Pics courtesy of IALD
Enlightening Europe The third instalment of IALD Enlighten Europe was held in Barcelona in early November, bringing together lighting designers, manufacturers, students and friends from all around the world for a three-day celebration of light. arc’s Matt Waring made the journey to join in the festivities.
T
he third edition of IALD Enlighten Europe came to
energy efficiency in lamps to lighting and human health.
educational conference to the lighting design
step forward in the recognition of the lighting design profession,
Barcelona from 7-9 November, bringing a packed community.
Hosted at the Hotel Pullman Skipper, on the shores of the Balearic
Sea, the three-day event brought hundreds of lighting designers and manufacturers from around the world together under one roof for a celebration of light.
The event featured a series of conferences, workshops and
networking opportunities, encouraging new working relationships and re-affirming existing ones.
This year’s conference programme featured three educational tracks focusing on the multiple facets of practicing lighting design: Art,
Technology, and Professional Tools, and the first day of the event saw the introduction of a series of hands-on workshops. These
workshops covered topics as varied as the application of circadian lighting in elderly care, active and reactive lighting, and a roundtable discussion on how to make qualitative aspects of lighting standards the ‘hero’.
The first day of proceedings also featured a presentation from John Martin, Dawn Latham and Claire Couet of the
IALD, discussing the role that the organisation plays in EU regulatory affairs. The IALD has worked diligently to gain
status as a ‘stakeholder’ in the European regulatory processes that may affect lighting designers - processes ranging from
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The recent developments highlighted in this session point to a great and the role of the IALD in EU discussions on lighting regulations. Continuing on this trend, former IALD President Victor Palacio
chaired a panel discussion with four acclaimed European lighting designers - Andreas Schulz of Licht Kunst Licht, Sara Castagne
from LUMINOcité, Rafael Gallego from AureoLighting, and Susanna Antico of Susanna Antico Lighting Design - entitled ‘Raising the Profile of the Profession in Europe’. Here, the group discussed a myriad of factors that are helping to boost the reputation of
the profession, from the aforementioned work of the IALD, the growing availability of lighting design courses, and the strong
sense of community that exists within the field - something that was on display throughout the event. Alongside this, the panel
discussed more contentious issues, such as the hot topic of the
moment - human centric lighting and circadian rhythms, with some arguing that this is merely a case of the lighting industry “searching for new tools to sell luminaires”, while others
suggested that the lighting design community needs to be more
proactive and involved in the development of this new technology in order to create something that is actually human-centric.
The second day of the event began with an opening keynote from
designer and entrepreneur Sandra Rey, founder and CEO of Glowee - a start-up company that makes lighting systems by harnessing