The prestigious LIT Lighting Design Awards is pleased to reveal the LIT 2020 Winners in professionals’ and students’ categories.
LIT Lighting Design Awards was created to recognize the efforts of talented international lighting product designers and lighting implementers. The organization believes lighting is both an art and a science, and that it is one of the most important elements of design.
LIT was envisioned to celebrate creativity and innovation in the fields of lighting products and applications.
The LIT Jury board members evaluated all submissions from 43 countries, based not only on the highest of current lighting design standards and trends but also seeking out truly visionary designers showcasing creativity and innovation.
Due to the extreme circumstances of COVID-19, resulting in the cancellation of the Awards Ceremony; the Board of LIT decided to host an online event, honoring the outstanding work of the LIT 2020 Winners.
The online event took place on Saturday 27th of March at 3pm UTC.
As a result of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic last year, LEDforum.20 conference was held in a digital format. The event was proven to be a great success, gathering 615 lighting professionals who remained engaged throughout the broadcast.
As we continue to face new outcomes, including vaccination programs in Brazil and around the world, it comes as no surprise that the physical event this year, previously announced to be on August 21, will no longer be feasible.
Thus, the organizers announce the change of its 12th edition dates to be on November 4th and 5th, 2021, with the hope that the situation of the pandemic will allow the LEDforum.21 to happen in a physical or “phygital” format. Meanwhile, we will continue to monitor the situation in order to define the most appropriate version for the event, to be held in a safe and positive way for all of its participants.
We are still working full steam ahead to offer our audience quality content. Confirmation of the LEDforum.21 program will be released shortly.
LIT Lighting Design Awards is a partner of LEDForum.21.
The 4th Annual LIT Lighting Design Awards winners celebration, which will be streamed online at 3:00 PM (UTC/GMT) on Saturday, March 27th!
Due to the extreme circumstances of COVID-19, resulting in the cancellation of the Awards Ceremony; the Board of LIT decided to host an online event, honoring the outstanding work of the LIT 2020 Winners,
the 2020 Spotlight Prize and Lifetime Achievement Recipients. The event will be streamed online via Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, make sure to set up your alarm and follow us on social media.
Join the online event and Register: https://fb.me/e/1dJ2K1qCI
Erin Held won the LIT 2020 Lighting Designer of the Year title with The Union Station Great Hall Restoration project, she was the lead designer and project manager. After working on the renovation project for two and a half-year, winning LIT Design Awards is an accomplishment and rewarding an entire team.
Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Currently, I’m the Design Director at Charter Sills and have been with the firm for over 15 years working on a wide variety of projects. When I moved to Chicago in 2001, I knew this was going to be a city where I could see myself in long term. Outside of work, I enjoy baking, reading, and traveling.
How did you discover your passion for Lighting Design?
I found my love of Lighting Design in graduate school for Interior Architecture. Our class was taught by Peter Hugh of Hugh Lighting Design. His enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject really inspired me and showed how much influence lighting has on how successful a finished space can be.
How would you describe the role and responsibilities when working on the Union Station Great Hall Restoration project?
I was the lead designer and project manager for the project.
What does it mean to you, to win the LIT 2020 Lighting Designer of the Year title?
I’m really honored to be recognized for this project. We spent over two and half years working in close collaboration with the architect and contractor to bring this project to completion. The changes for space, from where it started to where it is now, are breathtaking and I was so proud to be a part of the team that accomplished them.
What do you feel is the most challenging part of working in Lighting Design today? Are there any new trends you would like to share?
The biggest challenge is always budget, but outside of that, I’d say that keeping up with the constantly changing technologies, especially on the controls side, is something I’m always learning about.
For trends, I’m loving the availability of dynamic warm white, not just warm dim, in more fixtures now. Using this technology, not as it relates to circadian rhythm, but as a way to influence the look and feel of materials throughout the space and the experience of the visitor is exciting.
What are you working on at the moment, and do you have any upcoming projects or collaborations that you’re able to tell us about?
After working with John Ronan Architects on both the Poetry Foundation and the Illinois Institute of Technology Innovation Center, we’re excited to collaborate again on the new Chicago Park District Headquarters building with their team. In historic preservation, we are working with our Union Station team again, Goettsch Partners, on the restoration of the Lincoln Park Zoo Lion House.
What would be your best advice to Emerging Lighting Designers?
When in doubt, mock it up. If there is a question about an installation detail or performance of a fixture, building a mockup can tell you so much that a computer calculation or specification sheet cannot. For Union Station, we tested almost every fixture on-site prior to finalization of the schedule to check performance and sightlines. Also, attend every punchlist site visit you can. To see the design you worked on move from paper, to calculation, and finally to real life is such an important experience. It will inform all your decisions on the next project and make you more confident in those decisions.
Last, what makes light magical to you?
At a minimum light needs to be functional, but when done right, especially in collaboration with a great design team, it can be transformational. It is the finishing touch for a project. When lighting blends seamlessly into the design concept it helps bring the architect’s vision to life.
Sally Storey has received the LIT 2020 Lifetime Achievement prize, recognizing her contribution to the Lighting industry. She has been guiding John Cullen Lighting and founded Lighting Design International company. Sally shares her passion for Lighting Design and her best advice to Emerging Lighting Designers.
Could you tell us a little about yourself? How did you discover your passion for Lighting Design?
Subconsciously, I have always been fascinated by the play of light and shadow, and it was only when I studied Architecture did I understand how everything I did and saw was sculpted by light. I chose to do my thesis on light and analyzed its effects on people’s perception of the space. I started my work as a lighting designer when I met John Cullen. The work was mainly residential but varied from a palace in the Middle East to a house in Hampstead and a hotel in Knightsbridge!
Sadly, John died in 1986 all too young, and I continued with John Cullen Lighting specializing in residential lighting. After realizing the luminaires available were not small enough for residential projects the John Cullen Lighting range began to bring that hotel and museum-quality into the home.
A major bank approached John Cullen Lighting and was keen to have only lighting advice. This commercial project request was the beginning of Lighting Design International, which now has a worldwide client base of hospitality and Superyachts.
How would you describe the role and responsibilities of a lighting designer?
The lighting designer is there to interpret the wishes of the architect, designer, and client to realize their dreams. Often understanding what they would like to achieve, which may be impossible, and translating it into an idea that is achievable while at the same time adding more to the project. It is this intuitive understanding of light that makes a lighting designer successful.
Throughout your career, you have accompanied some outstanding projects to their completion. From your perspective, which ones are particularly formative for the work at John Cullen Lighting and Lighting Design International? What are you working on at the moment, and do you have any upcoming projects or collaborations that you’re able to tell us about?
For John Cullen Lighting, the early Middle East projects were so intricate and demanded such detail to light arches and columns. This led to the first product development of a small halogen deeply recessed uplight design and the low glare polespring downlight to be able to use as a replacement for the larger Darklight quality of commercial products, as nothing existed of these sizes at the time.
Residential projects have continued as has the range grown usually being driven by a design need.
For Lighting Design International, the first project was Chase Manhattan Bank after that small boutique hotels. Now it is the individual specialist hotels like the Firmdale Group and major luxury Four Seasons Hotels; we are currently working on three and some major names in London like the Dorchester. However, as a judge for the Super Yacht Design & Innovation Awards, we have explored this market, and it is one of precision, almost like a Jewellery box tolerances are tight, and it is all about concealment and joinery integration.
We have completed various areas in Harrods from the Food Halls, Fine Watches, Men’s Shoes, Superbrands, Technology and currently working on Hair and Beauty.
You are the LIT 2020 Lifetime Achievement recipient for your contribution to Lighting Design, what does it mean to you?
I am thrilled to receive this award, as there is no greater award than getting personal recognition from my peers and inspirational designers all over the world.
What would be your best advice to Emerging Lighting Designers?
Follow your passion, never look back and enjoy every day! Light is intangible yet reveals all that we see. Learning to manipulate it, takes time and experience.
Always test your ideas as not only can you avoid mistakes in advance you can be inspired and create new solutions. To this very day, I tell all my designers to play with light, test it, do mock-ups as I believe seeing is believing and relying on computer renders is not as emotive.
Last, what makes light magical to you?
I will never tire of experimenting with light and seeing how a sculpture or space can be transformed and changed by the way it is lit. Natural light has always been my inspiration and capturing some of those moments in my schemes keeps me busy!
Project: Heckfield Place, Hampshire
Company: Lighting Design International
Photographer: Sprately & Partners
Project: Kimpton Fitzroy, London
Company: Lighting Design International
Photographer: Gavriil Papadiotis
Could you tell us a little about yourself? I live and work in Ireland.
How did you discover your passion for Lighting Product Design?
I have always been obsessed with flames and the drive to emulate the glow of an open flame and incorporate it in my work has been a lifelong passion.
I would describe my work more at the sculpture end of the spectrum and so the passion has come from a visceral and intuitive place.
Your winning project is the Artist’s Hand. Can you please explain to us, what was your creative journey?
This is a further exploration into my ‘edge-lit’ pieces which I first started making in the ’90s using Incandescent lamps. The innovation of LED technology allowed me to in a more artistic way ‘draw with light’.
Artists’s hand is literally a drawing of my translated directly into a 3d bronze and light sculpture.
In general, as a Lighting Product designer and artist, where is your inspiration from?
This can come from anywhere….a could floating by, a bronze age artifact, a bone. The human form is a repeated source of inspiration and then there is always space itself, which can speak to me and dictate the piece I might end up creating for it.
What does it mean to you, to win the LIT 2020 Lighting Product Design of the Year prize?
Of course, I am delighted to have recognition for my piece Artists’ hand but to be recognized by my peers is especially nice and I hope that I would inspire others to ‘speak their truth’, and make the work for themselves and not others and then success will follow.
What are you working on at the moment, and do you have any upcoming projects or collaborations that you’re able to tell us about?
I am working on the largest commission of my career, a 12-meter-long piece that I am very excited to see realized. This will take myself and my team in the region of 2000 hours to make in our studio, so truly monumental work.
What would be your best advice to Emerging Lighting Product Designers?
As I said above, make work for yourself, don’t follow trends and have integrity in what you do every day.
Last, what makes light magical to you?
The warm amber glow of a naked flame is immensely mesmerizing and has held a lifelong fascination for me. In every piece that I make I try to emulate this warm amber glow.
Emerging Lighting Product Designer winners of the LIT 2020 Edition, Neeraj R Jawale and Samriti Gosain share their creative journey and dreams to bring ORI to life.
Could you tell us a little about yourself?
We are both students of the National Institute of Design, India. We are currently pursuing our master’s degrees. We love to create products and experiences which are meaningful and can impact human product relationships.
How did you discover your passion for lighting? What makes light magical to you?
Light can create experiences that can change the way you look at things. Light cannot just be seen it can be felt, it has the power to alter your mood is what makes it magical to us.
Your winning project is ORI – your everyday light; can you please explain to us, what was your creative journey? Where is your inspiration from?
ORI is a mood light lamp named after the hues of the sky at different times of the day. We, humans, have a very strong relationship with natural light; it benefits us in different ways. Among its many benefits to the human body, one is that it has the power to alter our moods instantly. The bright light from the day can boost our focus and energy and how soothing hues of sunset can put us in a relaxing mood. We wanted to create a light with the intent to bring those experiences into our homes. It gives users the freedom to select light from any time of the day and relish the joy of it.
Inspired by nature itself, ori’s form is derived from the Sun, leveraging the smart technology we wanted to create an interaction that is natural to us humans. The ring frame of the light is also a feather touch panel for regulating the light. The touchpoints are positioned on the frame like minutes of the clock; users can simply swipe their fingers on the surface of the lamp to select the hue of light that represents that time of the day. Now you have the freedom to create sunrise and sunset as per your desire.
It’s an attempt to re-establish our relationship with nature and in the process gives us the opportunity to admire it once again.
What does being the winner of the LIT 2020 Emerging Lighting Product Design of the Year title, mean to both of you?
LIT design awards hold great importance to us as designers. Getting recognition on the same platform where leading designers from the light design industry are awarded is a really big achievement for us, students! Winning this award will definitely prove to be a turning point in our careers and also it opens doors to a lot of opportunities, which is highly motivating.
It gives us immense joy to win the LIT 2020 Emerging Lighting Product Designer.
You are just starting your career as a Lighting Product Designer… what do you want to do next? What are your dreams?
This recognition has surely motivated us to work on bigger projects and explore more in the field of lighting and light product design.
We are now looking forward to collaborating with established designers and a few companies to bring Ori to life. Working with light is a transforming experience for us and we would now love to see its impact on other people’s life.
What are you working on now? Can you share a glimpse of your next Lighting Product Design project?
Our next project also focuses on creating new and meaningful experiences of light. We are investigating new ways in which we can interact with light which may redefine our relationship with light. It is currently at a very initial stage, we are looking forward to sharing it with the LIT family once it takes a promising shape.
Professor Wout van Bommel has received the LIT 2020 Lifetime Achievement prize for his contribution to Lighting Application Research.
Could you tell us a little about yourself? How did you discover your passion for Lighting Application Research?
I discovered the passion for lighting by lucky coincidence. I studied physics at the University of Technology in Eindhoven. In those days we still had a two-year military service but could delay that until after the university study. However, this arrangement had the condition that the study delay could be no more than one year. I had so many other interests apart from my study that my delay was coming close to a year. I then got a message that unless I could guarantee that I would finish my study within one year, I had to break off my study and go into the army first. I still had to start my Master’s, so I looked for what I thought was an easy Masters subject doable in one year. So that’s how I got involved in lighting and why my passion for lighting quickly became an unexpected reality.
You have spent a few years with “Philips Lighting” in different lighting application functions, what is your most unforgettable memory or project?
Regarding the question of my most unforgettable memory or project, I again have to give an unconventional answer. I worked only two years with Philips Lighting, where my main experience was traveling around Europe with a mobile road lighting laboratory (“the Light Van”), when the Association of Public Lighting Engineers (APLE, now ILE) of the United Kingdom organized a special conference to celebrate their golden jubilee. My English Philips colleagues arranged for our Light Van to be driven live on the conference hall’s podium while me giving a one-hour presentation. I then was a young guy without any public speaking experience, and that in a time, that conference speakers usually were older men in black cloth. I had never attended an English language conference before. I was sure that this presentation would become a disaster, and I remember hardly having slept for weeks before that conference. I was even dreaming about asking for my resignation from Philips Lighting. Of course, I did not do that, but instead, I prepared myself very, very thoroughly. After I started my presentation, to my big surprise, quickly my nerves disappeared, and I started realizing “this is so nice to do”. This experience changed my career. Because since that presentation I always look to new, exciting aspects of lighting in terms of: “how can I explain that to others”, or more precisely: “how can I explain difficult things in easy words”. And I love to give presentations.
Can you tell us more about “non-visual biological aspects of lighting influence”?
I was so fortunate to get involved in the subject “non-visual aspects of lighting” right from the moment, second half of the nineteen nineties, that the lighting world started to realize that lighting has not only a visual but also a non-visual biological effect. In the beginning, we had great difficulties convincing “traditional” lighting professionals to convince about the importance of the subject. I learned that that was the same in the medical/biological world. When Russel Foster, a British professor doing tests of bodily synchronization by light in mice, predicted in 1999 the existence of an unknown type of non-rod, non-cone photoreceptor, some professors left the conference room where he made this announcement. Only three years later, Dave Berson (USA) proofed that some retinal ganglion cells that he isolated, indeed are sensitive to light. Before that time, we studied already the non-visual biological effects of lighting and the practical importance for indoor lighting. Studying these effects was possible without understanding the detailed mechanisms behind it.
With Dave Berson’s discovery of the intrinsic photosensitive retinal ganglion cell (ipRGC), accepting the importance of the subject “lighting and health” went very quickly. As the cones and rods got their name from their cone and rod shape I, entirely in line with my pursuit of making difficult things easy, like to refer to the new type of photosensitive cell as tiny “spheres”, also roughly after their shape.
Today, the subject “lighting and health” is often taken into account in indoor lighting. Lighting installations, dynamic in lighting level and colour tint, and fully taking daylight contributions into account, are the result. CIE defined in 2019 a suitable new lighting measure for non-visual biological light: the “melanopic EDI”, in lux. In December 2020, 18 experts published recommended minimum and maximum values for this measure for daytime, evening and night-time conditions. It means that now the lighting world has all the necessary tools. This, even though we still have to learn a lot about the subject lighting and health. Fortunately, many laboratories all over the world are engaged with the subject.
You are the LIT 2020 Lifetime Achievement recipient for your contribution to Lighting Application Research, what does it mean to you?
I feel tremendously honoured, not only for myself but also for the many persons and organizations who stimulated me: my “early” teachers and bosses (to whom I devoted my 2019 Interior Lighting book) but also to the many students all over the world (to whom I dedicated my 2015 Road Lighting book) who helped me, and are still helping me today, through their critical questions and active participation in discussions, in learning how to explain lighting.
What would be your best advice to Emerging talents in Lighting Applications?
My advice to emerging talents in lighting application is “the more you learn, the more you like it”. But also, realize that mistakes are terrible but that it is tough to learn without mistakes. Don’t think that you can plan your future in detail. Grab your chances when they occur, and, they will come! Finally, don’t accept older professionals telling you when you come with an idea: “that does not work, we tried it already twenty years ago”. The circumstances change continuously; an idea that did not work long ago may be fantastic today.
Last, what makes light magical to you?
Light is magical to me because of its multi-disciplinary, ever-changing, aspects of it.
Lighting hardware aspects
Gas discharge, optical and, today, chip technology combined with lighting controls, and, coming up rapidly, data communication with our lighting as the carrier of the data.Lighting
Application aspects
Visual and health aspects, the latter including both positive and hazardous effects, lighting for growing plants, vegetables and fruit, and, today very important, the possibilities to fight corona with professional UV-C installations.
Aesthetical and architectural aspects
Light to emphasize indoor or outdoor architecture or lighting installations being art itself.
Emotional aspects
Lighting as a means to influence the emotional state of people. As soon as the sun comes out on a cloudy day, it often immediately changes our mood in a positive sense. We must realize that artificial lighting can also influence people’s emotional feelings to a certain extent, positively and negatively.
Women in Lighting (WIL) has received the LIT 2020 Spotlight prize, Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton, the founders of WIL share more about this initiative.
Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Light Collective is a company of two and was formed 10 years ago. Our creative portfolio of work houses more than architectural lighting design and has grown to encompass many innovative projects which include marketing campaigns, competitions, curation, lighting awards, branding, trade stands and shows, epic parties, pop up events, guerrilla lighting, community projects, light education and light art installations.
Our clients have ranged from the small scale to the large: designing for a school in Glasgow where the brief was set by the kids themselves to a shopping mall in Kuwait.… We are based in the UK but have worked all over the world; creating light in the snow in Finland or in the heat of Kenya…
We like to describe ourselves as lighting evangelists and light activists. All of our work has a light at the heart of it and always looks to promote light, lighting design and lighting designers to as wide an audience as possible. Many of our projects have been collective and have tried to promote the lighting industry as a whole and have included many other designers as our collective collaborators.
“Women in Lighting” have been launched on International Women’s Day in 2019. Can you share more about the project?
In 2018. we made a film called The Perfect Light which featured interviews with lighting designers. After a showing in New York, we were asked by some female audience members why we had not included many women in the film. We were shocked by the observation as it had never occurred to us and that we had not approached this with balance and had mainly interviewed men. I guess we were suffering from the same unconscious bias that exists in many professions. This inspired us to come up with the idea for the Women in Lighting project.
We looked at all the conferences, award juries, magazine panels, etc that we could think of it and discovered to our surprise that this lack of gender balance was very common. We decided that we would like to redress that imbalance and the project is the result of that.
Women in Lighting is an inspirational digital platform that profiles women working in the field of lighting design. It aims to promote their passion and achievements, narrate their career path and goals, celebrate their work and therefore help elevate their profile in the lighting community.
What are the key roles of the WIL ambassadors?
In order to make the project international, we approached twenty women in twenty countries and asked them to represent the project in their country. This number increased rapidly and the project currently has over 70 women in an ambassador’s role. They are a point of contact for the project and many are very active, running social media groups, events, discussions and more within their local communities.
What is coming next for WIL? Anything you can share with us in terms of activities, expansion of the platform?
We would like to grow the project both locally and support the ambassadors above but also to grow the project across the lighting industry. We would like to involve more women in areas other than design; manufacturing, education, research etc.
We would like the website to be a massive database of women in lighting that can create inspiration or enable people to search for a female mentor, designer or speaker.
We are currently planning an online event for International Women’s Day on March 8th with segments to suit three time zones. It will feature keynote speakers, panel discussions and social networking. We are also about to launch our very own WIL awards in a few weeks. They are specifically to highlight the achievements of the WIL community and its supporters. We want to seek out and celebrate the things this community achieved in 2020.
What are the main challenges faces by women working in the Lighting Industry?
There are a number of issues that come up over and over again in the interviews. These range from confidence and self-belief to balancing motherhood and a career but challenges are different from country to country.
We have been critiqued that the project is unnecessary but it has revealed that there are many areas of the world where lighting design is not well established and the women involved are finding it difficult to work in lighting. It’s easy for us to forget in the UK and US that women struggle in other countries for general equality let alone in the lighting industry.
We believe that the reason that so many women want to be involved is that they feel a need for support and we hope this project will help provide it.
WIL is receiving the first Spotlight prize from the LIT Design Awards, what does it mean to you both?
Firstly, it is incredibly flattering and we are super grateful for your consideration and the award. Importantly though, it also means that the project is working! We set out to raise the profile of Women In Lighting and winning an award for it means that the project is being noticed.
We are really grateful for the support of Katia Kolovea of Archifos and also formalighting (especially Sharon Maghnagi) who have been involved with the project from the beginning. There would be no project without them, all the women interviewed the ambassadors and the project supporters. This award is for all of them.
It sounds silly but Women in Lighting isn’t just for women 🙂 The project is about inclusivity and balance and how this is beneficial to the profession as a whole. Achieving gender balance is positive for everybody.
About Women in Lighting
International lighting designers and light activists, Light Collective launched the project, Women in Lighting on International Women’s day in 2019. It is a celebratory project that set out to create an inspirational digital platform for women working in the architectural lighting industry to promote their passion and achievements, narrate their career path and goals, celebrate their work and elevate their profile in the lighting community.
Women in Lighting consists primarily of a website – www.womeninlighting.com – with a database of interviews with women from around the world. Starting with lighting designers, the scope has expanded to include women in all aspects of lighting – education, journalism, manufacturing, art and research. The project has already gathered support from individual female designers in over 70 different countries. These “ambassadors” are a point of contact in each location for other women seeking to find out more about the project. Initially started as it was evident that female participation in conferences, committees, juries and panels were underrepresented, the main aim was that as there are approximately 50% of female lighting designers, they get 50% visibility.
Women in Lighting is not about gender inequality but about inclusivity and how this is beneficial to the profession as a whole. The project is supported by formalighting and archifos.
For more information about Women in Lighting, please visit https://womeninlighting.com.
Swathi Madhi is finishing her studies at Politecnico Di Milano in Italy, she won the LIT 2020 Emerging Designer of the year with her lighting project called ” Interior Lighting, Office, Stockholm, Sweden.”
Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Exploring new streets and spaces in my neighborhood was my biggest childhood fascination. I enjoyed spending time sketching out what I observed, reinterpreting the locality, buildings, and rooms; this eventually led me to pursue my undergraduate degree in Architecture from Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. I was always inquisitive about all the small details that make a huge impact on design holistically.
How did you discover your passion for Lighting Design? Why did you choose to study Lighting Design?
Upon graduation, I worked on a design-and-build residential project in Chennai, India. I had the opportunity of design supervising and executing the project simultaneously. I was given half a day to design the lighting and electrical points. I realized that I lacked knowledge in this subdomain of the design and that it definitely deserves more time than half a day to be designed. Though we had basic lessons on daylighting, lighting was never a primary subject in my Architecture school. I started realizing that lighting has the power to influence everything, and yet taken for granted. I wanted to know more about Lighting.
My realization helped me focus on what I loved the most and leading me to take the next step towards the career of my dreams. I pursued the Masters’ in Lighting Design and LED Technology program in Politecnico Di Milano, Milan, Italy. This program best suited to serve my interest in the subject; the specialized curriculum with a focused module system and project-based syllabus had a unique and intensive disposition.
Your winning project is Interior Lighting – Office, Stockholm, Sweden. Can you please explain to us, what was your creative journey? Where is your inspiration from?
Process:
Initially while brainstorming, we came to an ideal point of drawing our inspiration from the site itself. In that way, the building would be coherent with the surroundings in terms of design. One of the biggest decisions for this project was that all the lighting in the building would be designed to emit light only from above, mimicking mother nature, as the building would not get natural light throughout the year in Sweden.
Concept and Design:
Taking inspiration from Scandinavian architecture and the natural phenomenon of Northern lights and its curves, the lighting of this project is designed. It adds a sense of direction to the visitors to lead further inside. The Lighting project for the office building in Stockholm, Sweden, aims to define a new lighting experience for the visitor, who will be guided through various zones that are characterized by a different activity. Starting from the territory analysis, the climate and colors are analyzed to influence the project. Natural light is used utmost and is integrated with artificial light to bring the ‘exterior’ inside to the places that do not receive natural light. The lighting design is kept minimal and made sure that the lighting fixtures are customized accordingly, to keep the sinuous lines of the project, which are coherent to sing along with the interiors.
What does being the winner of the LIT 2020 Emerging Lighting Designer of the year title, mean to you?
Being the winner of LIT 2020 Emerging Lighting designer of the year makes me feel encouraged. This means a lot, quite literally, as this is my first big recognition in my most loved field of lighting. The year 2020 has had its own ups and downs. This award makes me believe in myself more firmly than ever, especially after facing all the challenges of the pandemic in 2020. I will cherish this forever.
What are you working on now? Can you share a glimpse of your next Lighting Design project?
I am currently looking for job opportunities.
After my graduation, I worked with Prof. Helena Gentili, Ph.D. (WIL Ambassador of India) in Bangalore, India. I had an opportunity to work on a wide range of projects in various scales of luxury Residential Lighting. I was able to carry design, realization, and control of the lighting installations. I had my hands-on experience of designing lighting for interiors, facades, outdoor areas.
You are just starting your career as a Lighting Designer… what do you want to do next? What are your dreams?
I am excited to start my career and to start making differences with light.
My short-term dream is to find a job opportunity in Europe, where I can contribute, learn and grow at the same time. My long-term dream is to establish a design studio myself, designing lighting for vast cultural heritage in India, especially in the south to bring out enormous beauty. In India, people have started realizing the importance of light. I want to work with government bodies, and light up the rural areas, where lighting is more of a necessity than a luxury, making them more meaningful, safe, and visually friendly.
Last, what makes light magical to you?
Whenever I travel to a place, I visit the place twice. Yes, I visit in the daylight and I visit again in the dusk/night to see how the place transforms itself in both scenarios. I visited the Pantheon, Rome during my Master’s. It was a beautiful sight to behold at both times. When the sunlight entered the Pantheon through the oculus, it felt powerful. In the evening, it was looking magnificent, and dramatic with the contrast of the evening sky and interior lighting. I must say, daylight is dynamic and shows the city in the morning. And the lighting designers show the city in the dusk/night. Light is a wonderful material to work with. It makes me feel empowered to design light for the world to see.
After all, aren’t we all truly attracted to light since birth? When I see newborn babies amused to light, I feel I haven’t lost the amusement yet and I cannot lose it. Light inspires me. Light amuses me in ways that nothing has. Light is dynamic and so we are. I feel light.
