Lighting up our heritage workshop Location Saint-Paul Cathedral, Mdina, Malta Lighting designer Franck Franjou Organizers Signify Lighting Academy Jaap Schuuring Brighter Solutions Oliver Pace Guests Lighting Designers, Architects and Engineers University of Malta Malta College of Arts Science and Technology (MCAST) When 2-5 May, 2018
© Alan Carville
Website www.franckfranjou.com www.philips.com/lightinguniversity www.brightersolutions.com.mt
There can be few more exciting and valuable ways of engaging with lighting than to go to one of the lighting workshops that Signify supports around the world. Not only do these have accomplished speakers; they also give attendees the opportunity to handle lighting equipment and to do some real lighting of real buildings.
Technology (MCAST) Pace explained that he met Jaap Schuuring, manager of the Signify Lighting Academy at an architectural workshop in Lyon. ‘I wanted to share this experience here on Malta ,’ he said. In particular, since Malta has so many heritage buildings, it made sense to focus on that sector.
Two of the most recent were in Malta and Thailand, both dealing with the lighting of heritage buildings. In Malta, the Signify Lighting Academy supported a workshop that was organised by Oliver Pace, director of Brighter Solutions, Signify’s trusted partner in Malta. It was run in collaboration with two universities. The Malta University and the Malta College of Arts, Science and
The workshop took place in the city of Mdina over three days. As a final part, the participants provided outdoor lighting for the city’s beautiful bastion. Pace explained that the workshop consisted of several elements. There was the opportunity to get hands-on with products – largely from the Color Kinetics range – and to use a lot of equipment and controls. The climax came
with the lighting exercise, but before that there were inspiring talks. French lighting designer Franck Franjou, who works extensively in Malta, provided inspiration. ‘My approach was more creative than technical,’ he said. ‘In particular I talked about the importance of the night, and about how we can work with a very low level of light.’ Some of the attendees, who came from as far afield as Poland and Romania, were, he felt, very creative. ‘It’s important to have good ideas, to have a feeling for the site, even if you are not a lighting designer,’ he said.
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