Glamox switches to recycled aluminium
(Norway) – As part of its goals to reach Net Zero operations by 2030, Glamox has announced that it has started to switch from using virgin aluminium to recycled aluminium in the manufacture of its LED luminaires.
The company has already made the switch for one of its most popular luminaires, and is preparing to extend this to other families. The move will lower the carbon footprint of the company, and also of customers who purchase the energy-efficient luminaires for use in professional buildings.
Recycled aluminium is created by re-melting scrap metal. The process is less expensive and energy-intensive than creating new aluminium, which is made by the electrolysis of aluminium oxide, which must first be mined from bauxite ore and then fired.
Birger Holo, Technical Director, Professional Business Solutions, Glamox, said: “We’ve already implemented the plan to shift over to recycled aluminium in the manufacture of a popular luminaire, which will result in a 63% reduction in the emissions of CO2 equivalents over using new aluminium in these profiles.
“By adding two new product lines, we estimate that we will eliminate a total of 1,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents each year, which equals the amount of carbon sequestered by nearly 1,200 acres of forest a year.”
The company is also looking to eliminate plastic in its packaging, replacing bubble wrap and Styrofoam with materials that are easier to recycle. It also recently launched an Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) generator. Based on international standards, this tool documents the environmental footprint of products taking into account their lifestyle.
“We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are committed to helping our customers to reduce their carbon footprint and for us to achieve Net Zero operations by 2030,” said Viktor Söderberg, Business Development Director, who heads up Glamox’s sustainability programme. “It’s not enough providing energy-efficient LED lighting, we must ensure that every facet of our operations and supply chain minimises our environmental impact.”
Light Symposium comes to Stockholm
(Sweden) – Light Symposium – a yearly collaboration between four universities and their partners across Europe – will this year be held in Sweden during Nobel Week from 4-6 December.
The 9th edition of the event will have the title Architecture Lighting Environments: Space With(Out) Light, and will be hosted by the Architectural Lighting Design Division of KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in collaboration with the Perception Studio at Konstfack, the University of Arts, Crafts, and Design.
KTH is one of the four partner universities, alongside Hochschule Wismar, Germany; AAU Copenhagen, Denmark; and USN Kongsberg, Norway. The event coordination and location alternates among the four partners, which each being involved in steering and advising each year’s event and programme.
The conference programme will be structured around a published call for papers (talks and poster presentations), with proposals to be submitted online. Suggested topics include daylight and electric light in architecture, art, and urban design, including interpretations on: Variability and Rhythmicity; Designing for Darkness; Sensory and Spatial Perceptions; Light and Health for all Species.
Daylight and electric light are an integral part of our built environment, and the sustainable design of lighting in this context, its presence, absence, and variability over time, requires trans- and interdisciplinary research and practice.
Although the presence of light is intimately linked to the life of humans, flora, and fauna, research and practice have not yet fully explored how light and dark (lightness and darkness) can shape the built environment in a sustainable and holistic way. Research and practice into the affects and effects of light combine lighting design with other fields. LS2023 will facilitate a spectral interchange in which individuals working in research, design, and industry will discuss the process of integrating the many shades of light into various scales of projects, large and small.
The three-day international conference will be organised as an in-person event to bring together lighting-related communities and discuss the latest insights from design, research, theory, technology, art, and applications.
Alongside these talks, related panel discussions, and posters, the programme will also include several keynote speakers, networking events, and walking tours of light-related installations throughout Stockholm, for example, as part of the Nobel Week Lights programme.
Following the three Light Symposium days, lighting-related talks and gatherings will continue in Stockholm 6-8 December in connection with the Light Week of the Swedish Energy Agency.
For more information about the event, and to submit to the call for papers, visit the Light Symposium website.
Silhouette Awards reveal winners for 2023
(Worldwide) - The international Silhouette Awards has announced the winners of its 2023 programme in a virtual celebration, which took place on 1 March.
The whole international lighting community was invited to join this momentous occasion, with many taking part in celebrating the winning Mentees and their Mentors.
For the second year running, the popularity of the awards was demonstrated by the vast number of entries received from candidates located in 26 countries across the globe.
The renowned judging panel have independently reviewed the entries, and all aligned with a final selection showcasing the very best of the industry’s rising talent.
The 2023 winners and mentor partnerships are as follows:
- Ines Bartl - Mentor: Amardeep M. Dugar
- Jessica Keates – Mentor: Arianna Ghezzi
- Anastasia Angeli – Mentor: Barbara Horton
- Jessica Smith – Mentor: Beata Denton
- Danai Lytra – Mentor: Claudia Paz
- Consuelo Emiliana Miranda Barroso – Mentor: Diana Galic
- Annabelle Hill – Mentor: Fay Greenhalgh
- Dane Amilawangi – Mentor: Florence Lam
- Swillow Lee – Mentor: Gary Thornton
- Walesca Zanonato – Mentor: Kristina Allison
- Chérine Talge – Mentor: Maida Hot
- Cristina Antonieta Martinez Bergonje – Mentor: Martin Klaasen
- Gemma Alcalá Jurado – Mentor: Michael Callanchini
- Swapnali Bhadale – Mentor: Nikita Agrawal
- Alperen Ekici – Mentor: Olga Tuzova
- Valeria Coghi Martinez – Mentor: Paul Traynor
- Massimiliano Moro – Mentor: Siddharth Mathur
- Olga Rybkina – Mentor: Volker von Kardorff
- Wenyi Kong – Mentor: Waleed Fakousa
- Farahbee Rahman – Mentor: Yah Li Toh
These 20 successful candidates will now be individually supported by one of the programme’s 20 mentors for the next six months and beyond as the young professionals progress in their careers. With the support of the Silhouette Awards’ sponsors and supporters, the winners have been rewarded with the opportunity to enhance their skillset, pursue their career ambitions and add real value to the creativity of the industry, raising the bar for talent around the world.
Eve Gaut, Silhouette Awards Co-Founder, Parrot PR & Marketing commented: “We are thrilled that, following the overwhelming success of the launch of the Silhouette Awards, we are returning for a second year of nurturing young talent. A huge congratulations to the winners on this much-deserved achievement. We are immensely grateful for the Supporters, Sponsors and Mentors who have supported the awards. We also want to say a huge thank you to the international lighting community for coming together to celebrate the winners with us at the virtual event. The winning mentees will receive much-deserved recognition and publicity for their achievements, and we are honoured to have created this ongoing supportive platform.”
Katia Kolovea, Silhouette Awards Co-Founder, Archifos, added: “We are so excited to see what’s in store for our Mentees during this second year of the awards programme. Reflecting on the great success of the partnerships between our Mentors and Mentees from last year, the expectations are high. Congratulations to our 2023 winners, this is an incredibly exciting day. We want to say a huge thank you to our Supporters, Sponsors, and Mentors, who have helped us to achieve for a second time this wonderful ambition to showcase the talent of the future.
“The Silhouette Awards are much more than an award, and we are proud to have created a programme that allows Mentors to nurture young talents, Sponsors to connect and support further those individuals, and for everyone involved to build deep and long-term business relationships and friendships. This is just the beginning.”
The Silhouette Awards was established to find the industry’s rising stars who have the vision and ambition to steer and lead the lighting industry in years to come. Much more than an award, the Silhouette Awards provide mentorship support to designers, celebrate the future talent of the lighting industry, and create a supportive platform for inspiration and growth.
To find out more about the Silhouette Awards and how you can get involved as an entrant, mentor or sponsor for the 2023-2024 awards programme, contact info@silhouetteawards.com
The next edition of the Silhouette Awards will open for entries in September 2023.
The recording of the celebration can be viewed here.
Fisher Marantz Stone opens Austin studio
(USA) – Fisher Marantz Stone has announced the opening of a new studio in Austin, Texas.
Alongside existing studios in New York and Seattle, the new Austin office will offer a strategic geographic presence that will allow the firm to better serve its clients both around the US and the world.
The Austin studio will be led by Senior Associate Katheryn Czub, with support from Principals Paula Martinez-Nobles and Michael Hemmenway.
Fisher Marantz Stone has completed many projects across Texas over the past four decades, with highlights including San Pedro Creek Culture Park in San Antonio; Austin-Bergstrom International Airport; One Allen Center in Houston; and the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion & Central Quadrangle at Rice University, Houston.
[d]arc sessions inspires Rako to highlight sustainability in new brochure
(UK) – Rako has launched an environmentally friendly new brochure for 2023; featuring insights, products, technical information and case studies, the brochure offers an overview of the Rako product range, including multiple user interfaces.
The application of Rako’s products and wired and wireless systems are also demonstrated through helpful illustrations and project examples.
Conscious that print material can be less desirable these days, Rako were keen to create a considered piece that was sustainably produced, while portraying the luxury and quality of the Rako brand. The finished brochure is printed on recycled paper stock and is a carbon neutral print product. It is also wrapped in a compostable sleeve, which can be disposed of with food waste or in a compost bin.
The decision came after Rako attended [d]arc sessions – an event in which sustainability was a core focal point.
Peter Broome, Director at Rako, comments: “[d]arc sessions really inspired us to shout a little more about what we are doing at Rako to improve our products and processes to be more sustainable. It was evident from our meetings with lighting designers and specifiers at [d]arc sessions that sustainability was incredibly important to them and their clients across the globe.
“Sourcing and recommending sustainably produced products that have longevity are a key criteria for these specifiers. Whilst we had been doing much to be greener for some time, we are grateful to [d]arc sessions for helping us realise this and subsequently communicate these pledges to our clients. Without participating at [d]arc sessions in Mykonos and Ras Al Khaimah, our awareness and understanding of just how much sustainability matters to this audience would not have been realised. We look forward to the next [d]arc sessions in Croatia with vigour and enthusiasm.”
Within the brochure, Rako has highlighted the ongoing initiatives it is doing to lessen its impact on the environment, which include removing polystyrene chips, bubble wrap, and plastic tape from its consignment packaging and replacing them with recycled paper alternatives. Currently, 79% of the company leased vehicles are either fully electric or hybrid, and the company offers employees a ride to work scheme to support employees who are within cycling distance.
By Spring 2023, solar panels will also be installed across Rako’s offices and manufacturing facility, increasing its use of green energy. All of the initiatives can be found within the brochure, available to view on the Rako website here.
Lutron - Athena Wireless Processor
Lutron has introduced the Athena wireless processor to its Athena lighting control system. The new processor is right sized for smaller spaces, and yet easily scalable for use in larger projects. With the Athena wireless processor, Athena systems do not require panels, and work with a wide range of both wireless and wired devices, saving electrical closet space and giving designers, architects, and engineers greater flexibility.
Design professionals have come to expect increased versatility from the building systems they use. As the latest enhancement to Lutron’s Athena lighting control system, the Athena wireless processor empowers designers and their clients with tools that support future-proof lighting systems, and insights that drive efficient business decisions.
The Athena system has been designed to bring a connected lighting solution for smarter spaces and more human centric experiences, and now the Athena wireless processor expands system capabilities to enhance the simplicity, value and flexibility of projects.
Ideal for both small, luxury boutique applications and large office projects, the Athena wireless processor makes Lutron Athena the most complete, versatile, Ketra-ready control system for your most innovative and sustainable projects. Each Athena wireless processor can easily marry third-party fixtures and Ketra in the same application, layering in any control strategy – occupancy, vacancy, and daylight sensors, as well as touchscreens, keypads, and Pico wireless remotes all in a single control package.
With the Athena wireless processor and its advanced software and app control, designers can exceed clients’ expectations while respecting their budgets and schedules. The single-device processor combines all the Athena cloud-connected benefits and features and does not require separate Lutron panels or hubs. System software, controls, shades, and drivers can now communicate wirelessly to the Athena system, increasing design flexibility, minimising required closet space, and delivering a cloud-connected solution.
The Athena wireless processor complements system enhancements introduced in late 2022 to make Athena systems even more capable.
Athena wireless node is an ultra-small, individual, wireless fixture control packed with technology to ensure you can easily and quickly adjust light settings by fixture, zone, or a combination of both. With this new option, the Athena system can be wired and/or wireless and controlled with granularity down to the individual fixture.
Athena dashboard is analytical software that visualises complex occupancy and energy data in intuitive reports and makes them easily accessible to inform business decisions and occupant-friendly lighting adjustments. Designed to be cloud-connected, the Athena dashboard offers automatic and continuous updates.
The upgraded, cloud-connected Athena system allows designers to do more with a single system and expands data-analytic capabilities. Ongoing Athena system enhancements support the need for connected solutions that deliver building management insights, simplify ongoing system adjustments, and continue to add value over time.
In an era when building technology can struggle to keep pace with innovation, connected Athena systems receive regular software updates, ensuring the system gains functionality and capability over time.
Chris Udall, Senior Product Manager at Lutron, said: “The beautiful thing about the new Athena wireless processor is its ability to serve a wide range of space types; it is equally at home in smaller, boutique applications and large, multi-story office buildings. Regardless of the application, all the software and analytical features are at your fingertips. The new processor delivers a cloud-connected Athena solution without taking up closet space or requiring new wiring.”
Howard Brandston, lighting design pioneer, dies aged 87
(USA) – Howard Brandston, founding member of the IALD and pioneer of the lighting design profession, has passed away at the age of 87.
Born in Canada, Brandston moved to the United States at the age of 9, growing up in New York. From an early age, Brandston had a passion for theatre and art that was encouraged by one of his early mentors – his art teacher at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, Leon Freund.
Speaking to arc in 2008, he said: “Leon had been involved in the government sponsored WPA projects of the Depression. He called us his ‘Art Squad’; in art studio, he would say to the class ‘You have a blank piece of paper in front of you: it represents an opportunity to create a work of art. Let’s see what you can do.’”
Brandston’s interest in the arts eventually led to him studying Theatrical Illumination at Brooklyn College. Following his studies, Brandston worked as an assistant to lighting luminary Stanley McCandless, whom he credited as being a major influence and inspiration on both his work and his design philosophy.
Following the overriding ethos of “Rules are a substitute for thinking, and I wasn’t going to stop thinking,” Brandston branched out from theatre lighting into architectural lighting design, initially alongside McCandless, before taking a job with architectural lighting designer Seymour Evans, whom Brandston described as “a character beyond belief”.
From here, Branston established his own lighting practice, Howard Brandston Lighting Design Inc – now known as Brandston Partnership Inc (BPI) – in 1965. Through this, one of Brandston’s first major projects was the Canada Pavilion at Montreal Expo in 1967; this in turn led to an opportunity to work on the American Pavilion at Expo 1970 in Osaka, Japan.
In the following 50 years, BPI has completed more than 5,000 projects around the world, and has expanded from its New York headquarters to offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Singapore and Seoul.
Notable projects from Brandston’s illustrious portfolio include the restoration of the Statue of Liberty; the Detroit City lighting masterplan; the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur (formerly the tallest building in the world); the American Museum of Natural History, New York; and the Marina Bay Financial Centre in Singapore.
Alongside his stellar work with BPI, Brandston was also passionate about teaching – he led a design studio at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and was actively involved in the Lighting Research Institute, The Lighting Research Center at RPI, and the Lighting Research and Education Fund. In 1981, he also founded the Annual Workshop for Teachers of Lighting, and endowed the annual Brandston Student Lighting Competition as part of the awards programmes of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA).
Brandston was also one of the founding members of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), establishing the association in 1969. Speaking to online lighting platform Lytei, he recalled its formation: “We were setting the standard; we were all looking for excellence; we all had the same goal, even if we didn’t have the same methods; we were all heading in the same direction, even if it was by a different path.”
Across his career, Brandston received many lighting awards, including the Lifetime Achievement award with the IESNA and IALD; Fellow status with the IALD; Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE); Honor Award for Contributions to Architecture from the American Institute of Architects (AIA); and he has been inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame.
Longtime business partner Robert Prouse, who retired from BPI in 2018, announced the news of Brandston’s passing on LinkedIn. He said: “It is my sad duty to tell you that Howard Brandston passed away peacefully this afternoon, after a few days in hospice care. For those that didn’t know him, he was a towering figure in architectural lighting design. He was a founding member of the IALD, Past President of the IESNA, and recipient of many awards.”
Speaking of Brandston's legacy, IALD President Mônica Luz Lobo, said: "Words can't express the contribution he made to our profession. To refer to Howard as an icon in the lighting design profession only begins to touch upon his impact and importance. He is warmly remembered and revered, and the IALD community worldwide owes him immense thanks for his talent, care, and contribution over a lifetime of fantastic achievement."
Considered by many to be one of the founding fathers of modern architectural lighting design, Brandston leaves behind a rich legacy, and will be long remembered for his invaluable contributions to the lighting design profession.
“Light is everything. Light is life. It is art, it is science, it is whatever you wish to make it.” – Howard Brandston, 1935 - 2023
Watch a six-part interview series with Brandston, filmed by Lytei in 2020, here.
David Morgan Review: LumiAdd
As more companies look to become more carbon neutral, David Morgan examines the luminaire offering from LumiAdd, a new manufacturer that creates 3D printed components for its products.
Luminaire manufacturers are transitioning towards carbon neutrality along several different paths. Some companies extol the use of machined aluminium components produced for each project as the best way to achieve carbon neutrality and comply with a circular economy approach. Others are advocating the use of 3D printed plastic components, and minimising the amount of aluminium employed, as a better approach to achieving similar goals.
It seems be a complex task to determine if either approach will make a measurable reduction in the lighting industry’s contribution to global warming, but a lot of development work is now being undertaken and money spent with the aim of making a difference.
Signify (using its Philips brand) has perhaps made the earliest and largest commitment to the 3D printed approach, and now offers a wide variety of standard and customisable luminaire types produced with recyclable polycarbonate and recycled polycarbonate components. In 2019 it began a roll-out project with Marks & Spencer to produce new luminaires to illuminate their stores all using 3D printed luminaire enclosures, claiming that this would reduce the carbon footprint by up to 47%, excluding the optics and electronics. It is understood that at the end of life, the polycarbonate components will be returned to Philips to be recycled and reused to create new luminaire components.
This approach has now been taken up across the lighting industry and many companies now produce luminaire components using a variety of plastic materials including nylons, polycarbonate, and ABS. Being able to quickly create custom designed components for each project without needing to invest in hard tooling is increasingly attractive as surface quality improves and prices reduce.
At the other end of the corporate spectrum from Philips, a start-up UK company called LumiAdd has just launched an initial range of luminaires using components 3D FDM printed from PLA (polylactic) resin, a biodegradable plastic derived from renewable sources including corn starch, sugarcane, or cassava. In addition to marketing complete luminaires, Lumiadd is supplying PLA components to other lighting companies.
LumiAdd was founded by lighting designer Jamie Norris Green and lighting product designer Lewis Smith in 2022. Jamie is an experienced lighting designer who worked at Aecom and Lumineer before starting his own consultancy in 2013. He has been experimenting with the use of 3D printing for more than 10 years, before starting LumiAdd. Lewis started his luminaire design career at Martech and Cooper Lighting before forming his consultancy in 2015.
The initial LumiAdd range is targeted at the international lighting specification market that Jamie and Lewis are already familiar with, and includes recessed and surface mounted downlights and an adjustable spotlight. One of the great benefits of the 3D printing process is that it allows all orders of the LumiAdd range to be customised with short lead times to meet project requirements, even for small order quantities. The downside with 3D printing is that, to scale up as order quantities grow, the number of printers used will need to increase at more or less the same rate. At some point it may well be appropriate to injection mould some higher volume components, and this can still be done using PLA resins, so the niche that LumiAdd has established can scale to a larger size if demand grows.
The LumiAdd range is constructed using FDM-printed PLA components combined with other parts such as extruded aluminium heat sinks, 90 CRI COB LED light sources and industry standard optics that cannot be 3D printed.
The PLA resin material that Lumiadd uses for its FDM 3D printed parts is sourced from Thailand and is derived from sugar cane. According to a detailed lifecycle impact assessment undertaken by the manufacturer of the resin, Total Corbion, the production of PLA from sugar cane in the tropics is an environmentally sustainable process with a low carbon footprint. They predict that, although at the moment the resins are not currently carbon neutral, with further development and investment they may become carbon negative.
The primary benefit of using bio-plastics, such as PLA, for luminaire components is to minimise their carbon footprint. However, determining the precise reduction compared to using plastics based on petrochemicals seems to be a complicated process and depends on how the components are disposed of at the end of life, as well as the sustainability of the sourcing, manufacturing, and logistics. If they are composted, which can take years under some conditions, then the CO2 that was captured while the sugar cane was growing is released, giving no overall carbon reduction. If the components are reground and reused to make new components, then the original captured carbon is retained but this process uses energy that will have a carbon footprint. Reusing existing printed components disassembled from old luminaires within a circular economy model would ensure that the carbon remains captive, but I predict that the 3D printing process is going to develop rapidly over the next 10 to 20 years with improved quality and lower costs, which may make the reuse of old parts less likely.
The samples that I was sent to review are neatly designed and although the tell-tale surface witness lines resulting from the current FDM 3D printing process were clearly visible, the overall appearance was attractive and when mounted on the ceiling it would not be obvious that these luminaires were not made by conventional processes or materials. The 3D printed springs worked well to hold the downlights into the ceiling with a positive pressure. The surface mounted downlight incorporated a neat 3D printed threaded fixing to a separate mounting plate to eliminate any visible fixing screws. The Bridgelux COB LED light engine and the Ledil lenses were of high quality and the lit effect from the range was good.
The adjustable spotlight incorporated a Ledil zoom lens, which was held into the body with a neat, printed snap fit detail. The design of this product was not as successful of that of the other LumiAdd luminaires in the range. The PLA material is flexible so while handling the body it felt rather insubstantial and the mounting arm was rather spindly. The pin type aluminium heat sink enclosed in the body becomes warm when fully saturated and this seemed to make the body slightly more flexible than when at ambient temperature. When installed on the ceiling these details would not be of great significance but, at the point of sale, I can imagine there might some specifier and customer resistance to the use of PLA material.
LumiAdd has entered the market at a point when specifiers and end users are looking for ways to reduce the carbon footprint of luminaires, so its timing is good. Using 3D printing has many benefits to the lighting industry for low volume customised parts as can be seen by the increasing use of the process, but currently the higher unit costs compared to injection moulded components, whatever the resin type used, is probably going to be an issue with end users.
Using PLA and other bio derived resins for luminaire components seems likely to grow over the coming decades as their production becomes more efficient, and so LumiAdd may have an early adopter advantage in this market niche for the moment. It will be interesting to see how the range and process develops over the next couple of years and to see the type of projects where these luminaires are used.
Noor Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Noor Riyadh returned for its second edition in November, bringing more than 120 installations and light artworks to the Saudi capital.
Following the success of its inaugural edition in 2021, Noor Riyadh returned to the Saudi Arabia capital for a mammoth celebration of light and art.
Almost tripling in size from the debut event, the festival launched on 3 November, with over 120 installations by more than 100 artists from across 40 countries, on view across 40 locations.
Built around the theme We Dream of New Horizons, the two-week festival was accompanied by a three-month art exhibition, From Spark to Spirit (open from 3 November 2022 to 4 February 2023) and dynamic public programme.
As one of the world’s most ambitious festivals of its kind, organisers of Noor Riyadh hoped to transform the city into a dazzling, night-time “gallery without walls”, across the largest city footprint of any light art festival worldwide.
The theme of We Dream of New Horizons responded to a motif that is both literal and metaphorical in meaning, alluding to the distant glow of sunrise or sunset, and the shining light of our dreams, with a sense of hopefulness for the future inherent in the phrase. Its connotations are positive, optimistic, and reflective of a confidence in renewal and transformation. Through a sense of wonder, the artists explored the use of illumination, luminosity, and their own encounters with materials as staging relations to otherness and hope in the form of light.
Co-curated by Hervé Mikaeloff, Dorothy Di Stefano and Jumana Ghouth, the second edition of Noor Riyadh saw many renowned names in light art unite with an expanding roster of emerging and established local artists. These artworks and installations illuminated 40 citywide locations, showcasing immersive site-specific installations, monumental public artworks, ephemeral sculptures, art trails, virtual reality, building projections and drone shows.
International artists showcasing installations included names such as Daan Roosegaarde, who brought his popular Waterlicht piece – an immersive installation that encompasses a dream landscape about the power and poetry of water with an ecological message – to Riyadh’s Salam Park. Elsewhere in Salam Park, Eness drew inspiration from formal civic fountains and classical statues in Cupid’s Koi Garden, the world’s first inflatable fountain.
Other notable artworks included The Garden of Light by Charles Sandison – a video projection in the Diplomatic Quarter hub that investigates the virtual horizon created between history and the digital world. Elsewhere, Grimanesa Amorós’ Amplexus light sculpture radiated light through the air, enveloping and embracing the architecture, space and viewer.
Christopher Bauder, founder and creative director of WHITEvoid, who collaborated with musician and composer Strahil Velchev to produce Axion, a large-scale installation inspired by a hypothetical elementary particle that, if it exists, might be a component of the dark matter that cosmologists believe makes up 95% of the universe.
At King Abdullah Financial District, Asaad Badawi’s Chasing the Sun showcased brightly coloured fibreglass shapes that conjure planetary motions. On a similar theme of ingenuity, multidisciplinary artist Zahra Bundakji created a sound portrait of women who have shaped and supported dancefloors in Saudi Arabia, supported by the universal symbol of dance culture, the disco ball. The work, entitled The Voice of Listening, was situated in the JAX District.
Elsewhere, a nightly laser show was performed in central Riyadh that united Kingdom Tower, Faisaliah Tower and Majdoul Tower. The show, entitled Pulse of Light, was created by Yann Kersalé, in collaboration with show director Martin Arnaud. The performance was accompanied by music from Grammy award-winning artist Zedd.
Another highlight came with Marc Brickman’s drone show at King Abdullah Park. Artist in residence at the Empire State Building in 2020, Brickman brought two aerial light installations – The Order of Chaos: Chaos in Order, featuring a swarm of 2,000 drones; and K A L E I D O S C O P E, which explored the absurdity of human constriction through technology, and featured an interactive element in its choreography.
Other international artists showcasing installations included Pauline David (Pavilion of Moonlight Horizon), Daniel Buren (Le Ciel Coloré et Projeté), Shohei Fujimoto (Intangible #form), Douglas Gordon (299792458 M/S), Tadashi Kawamata (Nests in Riyadh), Arne Quinze (Oasis), teamLab (Waves of Light), SpY (Earth, 2021) and Jean-Michel Othoniel (Yardang).
Speaking on the conclusion of the citywide installations, Riyadh Art Program Executive Director, Khaled Al-Hazani said: “We are delighted that Noor Riyadh has created unique moments of joy across the city, nurtured artistic talent and delivered awe-inspiring immersive experiences, providing visitors with an opportunity to appreciate world-class light artworks and rediscover the city of Riyadh in a new light.
“We look forward to bringing together a global community of visitors to Noor Riyadh’s accompanying exhibition and shedding light on the artists, curators and community engagement initiatives enriching Riyadh’s thriving art and culture landscape.”
The festival’s accompanying exhibition, entitled From Spark to Spirit was curated by Neville Wakefield and Gaida AlMogren. The exhibition traced the role that light plays in shaping our relationship to a world in which light itself has become a signal of change, exploring themes such as ‘Technologies of Light’, ‘Architectonics of Light’, and ‘Consciousness of Light’.
Just as the Light and Space Movement, which began in California in the 1960s, reflected changes in the established order, this exhibition explored a landscape of light inflected by the rapid cultural transformations shaping the Middle East. While the exhibition acknowledged the histories that have been shaped by the experience of West Coast America, and the West in general, the show was structured as a cultural dialogue.
Neville Wakefield, lead curator, said: “As explored in From Spark to Spirit, it is evident that light in this world can be seen as an integral means of communication. We are now connected to each other by screens – by the light of information. We communicate with one another through the direct manipulation of light to form words and images that together map a collective consciousness, bringing us together in an era of rapid technological and cultural transformation.”
The festival also included a programme of more than 500 special activities, from tours to talks, workshops, family activities and music, some of which were available online and via an event app, opening the experience up to a wider audience.
Al-Hazani added: “Noor Riyadh is a big part of plans to creatively transform the Kingdom’s capital into a vibrant and cosmopolitan global city, through arts and culture. Supported by Riyadh Art, Noor Riyadh’s parent body, it features public artworks and diverse community activities that provide enriching art experiences that bring together local communities, from families to artists, students, professionals and more, with international audiences fro across the globe.”
www.noorriyadh.sa
www.riyadhart.sa
GLA: Too much of a good thing?
Dave Hollingsbee of Stoane Lighting looks at the proposed changes to the Ecodesign for Energy Related Products & Energy Information regulations, breaking down how these changes could impact the lighting industry, both in the UK and beyond.
For the past two years the GreenLight Alliance has existed primarily with the mission to seek and promote the adoption of the circular economy. Our work aims to help all corners of the lighting industry to make meaningful, informed and fair decisions in the pursuit of more sustainable practices. Today we direct the Alliance’s gaze towards the rapidly progressing proposals for changes to the Ecodesign for Energy Related Products & Energy Information (Lighting Products) Regulations 2021, now including Minimum Energy Performance Standard (MEPS). Or, the draft statutory instrument’s full title: Energy Conservation. The Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information. (Lighting Products) (Amendment) Regulations 2023.
This proposed regulation will impact those putting new product on the market in the UK. Does that affect you? Do you specify lighting for projects in the UK? Do you manufacture luminaires in the UK for the UK market? Do you manufacture outside of the UK and export into the UK? Do you manufacture lamps or light emitters destined for UK manufacturers/market? Are you a wholesaler or retailer who places lamps or luminaires on the UK market?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes” then this proposal affects you.
What is it?
Essentially, for the UK market it is a light-source efficacy minimum for all light-sources. It constitutes an amendment to Ecodesign and is a two-stage proposal:
Tier 1 (coming into force 15/11/2023) 120 lm/W
Tier 2 (coming into force 01/09/2027) 140 lm/W
From where we sit as an industry in February 2023, that is an ambitious threshold to set by anybody’s reckoning.
Does the GLA applaud it?
The truthful answer is: “Not as it stands”.
Members are still getting to grips with the impact of the minimum efficacies (the Pon Max calculation) brought in with the EU Single Lighting Regulation (EU Com 2019/2020) and corresponding (largely mirroring) 2021 UK Statutory Instrument 2021/1095: “Ecodesign for Energy Related Products and Energy Information (Lighting Products) Regulations 2021”. In essence a large number of established “go-to” LED products fell below the new minimum efficacy thresholds established using the Pon Max calculation in the regulation.
At the time, many were caught napping. Indeed it is arguably far too soon since the October 2021 implementation to know of the impacts and to comment informedly on prospects of another raising of the bar so soon, in the UK at least.
One obvious concern is EU/UK divergence. With another set of environmentally motivated regulatory proposals to work with, it is hard to see how this is positive for UK lighting stakeholders or any global light source manufacturers.
Of course, where we do see similarities between the UK and Europe is in the quest to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions related to lighting. Noble and urgent aspirations, but at what cost to the UK lighting industry? What cost to manufacturing, distribution, specification and perhaps most importantly the end user?
What is meant by a light source?
This is a very good question, not as easy to answer as you might expect. It is important, there are a range of lm/W concession allowances for particular categories. To attempt to understand the legal definition in this context: have a read through the draft and UKSI 2021/1095. The wording is confusing in the proposed draft, proper understanding of intent and wording is crucial: on the face of it many light sources may not benefit from any allowances at all.
Concessions
There are allowances for some “light sources”, allowing that light source efficacy below the 120 lm/W threshold (as of this November) or 140 lm/W in 2027.
The concessions are cumulative, so if you have a directional mains light source, higher than 93CRI and under 400lm, perhaps an LED reflector lamp for example, then that ‘light source’ must have a minimum efficacy of 70lm/W under Tier 1, and 90lm/W under Tier 2.
While the allowances may reduce the targets for lamps, there are no such concessions applicable to other light source types. If for example, the light source happens to be an LED for use in an LED luminaire, whether removable or not, then the allowances do not apply. This means that light sources such as COB, LED array and LED tape do not benefit from allowances and must meet the 120lm/W and 140lm/W minimum efficacies in Tier 1 and 2.
With some research into COB manufacturers, one can see that in particular the very high CRI, warm colour temperatures and lower diameter/lower output LED light sources are going to fall below the minimums immediately, if the regulation is implemented according to the current draft.
Viability
How viable is it for luminaire manufacturers to bring their product offering into line with Tier 1 rules by November?
Will light source (“lamp”) manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers have access to suitably rated equipment in order to legally satisfy demand?
How viable is it for specifiers to ensure all UK projects procuring after November 2023 and beyond will be compliant with the new minimum lm/W light source rules? Will specifiers know if they are being offered a product with a complaint light source?
Recent Precedent
Is there any market surveillance data from UK or from the EU as to the impacts of recent Ecodesign regulation? Has there been any market surveillance done to provide evidence of compliance? Has there been any research to establish the impact of the 2021 Ecodesign regulation in the UK on energy consumption related to lighting? Is it delivering as intended? What is the feedback from specifiers, manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers in terms of implementation?
Given the scale of impact of recent changes should further steps (such as these proposed by BEIS) not be predicated on learnings from similar previous endeavors?
What opportunities might it bring?
UK manufacturers (and others wishing to export into the UK) are forced to blaze a challenging new trail. If successful and other regions decide to follow, UK businesses may find themselves at an advantage, but acknowledging that virtually all light source manufacturers are based outside of the UK and are manufacturing for global markets, that is not a given. Simply relying on LED manufacturers to support UK specific legislation could be considered more of a risk than an opportunity.
What are the threats and unintended consequences?
The industry is already aware of the flattening off in lm/W improvements in LED technology. Further reductions in energy are now coming from improved optical design, energy conscious designs and of course, intelligent use of controls. Indeed, previously in building regulations, where controls were used, a lower efficacy is allowed. Furthermore we see from building regulations the application of average building level luminaire efficacy, this allows some consideration and flexibility to lighting designers to use the right light in the right places/applications.
Also, while in-use carbon reduction will always be welcomed, as the UK moves closer to a 100% sustainable electricity grid the emphasis surely diminishes and emphasis shifts more to embodied carbon. Keeping kit in use as long as possible and reducing transportation related carbon. If greater gains can be found here should this be where attention is directed?
The UK does not manufacturer the core building blocks that make up solid state emitters, “lamps” or “light engines”. Are we aware of the intentions of the big players in these markets? Will suitable R&D, or simply inventory, be available that meets the proposed changes to the UK market? I.e., will enough product be available that meets the new criteria? What lead time implications? What differing/new commercial implications? If the UK takes a different road, will others pivot to support it, or will the path turn out to be a narrowing trail?
Successful luminaire manufacture (something for which the UK currently has an excellent record) that meets particular customer demands is a complicated balance of factors. Light source efficacy is a vital one but it is not the only one. It is not even the only one to impact overall efficiency (i.e. in-use carbon), far from it. Then of course there is embodied carbon to consider (see Fig. 2). By inappropriately over-emphasising any one factor, a product can easily become non-viable. There are already metrics in use that arguably drive more holistic environmental improvements on multiple fronts.
The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) has been heavily engaged on this proposal. As Bob Bohannon, Head of Policy & Academy at the LIA puts it: “The BEIS consultations refer to CLASP and sustainability NGO. Our industry fully agrees with them on the need to deliver net zero, but we differ in how this should be delivered, we think far more energy saving is available via the use of controls and energy effective (scheme) design. CLASP’s Mission Statement is “to improve the energy and environmental performance of the appliances and equipment we use every day, accelerating our transition to a more sustainable world”. Therefore CLASP place supreme emphasis on Efficacy (lumens per watt), whereas looking at Fig. 3 (derived from the US Dept. of Energy, 2019 Lighting R&D Opportunities), you can see it demonstrates all the other factors we need to consider and some of these come with a technical trade off with energy efficiency.
“Our industry is still in the midst of implementing the changes required by two previous sets of regulation – both will significantly help the decarbonisation of our economy. First, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), will largely remove fluorescent lamps (which contain mercury) by early 2024 - this is positive as it will further drive the take-up of low-carbon LEDs. Second, the Ecodesign Regulation changed the energy rating label on lighting products to promote both consumer demand and manufacturer supply of ever more efficient lighting products.
“In terms of practicable timescales, the latter just impacted labelling, the product itself remained unchanged – yet is likely that in excess of 15 million light sources are still on the market with the old label (the problem is shared across Europe, it is not restricted to the UK). The current legislation will require these to be relabelled for display by retailers by 1 April 2023. This situation has arisen due to the disruptions of Covid-19 and the supply chain crisis - LEDs have semiconductors in them. If this date is adhered to, the unintended consequence will be a large-scale shortage of products and potentially mass dumping at a significant cost. Physical relabelling of products on the shelf across the whole supply chain is not practical or deliverable due to staff shortages and cost. We must emphasise that the product has not changed, it is no less energy efficient, the only change is the energy rating label.
“This is important to understand, as the new MEPS legislation will require complete reformulation of many products, where that is even possible, in seven months, when we have an 18-month replacement cycle. This will result in empty shelves and unrelampable light fittings.
“Tier 1, due to come into effect in November this year, gives insufficient time for the very probable demand pull and supply push effects of those new labels to have had any chance of being effective, nor for any supply chain problems to be resolved – in fact it will exacerbate them.“
The industry has more recently achieved some significant milestones in terms of efficient, long life, very stable, high fidelity solid-state products (think museum and gallery lighting). Similarly, particularly post-Covid; encouraging progress is being made on the light and health front, and in night-sky (nature sensitive) schemes. These, not so niche anymore, areas mostly call for richer phosphor mixes (seeking to approach the light quality of natural daylight or incandescent sources) with correspondingly lower lm/W performance. Are we prepared to surrender some of the progress made in these areas by allowing this regulation to proceed un-challenged?
How does one reconcile a separate sustainability initiative for one small region with the overarching goal of accelerating towards (our collective imperative) consistently reducing the impact of lighting, covering as much of the world as possible?
In forming an opinion it is worth looking into your favourite equipment providers; be they luminaire OEM or LED light engine providers. Better still, speak to your contacts there and establish if they think the new rules would affect product availability, future R&D direction and of course, costs.
It is no secret that the initial efficiency leaps in LED technology have slowed and begun levelling off. Some see the developments in Potassium Fluorosilicate (KSF) phosphor technology as another avenue to surge efficacy, but do we completely understand the areas where we can, or perhaps should not; use that technology yet?
Numerous lighting bodies are mobilising on this issue. If you want to learn more we suggest you also contact your societies, members groups and keep an eye out for on-line gatherings by GLA. We hope the article is useful and informative. Please stay engaged.
Useful Links:
The full draft document: Energy-related Products Policy Framework
The government’s consultation portal for your input
The consultation document - to have your say, you must submit contributions by 04/04/2023 or be heard at one of their stakeholder events.
GLA Members comment:
Kevan Shaw, ELFA | Kevan Shaw Lighting Design: "I think that Ecodesign for lighting has run its course. Any attempts to increase light source efficiency without reference to particular lighting applications is bound to limit quality of light. Regulations without enforcement penalise the local and quality product manufacturer. Creating different regulatory requirements in the UK compared with the EU disadvantages UK manufacturers, increasing their costs and reducing the availability of products in the UK lighting market – and increasing prices.
What should happen? BEIS should park this proposal and see what happens in the next round of Ecodesign in the EU, then make necessary changes to remain in line with that. Keeping parallel rules makes most sense for the industry, the lighting design profession, and the end-users of lighting."
Leela Shanker, BR+A / GLA LCA Incubator: "On the one hand, it’s encouraging to see the UK ready to flex legislative muscle and set unprecedented, quantitative targets with some degree of urgency - someone has to lead. Though, for decarbonisation efforts to have the most impact, we should avoid a global policy patchwork and include designers and consumers in the solution. Over-reliance on a single efficacy metric (lm/W) that stops at “the Gate” places undue weight on manufacturers’ product design to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint by underestimating the need to revisit how and where we use light. The potential for progress lies in designers working alongside manufacturers in pursuit of globally harmonised standards measured across all phases of a product’s life.”
Emilio Hernandez, Ström / GLA Chairperson: "There are numerous complications as we look into this further. But crucially for me there is no mention within MEPS of how existing or conventional luminaires can be maintained or remanufactured and still meet this ‘light source’ efficiency target. This must be addressed to make the transition more sustainable and affordable and avoid huge piles of WEEE waste in its wake."
Arfon Davies, Arup: "The proposed Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) within the Ecodesign regulations comes at a time when we urgently need to be focused on what I often refer to as “Beyond Energy”. It is not to say for one moment that lighting energy and operational carbon use is not important, but our focus needs to be on ensuring lighting for humanity is the best it can possibly be. Applying a single efficacy metric to light sources oversimplifies what is a very complex design challenge. It is not helpful as it distracts our attention away from where it should be - careful and informed use of light to create visual environments that promote wellbeing, engagement and generally high-quality experiences for people. The current draft therefore needs an urgent rethink. Amendments would be better focused on promoting higher quality lighting, delivered using circular economy principles, with people and planet in mind, as opposed to driving unrealistic efficacy targets."
Ali Kay, Stoane Lighting: "The proposed regulations place an unreasonable efficacy expectation on LED light sources for use in LED luminaires when you consider the breadth of lighting applications. An unacceptable number of very high quality, high CRI, low CCT, small diameter COBS in particular would be lost with impacts to high quality high CRI lighting, lighting for human health and lighting for use in our exterior environments where very warm LEDs are used to reduce impact on nature. I support the motive to reduce the impact associated with lighting but believe existing regulation has already made big steps on in use carbon reduction and now we must turn to product durability, the circular economy, energy saving through controls and reductions in impact associated not just with the use stage but how we manufacture lighting equipment. If these proposals are to proceed then at the very least, we must see lm/W concessions for LED light sources, such as COB and LED chip arrays on PCBs or many manufacturers will for certain have to remove significant portions of their product offering from the UK market. This inevitably resulting in significant commercial and environmental harm as unused inventory is sent for recycling, with as yet, very little available in the market to replace it."
Alexia Gkika, Buro Happold: "Supply difficulties – if light sources with such energy performance requirements are not widely available, will these lead to extending lead times and supply shortages, impacting project programmes/ costs?"
Tim Bowes, Whitecroft Lighting: "Whether it is through the implementation of legislation, taxation, research or funding, Governments are seen by many as a key and necessary stakeholder in the adoption and development of effective sustainable and circular economy principles at scale. However, whilst we must of course look to continue to push and demand more of ourselves, any intervention must be done in collaboration with our industry. By doing this, we can make sure any future proposal and targets are targeted, workable and achievable so we can maximise the savings available from lighting systems whilst avoiding negative impacts such as a compromise of light quality."
Xander Cadisch, Phos: "We fear that as a consequence of MEPS human centric / biophilic lighting will be, by default, sacrificed for the sake of high output fixtures and the flat, barren design opportunities they offer."
Bob Bohannon, LIA: "I must absolutely state that the LIA is fully behind the need to deliver Net Zero, and we need to do this long before 2050 if we have any chance of limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5C. The method should be based on LENI, ergo energy effective design by the use of efficient luminaires, used carefully to deliver high environmental lighting quality but only when and where we need it. But BEIS’s proposals as they stand have too many unintended consequences and do not allow for existing measures to take effect."
Alan Wright, Xicato: "Increasing efficacy is important but one needs to consider the inverse relationship between brightness and quality.
A colour rendering index (CRI) is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colours of various objects faithfully in comparison with natural light. Xicato has been one of the first providers of light sources to actually address this and produces some of the world’s best colour rendered light sources; used in a wide variety of markets including, museums and galleries, hospitality, education, medical institutions, commercial and private residences.
With a good colour rendered light source (95+ CRIi) lower efficiencies than those proposed by the BEIS are realised, especially when combined with the smaller beams demanded throughout the industry.
Most higher efficiency light sources will have a high CCT colour temperature to achieve a high lm/W figure and will subsequently provide a poor lit effect, often having a higher concentration of blue light."
Designers Mind: Goal Setting Mindset
Designers Mind contributor Kael Gillam looks at the concept of New Year’s resolutions, and the importance of giving yourself realistic, achievable goals.
Returning the office after the Christmas break can be a bit of a shock to the system for many. Slipping back into having a routine is no small effort, finding our feet after being able to shirk some of the rigidity that the usual Monday to Friday grind entails. Many of us also feel the pressure to set new goals and challenges for the year, running into those commitments headstrong while still finding our feet. Trying to plan out this much activity and change can make us more frustrated and anxious than it causes elation and excitement, but we are capable of flipping that narrative on its head and setting meaningful goals for ourselves.
A few years ago, Designer’s Mind had a roundtable discussion on Clubhouse about New Year’s resolutions and how really, on the whole, they’re a bit of a red herring. Committing to big change and expecting to be able to implement these new goals immediately can often be more discouraging and defeatist than making no change at all. Perhaps worst of all is the all-pervasive culture of comparison that comes with goal-setting; we feel ‘weak’ or ‘incapable’ when we see other people achieving the things that we want with what appears to be relative ease. We are, after all, creatures of habit, and forming new habits is not an all-or-nothing or immediately actionable venture, and some changes will inherently come more easily to different types of people. New Year’s resolutions often take the form of ‘I will start to do x every day of the week’ or ‘I will change the way I do x, starting tomorrow’. But how does that fit into the routine you’re just getting back into? What’s the time, money, or energy commitment to this goal, and how has it been factored into your current commitments?
Instead of an aggressive, all-or-nothing approach to improvement and/or change, it is best to start with introspecting about our own capacity and needs. What aspect of day-to-day life feels like it needs improvement, and what do I want to prioritise? What long-term goals do I have, and what change would make them easier to achieve, or more rewarding to achieve? This will vary for everyone, and our answers may vary from day to day. Our commitments to ourselves and to others are only able to be fulfilled when we feel that we have the internal resource and external support to do so. Big changes often feel like they require sacrifice, which is inherently detrimental to the ideal of improvement and betterment.
The goal, then, needs to become more intangible and flexible to best allow for our efforts to feel meaningful. For example, instead of a commitment like ‘I will get eight hours of sleep every night’, instead reframe the prompt to ‘I will create time for myself in the evening to be able to relax’. With this framework, if effort gets put into creating a comfortable environment to signal the physical and chemical needs of encouraging sleep, then it feels like a win. And when most attempts feel like a success, this encourages us to continue these learned behaviours and turn them into habits, ultimately guiding us to that quantifiable goal.
But, if tangible goals are more in line with your personal satisfaction, then creating a plan with milestones might be a good alternative. The ‘Couch to 5k’ scheme is a good example of incremental goal setting. If you’ve never run before, you cannot expect yourself to have the endurance or strength to achieve your end goal on day one. Instead, it is a balance of paces and distances to acclimate your body to the act of running. Like the sleep goal, you’re priming your body and mind to a new way of doing things in a patient and thoughtful way. You could also go down the ‘gamifying’ route (which we love here at DM) with wearable tech to track your movement and vitals. With this added layer of external support, you can start to be more conscientious of how your body feels throughout the day on your ‘active’ and ‘rest’ days.
Changing our habits and our lifestyle necessitates that we are kind to ourselves, and recognise that some days our goals simply won’t be achievable. By starting with incremental change, that is less rigidly measured, we inherently create a more forgiving and welcoming attitude around the change we want to accomplish. To add extra motivation, you can also involve friends and family in your goal setting, and have a shared accountability for your journey. External validation and encouragement during periods of change can be massively rewarding and spur us to stay true to our resolutions when we feel the care and support of those we hold dear.
We wish you all the best for the year ahead, and encourage you to create a space for wellness as part of your new routine.
Mark Ridler
After more than 40 years in lighting, Mark Ridler has stepped down as Head of Lighting at BDP, leaving the industry to take up a new role at the Spinal Injuries Association. Here, Ridler looks back on a stellar lighting career, and speculates what the future holds.
Late last year, Mark Ridler announced that he was stepping away from his position as Head of Lighting at BDP. After more than 40 years in the lighting industry, 19 of which at BDP, Ridler began 2023 taking up a new position as Director of Programmes at the Spinal Injuries Association.
The move marks a big transition for Ridler, but is a natural one considering his career-long ambition to create work with a strong ethical consideration and societal impact.
As with many in the lighting community, Ridler found the profession almost by accident, discovering theatrical lighting while studying Engineering at the University of Cambridge.
He recalled: “When at university, another student asked me whether I wanted to do a follow spot. I didn’t even know what one was. I’d just stopped rowing and was looking for something to do outside of studying and said yes. So, my first connection with light was very physical – actually holding and directing a light at a performer and looking at the impact it had on them and the audience. I fell in love.
“I was always split between being good at science and the arts. I had to make a choice for A Levels and pursued the sciences, but I was always hankering after the arts. I rejected pure science for engineering because it had a more direct impact on society. I abandoned engineering because at the time it had little or no ethical consideration – an ‘I make the bomb; I don’t use the bomb’ mentality. But here was a profession, lighting in theatre, that did have an ethical context, made a societal impact and also allowed me to combine science and art. It was utterly compelling, but it was a complete fluke that I found it.”
Following his studies, Ridler developed a successful career in theatrical lighting, a career that he said led to “doing increasingly bourgeois shows and evermore travelling”. However, after getting married and starting a family, he sought a change of lifestyle.
“Architectural lighting had intrigued me for a while with the advent of theatre lighting designers illuminating buildings, notably at the time the Lloyds and Hoover buildings,” he said.
“I was doing a lot of networking and met the likes of Janet Turner, Mark Major and Jonathan Speirs, and others. Maurice Brill was advertising at the time for a senior at MBLD; I applied and got the job. That was a very fast learning curve, but with the support of Rob Honeywill and Kevin Theobald, I made Associate.”
In 2003, Ridler was involved in a road traffic accident, which resulted in him becoming a T10 paraplegic, unable to walk. Following his accident, Ridler explained that he wasn’t able to return to MBLD but was instead offered a job at BDP by then Head of Lighting, Martin Lupton. Lupton had seen an IALD presentation delivered by Ridler about Finsbury Avenue Square – a particularly notable project in his career – and offered him a job as a senior. “The following summer I was moved up to Associate, a couple of years after that Director, and in 2010 when Martin left, Head of Lighting.”
With a background in theatrical lighting, Ridler explained his ambition when he first stepped into the world of architectural lighting: “Coming from theatre, where my work was available to small, paying audiences, it was to make the beauty and power of light available to the widest possible audience, free at the point of delivery.”
This approach led to Ridler preparing a paper for PLDC on the ethics of lighting. “Essentially, the ethos I proposed was that design needed to be centred around the desires and needs of our ultimate clients – all those that use, inhabit, and encounter our designs. It has been my guiding principle ever since,” he said.
Throughout his career, Ridler has worked across a broad range of sectors, from hospitality and retail to infrastructure, workspace, and more artistic installations. This wide variety has meant that he never wanted to specialise in one particular area. “There is delight and frustration in every sector, and learning that can be carried across each that drives creativity,” he said.
“If you are good at listening to clients and understanding their operational needs, then a lighting design is always about revealing the human form in an architectural envelope, facilitating a variety of activities and hopefully creating an atmosphere that complements or inspires that activity.”
Despite having an ethical guiding philosophy in his work, Ridler feels that he never developed a signature style or aesthetic. Instead, projects are “driven by the context, be it architectural, political, social, historic, environmental, etc”. As such, each project has a very different look and feel. This is an approach that he hoped to instil within the lighting design team at BDP as well. He continued: “I led BDP as a design collective where each designer’s voice has equal weight, irrespective of experience, based upon the quality of the ideas expressed.”
Across an impressive body of work, Ridler cites Finsbury Avenue Square as a project that “put me on the map and changed my life in many different ways”, but as for an overall favourite piece of work, he said it’s “like trying to choose your favourite child”.
“I’m going to nominate one of my last projects, which few of your readers will know because it hasn’t been photographed and publicised yet,” he added. “It is a disused warehouse in Glasgow that has been turned into an event space; it is clearly visible from across the water and adjacent train lines, and accessed by a new public square owned by Barclays.
“Designed with Tom Niven and Bojana Nikolic, the concept used ring of light techniques that Roger Deakins developed for film, combined with a complex colour play through a lattice of exposed rafters. Scenes are auto-generated from local climatic conditions and the whole thing is immersive and beautiful.
“Different designers come to concepts in many different ways. I’m still essentially a theatrical designer at heart. The process of having determined the available mounting positions, the look and feel is derived quickly and intuitively, and so it was with this one.”
Alongside his stellar design work, Ridler has throughout his career worked closely with organisations intent on driving positive change in the industry, from previous work with associations such as the ILP and PLDA, to more recently serving as a founding member of the GreenLight Alliance. This is something that Ridler believes ties back to his guiding ethos.
“Design has to be for everyone that encounters our design, which makes sustainability imperative,” he said. “Carbon is rightfully the concentration during a climate emergency, but it is the mass extinction event that human society is causing that should drive the circular economy, in my opinion. That, and resource depletion.
“I have always been collaborative by instinct, which is why I have devoted time to the ILP and PLDA in the past. The GreenLight Alliance is another example of how likeminded people can get together and make change.
“I think it is doing great work with tangible impacts, like TM66, but almost more importantly by influencing the culture within the industry. There is a long way to go, of course, but I haven’t seen a similar initiative achieve as much as this in such a short time.”
Over the course of his 40 years in lighting, Ridler has seen a number of advancements and changes across the industry – not just in terms of lighting technology, but in the way that we work. “The biggest change has to be mainly technology,” he said. “At the start of my time at MBLD, we had one computer, faxes, no email, and concept presentations were paper pictures cut out and stuck onto bits of board.
“Since 2003, there has been the explosion of the internet, social media, CAD to BIM, Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, the rise of video, communication over multiple platforms, mobile phones, Teams vs planes. So, everything to do with the production, distribution and exchange of design is faster – time for thought, planning, creativity, is at a premium, and I miss the widespread use of pencils.
“In lighting itself, the big change has been LED, of course. But control has also evolved, in particular into auto generation. Smaller, more discrete, lower energy, cooler, more precise optics, more control over the quality of light, but with the loss of the beauty and controllability of tungsten.”
As for further changes in the industry going forward, Ridler believes that the continued developments in technology, and in particular AI, could have a lasting effect. “I feel like a canal worker being asked that question [about the future of the industry] just at the beginning of the railways. We’ll still need to move goods, but it won’t be with horses and boats, it will be with trains and steam.
“While we do things at night, we will always need artificial light, but I don’t think anyone in the industry is quite understanding the impact that technology, and AI in particular, is going to have. Will there be such a thing as a lighting designer in 20 years? Perhaps not. Will the concept of professions survive? Again, I doubt it. And if they do, the way that we monetise design will be utterly disconnected from the human time spent in the means of production, as it is now.
“We need to have a much clearer sense of what humans are good at, as distinct from machines, and concentrate on those qualities. Those who laughed at me sticking pictures onto a board with glue 20 years ago should consider how pasting JPEGs onto electronic paper will look 20 years from now. Compiling a mood board from Pinterest is well within the grasp of machines, as is selecting luminaires and optimally placing them in a model through parametric design.
“Where the industry goes is outside of our control, but what I would like to see retained is elements of humanity, empathy, lateral thinking, intelligence, and ethics.”
From January of this year, Ridler has taken on a new position as Director of Programmes for the Spinal Injuries Association. An organisation close to his heart, the Spinal Injuries Association is a national charity that provides practical help to people who have been paralysed by spinal cord injury – its purpose is to be the expert, guiding voice for life after spinal cord injury, and it campaigns, educates and supports people affected, to show that an independent and fulfilled life is still achievable with paralysis.
Prior to joining the association full time, Ridler served on its board for four years, and also on an NHS board for the last two years. He explained what his new position as Director of Programmes will entail: “My role is to lead the delivery of all the frontline services and the charity’s communications and campaign activities.
“It will be a massive challenge working in a sector in which I have no operational experience. However, the skills I’ve developed in running a business, leading teams, project work, my knowledge of the NHS and lived experience, I hope, will qualify me to bring new perspectives to what is a strategically led, energetic, thriving organisation. There’s a lot to do and a lot to learn, but then that is exactly why I’m excited.”
Looking back on his time in lighting, Ridler is hopeful that he has left a positive mark on the industry. Speculating on what his legacy may be, he said: “My friend and colleague Colin Ball joked in my goodbye card that at first I will be missed, then blamed, and then forgotten, and I think that is right. Light is intrinsically ephemeral and that is one of its attractions, so my legacy, if there is one, surely will not be projects. It may be an ethos, some words spoken that live in a memory and perhaps passed on to another with a smile.”
After stepping down from his position at BDP, the lighting team there will now be led by Colin Ball and Tom Niven. And while Ridler is excited about his new opportunity, he described the decision to leave the lighting world as “bittersweet”.
“I have been working in light for 45 years, and to leave that is going to be hard. But of course, I’m not leaving light behind. I can’t,” he said. “I live in the Cambridgeshire countryside, and I’m surrounded by the changing seasons of light and a magnificent dark night sky. I still look up every time I enter a room.
“There is much in architecture, however, that I became tired of, and I feared I was becoming stale. I need a change and a challenge, and I couldn’t make that happen within BDP, so it was time to hand the baton to the next generation and do something else. The future is bright with Colin and Tom. They are both talented designers, and have very complementary skills. They have already grasped the opportunity and articulated a vision on growth and internationalism.”
While he hopes to still keep an eye on the goings on in the lighting world in the future, he offered some closing words of advice to the industry to which he has devoted 40 years of his life: “For all the troubles in the world – political, economic, environmental – we as designers have agency. We can make a difference. That should be a source of hope that is important, I think.
“On occasion, look up from the day-to-day challenges and realise and celebrate the work that we have done. As a profession, much of it is good, and it is important to be kind to ourselves and remember that at times.
“The world of lighting is special because it acts as a community. While we are in competition, there is a mutual respect, and in many cases in my experience, affection. If I am going to miss anything, it will be that.”
