herself increasingly curious about the importance of the biological and emotional impacts of light on mood, performance, productivity and many other aspects of daily life. Her future plans, to be supported by the scholarship, include further studies and research into the role of light in creating responsive and adaptive architecture that improves emotional and physical wellbeing.
A student of the Welsh School of Architecture at the University of Cardiff, Lynch’s undergraduate degree work shows his passion for the poetics of light and form. Having spent some time working for DaeWha Kang Design – a firm that specialises in wellbeing and human-oriented design and collaborates with professional lighting designers – he has cultivated a deep interest in the psychological effects of light. Returning to his architectural studies, Lynch’s Master’s dissertation explored how biophilic aesthetics affect emotional wellbeing. It is this research that he would like to continue into the future, with the support of the scholarship, with the aim of aiding the general understanding of the emotional effects of lighting within architecture.
John Roake, Chairman of the JSSF, said: “When we announced the Jonathan Speirs Scholarship last year, little did we know what lay ahead.
“We suspected it was going to be an extremely difficult time for students to study, particularly in the creative industries, but we hoped that with online conferencing that some manner of tutoring would be available. Despite the very best efforts of the Universities, all of this year’s submissions spoke of the extreme difficulties experienced both with remote studying and finances.
“It is therefore with the greatest pleasure that despite this, the resilience and fortitude of the students who made this year’s submissions has resulted in two fantastic new scholars to add to our growing list.
“We congratulate them both on becoming part of the JSSF family, and trust that their scholarships will help them to finish their studies and go on to develop further as both architects and lighting designers.
“I conclude with a ‘thank you’ to all our supporters: in a year that has been so hard in all sectors of business, to have the financial backing of our generous sponsors has shown us the true meaning of charity. Jonathan would have been proud!”
Results for final Light4health Erasmus School announced
(International) – The third and final International Erasmus School of the Light4health (L4H) project was held within the framework of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership grant programme. The event ended with the aim of testing a novel educational course to teach health research methods and findings to lighting designers at the graduate level.
The event was organised and run by representatives of leading international universities and European architectural schools in the field of lighting design, including Aalborg University (Denmark), Hochschule Wismar (Germany), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), Thomas Jefferson University (USA), ITMO University (Russia), and the University of Wolverhampton (UK).
In 2021, classes were held in a remote format, as they were in 2020 as a consequence of the Coronavirus pandemic. Classes were hosted online by Aalborg University under the theme “Lighting for Healthcare Environments” - a particularly relevant topic in the context of the pandemic.
Two associated partners supported the L4H project with tools and expertise; Solemma (www.solemma.com) provided a free year-long ALFA license and ClimateStudio for all students and teachers, to be used throughout the project. The new Associated Partner Janowicz Architekci (http://janowicz.pl/wp/) has supported the L4H Project providing four three-dimensional models and CAD drawings for the following rooms to be studied: a patient room, a waiting room/waiting area, a nurses station, physiotherapy room.
The learning process lasted six and a half weeks from 19 March 2021 (with a welcome/kick-off) to 5 May 2021 (with a final presentation). The course was divided into five specific training modules. Each week was devoted to a specific topic that included a theoretical part, based on pre-recorded lectures, and practical tasks, concluding with a final presentation. The work was conducted in interdisciplinary, international groups (24 participants in total). Within its framework, participants comprehensively evaluated the lighting of four assigned spaces. This involved the analysis of natural and artificial light, and the study of the effect of lighting on the daily and night-time rhythms of users (patients and medical staff).
During the first introductory module, students learned about best lighting practices. Focus was given to the new health related lighting standards and the guidelines developed by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) with the presentation of different studies covering various cases. In the second module, which was dedicated to the topic of daylight, participants were taught about vision, daylight standards and its assessment.
During the third module, students explored dynamic and interactive lighting in healthcare facilities. In particular, aspects such as the use of virtual reality (VR) in distraction therapy, lighting and autism, VR and autism, lighting control and interfaces were touched upon. Using the knowledge gained from this module, students were able to incorporate dynamic lighting elements into their final projects.
The fourth module focused on biofeedback and measurement devices. Students learned about handheld spectrometers, flicker meters, EEG, and eye tracking. The fifth and last module was devoted to work for a final lighting project. With the help of modelling tools and software (Dialux, ALFA, ClimateStudio, Velux Daylight Visualizer, etc.), each group developed its own concept for a new architecture-integrated lighting design aimed at supporting the health and wellbeing of the users. They developed conceptual recommendations for improving the existing daylight and artificial lighting conditions. The fifth module culminated with a final presentation given by the students.
The L4H project will be completed by the end of August 2021, with a free of charge, open-access L4H remote course and a Teacher’s Guide. Before this occurs, the consortium partners will seek feedback and review of the course content from a selected group of lighting practitioners, academics and student participants of previous L4H Summer Schools.
For more information on the Light4Health project, contact Asst. Prof. Dr. Karolina Zielinska-Dabkowska, the L4H project’s principal investigator representing Hochschule Wismar (HSW), at k.zielinska-dabkowska@pg.edu.pl.
