5 minute read
Up Close With Claudia Kappl Joy
from Oct/Nov 2025
By Shirley Coyle, LC
Growing up in Austria, Claudia Kappl Joy’s first job was ski instructor. At age 15, she was the youngest ski instructor in her home region. “It’s a really serious thing in Austria, including snow profiling and avalanche training–an actual career path!”
Claudia’s path into lighting was more accidental. It came into view thanks to Claudia’s final thesis project while studying architecture at the University of Technology in Graz (TU Graz).
“It was an exploration of the topic of white, inspired by nature and snow, and aspects of light and how they make their way into architecture. It led me to an exploration of perception and human experience ... and to an understanding that if I wanted to create atmospheric space, I needed to learn about lighting.”
Claudia moved to Stockholm, Sweden, for a Master of Science, Architectural Lighting, at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. “It was an international program that explored lighting’s broader history, human aspects and was heavily linked to the health department then. Very forward thinking at that time.”
Next Claudia started to learn the practice of architectural lighting design working under Kai Piippo & Niklas Odman at Ljusarkitektur (now part of AFRY) in Stockholm. She recalled, “It was a fantastic studio, learning under their leadership...I got hooked and never was unhooked.”
Fate intervened again when Claudia met her future partner— in life and design work—Rick Joy. Rick was in Stockholm for work, but had chosen Tucson, Arizona to base his architectural practice and life. He managed to convince Claudia to join him in Tucson in 2007.
Claudia would eventually establish her own design studio, CLL- Concept Lighting Lab in 2013, building her own team out to seven people. “I had already worked throughout the years with former project architects and partners who pulled me in, and I had a really good go of it.”
“Everything went smoothly—until COVID. I had my first big awakening where some clients started to not pay or live up to our agreement. I find it intriguing to engage with challenges and find solutions to them. It’s not so much the design challenges— they’re fun, more creative, exciting. But there’s other pressures that have to do with business, and if you haven’t been educated in that aspect of it, you learn the hard way.”
“Luckily, I’ve had great mentors, like my former boss Kai Piippo, Paul Traynor (former Light Bureau/UK) and Rick (Studio Rick Joy). Now I enjoy open dialogue and exchanges with international colleagues, many of them female trailblazers and strong voices in the fields of education, design and architecture, who share from their experiences in meaningful ways.”
Reflecting on current issues in the lighting community, Claudia noted that “the design community has always been quite friendly and open-minded, embracing technology, bouncing things off each other. It’s an appealing side of lighting. There was always a place for us in the conversation.”
“Now, there seems to be a trend toward integrators taking over huge aspects of the lighting design scope of work … our part of the conversation seems to be highjacked by systems in a way that overrules the lighting design. I get it from the end users’ perspective—one party providing the service is probably helpful.”
“But I also feel sometimes the integrity of an experience goes a bit to the wayside because it all becomes just system driven. It feels different to me than in previous years, when people who appreciate qualitative lighting would stay with someone who knows about lighting, perceptions, and experience-based aspects.”
Asked how she looks at her success, Claudia offered, “Success might be relative … I feel something is really successful when the client is really happy with the outcome, and we manage to maintain project integrity and our philosophy.”
What is Claudia’s advice for new people coming into our industry?
“For the past seven years, I have been teaching a lighting class at the University of Arizona. Several people on my team have come from there. I do give them some texts to read, encourage them to put hands on, get active. Try to light something, learn from peers, become part of a theater company. Experiment and make observations. Lots of things with lighting are sometimes surprisingly different than you anticipate. Have fun but also fail— and don’t be intimidated by electricity.
She spoke about her excitement for the upcoming IALD Enlighten Americas conference in Tuscon, saying, “There’s so much about DarkSky in Tucson, so much sky to observe. It has such a distinct look. By embracing the dark and loving the shadow, mitigating the daylight … a lot of what we do is literally looking into ‘Where’s your shade structure?’ which is the opposite to the Northeast!”
When Claudia is not designing, teaching, and managing her business, she “longs to get to the cold … I am a skier. I head to my hometown in Austria, spending few days with my family first. Last year, I went after the fair in Milan (Euroluce / Salone del Mobile). My sister and I spent a day together skiing—it made my whole spring!”
