Why we seem to be going backwards on light pollution and dark skies
What young lighters feel about climate change and global heating
Sally Storey, Nick Hoggett and Mark Major on the past, present and future of lighting
The publication for all lighting professionals
Despite hopes LED would reduce light pollution and skyglow, the reality is that things are going backwards, with the night sky continuing to brighten because of artificial light. Drawing on recent surveys and observations, Bob Mizon and Howard Lawrence investigate what’s been going wrong
Least year’s European City of Science, the Dutch city of Leiden deliberately plunged itself into darkness in September to celebrate our night skies and highlight how artificial light is too often breaking our connection with the stars
The ILP is one of the signatories to the inaugural ‘ROLAN Manifesto’, or Responsible Outdoor Lighting at Night Manifesto to preserve night-time darkness
This winter’s energy crisis is bringing a real possibility of blackouts and switch-offs. New ILP guidance can help lighting professionals respond
The majority of fluorescent lamps are due to be phased out during this year (2023) under EU regulations, with the first changes coming as soon as next month. As Guy Harding advises, it is important ILP members familiarise themselves with what’s happening, audit their inventory and, if need be, speak to their suppliers
The ILP’s latest Guidance Note updates best practice around protecting exterior lighting installations from electrical surges. Guy Harding reports
It will be future generations who will bear the heaviest burden of any failure to mitigate CO2 emissions in the coming decades. How, then, do young lighters feel the industry will need to change and adapt?
A YLP panel discussion found out
The Society of Light and Lighting’s annual ‘Ready Steady Light’ competition returned in October, bringing together lighting designers, manufacturers and students
The inaugural LiGHT 22 show and exhibition in November saw the lighting community come back together face to face, with the ILP as an event partner. Two days of CPD included veteran lighting designers Sally Storey, Nick Hoggett, and Mark Major discussing the past, present and future of lighting
The European Commission’s ‘ECOSLIGHT’ project is identifying where shortages of lighting professionals are most pronounced, how these might be addressed and, against the backdrop of a climate and energy crisis, what future skills and competencies the profession will most require, writes Allan Howard
November’s ‘Collected Light’ exhibition in London celebrated the work of six cutting-edge female light artists and provided opportunity for immersion, contemplation and reflection
Becoming a lighting designer is not just about landing a job in lighting. As Katia Kolovea and Leni Schwendinger explained at a recent ‘How to be brilliant’ event, it is also about working out your lighting ‘brand’, building your networks, and channelling your creativity
Much detail has been added to the ILP’s ‘Strategy 2026’ five-year roadmap since it was launched last summer, writes Justin Blades. Now we need your help
The Covid-19 pandemic meant an overnight switch from face-to-face events to online. With physical ILP activities now returning, all led by our Lighting Delivery Centre network, why not make a new year’s resolution to re-engage and reconnect with the wonderful volunteer teams behind your LDC? Jess Gallacher reports
For 2023, Lighting Journal is joining forces with the YLP to showcase and celebrate young lighters, up-and-coming lighting professionals and those who are new to the industry, as Katerina Xynogala explains
Opening the first of our 2023 profiles of industry newcomers, Dutch lighting engineer Guus Ketelings outlines his route into lighting, how light inspires him, and his hopes for the future
A resident of Leiden in The Netherlands enjoying a clear view of the stars during the city’s ‘SEEING STARS’ night-time switch-off in the autumn. You can read all about this from page 14 but also, from page six, Bob Mizon and Howard Lawrence investigate why, despite hopes that LED would reduce light pollution and skyglow, the reality is that things still appear to be going backwards.
Photograph by Daan Roosegaarde, www.studioroosegaarde.net
Volume 88 No 1
January 2023
Nic Paton BA (Hons) MA
Email: nic.cormorantmedia@outlook.com
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Happy new year. I hope you managed to relax and recharge over the festive break following what has been a demanding 12 months for many working within lighting.
This edition makes it very clear that, even as we look towards a new year, many of the challenges that have dominated our headlines in 2022 will be equally important conversations this year. The energy crisis is certainly one and, as we highlight from page 18, the ILP has now created guidance to help lighting professionals respond to the very real possibility of blackouts and switch-offs this winter.
If you can, the ILP’s event next month discussing how the industry needs to answer the the crisis – both the challenges and opportunities it poses – is one not to be missed. Although, if you can’t make it, LightingJournalwill report back.
The climate crisis and global heating is, absolutely rightly, also set to continue to be a major conversation during this year. Throughout 2023, LightingJournal intends to focus hard on bringing you discussion and reflection on climate change, sustainability and lighting’s role and responsibility to help mitigate global heating.
I was therefore very pleased to be able to chair the YLP-led panel discussion on climate change that we report on from page 26. It was fascinating and uplifting to hear the perspectives of the next generation of lighting professionals on this issue, lighters who will, of course, be leading how the industry rises to the challenge of this crisis and adapts in the decades to come.
What struck me from our debate was, first, how intertwined many of our current challenges are. The fact, for example, the energy crisis is leading to a positive, and belated, surge of interest and investment in more sustainable alternatives. Or how we also mustn’t forget the importance of addressing vulnerability at night when considering reducing light or energy use. Or the need to be lighting to protect ecosystems as well as reducing emissions.
As someone who is probably more glass-half-empty than glass-half-full when it comes to the speed and urgency of humanity’s response to global warming, I was pleasantly surprised how optimistic many of our young lighters are about the future.
They recognised the scale of the challenge facing lighting and the fact that, while lighting is changing for the better, there is still a way to go. But there was also a clear sense of the important advocacy role young lighters will increasingly have, and an appetite to be leading that change. That, I think, bodes well for the future of the industry as well as, hopefully of course, our planet.
Finally, it was great to be able to spend time at the inaugural LiGHT 22 in November. It was good, first, simply to be back, post Covid, at a buzzy face-to-face show and exhibition, and from my conversations there I was definitely not the only one to feel that way. Second, I was impressed by the quality of the CPD over the two days, primarily thoughtful panel discussions such as, as we show from page 34, the ‘masters of light’ debate featuring Sally Storey, Nick Hoggett and Mark Major. We’ll aim to bring you at least tasters of some of the other discussions over the next few editions.
One way or another, 2023 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for lighting and for lighting CPD – it’s clear I’m going to have my work cut out! Having said that, if your new year’s resolution is that you’d like to write something for the journal, I’d love to hear from you. This is your journal, after all. My contact details are opposite, and please don’t be shy about getting in touch.
ILP members receive Lighting Journal every month as part of their membership. You can join the ILP online, through www.theilp.org.uk. Alternatively, to subscribe or order copies please email Diane Sterne at diane@theilp.org.uk. The ILP also provides a Lighting Journal subscription service to many libraries, universities, research establishments, non-governmental organisations, and local and national governments.
Despite hopes that LED would reduce light pollution and skyglow, the reality is that things are going backwards, with the night sky continuing to brighten because of artificial light.
Drawing on recent surveys and observations, Bob Mizon and Howard Lawrence investigate what’s been going wrong
By Bob Mizon and Howard LawrenceBack in September 2016, that month’s edition of Lighting Journal contained our article ‘Star quality’ (vol 81, no 8), which looked at the history and evolving state of light pollution and skyglow as then perceived by amateur astronomers.
It included a report on our survey undertaken at various astronomical events in the preceding months. We were keen to understand the challenges of observing the heavens above Britain and what had changed since the inception of LED public lighting.
Different groups of dedicated amateur astronomers were asked about their experiences both long-term and in the years since the introduction of LED technology.
Some of these observers had decades of experience and a good knowledge of how the sky used to look.
Unsurprisingly, the 2016 survey showed that, over the median of 30 years of observing, 69% of participants felt that skyglow had become worse or much worse while, for 31%, it was unchanged or their night sky had improved.
In the more recent LED era, 29% said that skyglow for their observing location had become worse/much worse; 71% said it was unchanged or improved. We concluded the article by speculating that the impact of the new LED lighting technology might turn out to be less than feared. But we did note a new trend towards badly aimed, high-powered LED floodlights on
building walls.
Since 2016, we have of course seen a more widespread uptake of LEDs, both public and private, together with better public lighting design and more adaptive lighting schemes.
In the spring of 2022 therefore, we conducted new surveys at various amateur astronomy events, with many of the same participants as in 2016. This time we simply asked the groups if, since 2016, their skyglow had changed. We did this by using a bowl of counters and slotted collection tins labelled ‘worse’, ‘unchanged’ and ‘better’. Not all the those present at each event participated.
For both of us, our own local skyglow had remained much the same over the last few years. We had an open-minded approach with no expectations that sky conditions for others would be any different. Also, a recent ‘Star Count’ citizen science public survey by CPRE the Countryside Charity had reported a possible reduction in severe light pollution, which if verified would be excellent news. This
was also reported in Lighting Journal over the summer (‘“Lockdown legacy” reducing light pollution’, July-August 2022, vol 87, no 7).
The CPRE survey required observers to count without optical aid the number of stars visible within the figure of Orion. Greater amounts of skyglow reduce contrast and the ability to see fainter (lower visual magnitude) stars, so the count can be used as a proxy for night sky brightness.
Stellar visual magnitude is the historically developed (and imperfect) way that astronomers gauge the relative brightness of stars. The scale is logarithmic with the bright star Vega being magnitude 0 and the dimmest stars, capable of being seen without aid, having magnitude 6.
Some bright stars, the moon and planets have negative magnitudes: for example, Sirius is -1.5, the moon -12.5 and the sun -26.7. We consider the basic method of
naked-eye visual magnitude assessment as sound, provided the observer follows certain rules. Indeed, limiting visual magnitude is what most amateur astronomers are likely to know and monitor over time from their observing location.
We were ever hopeful that our many years of campaigning against light pollution were begin to pay off. So, the survey results from our own annual British Astronomical Association Winchester Weekend event were not quite as we had hoped, with nearly two-thirds saying things had got worse, as shown in figure 1 overleaf.
Follow-up surveys at a few amateur astronomy club meetings suggested 75% worse on average. So, from these surveys, light pollution has worsened for
two-thirds or more of contributing amateur astronomers in recent years. Why is this? What scientific evidence is there about what is actually happening?
To help answer the first question there are additional clues to consider. In the course of the survey, we had numerous chats with those affected by increasing glare and skyglow. Our conversations revealed that sources of light pollution were as great from what may be called ‘nuisance’ neighbours as from the overall skyglow produced by public lighting.
Offenders included sports fields, new commercial and domestic developments, neighbours’ gardens and ‘security’ lights. Also, many households simply don’t bother to close curtains and blinds, though that habit may change with increases in
energy costs. So, when our survey respondents complained about light pollution it was local glare and intrusion rather than skyglow that were causing the most troublesome impacts.
When making observations, astronomers spend most time looking at lower elevations rather than the zenith. The southern aspect is particularly important because that’s where many interesting objects are, including the planets and all those wonders of the southern hemisphere that may be just visible from northern latitudes.
Atmospheric extinction means that observing across a townscape will result in a view that has multiple times less contrast than when looking above. So, if there happens to be a distant bright city or a particularly bright local sports field on an interesting point of the compass its lights will seriously mar the observer’s view.
The more and brighter these sources of low elevation light sources are, the greater the psychological impression that light pollution will have increased. Amateur astronomers, particularly those who are mainly visual astronomers, are very concerned that the trend of ever-increasing sky brightness will continue indefinitely. They question when they will have to give up their interest in astronomy. Will their grandchildren ever see the stars as they used to be?
We believe that the most significant cause of local glare and intrusion is the sheer proliferation of new and, crucially, poor-quality domestic and commercial lighting.
In recent times householders, businesses and organisations have adopted
LED as a must-have adornment to their properties. Invariably, many of these lights are not needed, are on when they should be off, are dazzlingly bright, too blue, poorly diffused and aimed in directions not needing illumination.
Older fixtures are often replaced with those of higher luminosity. Often, luminaire designs allow significant light to escape upward and horizontally. Some are designed for light to be reflected off walls to make an architectural statement. And, even when well controlled, the luminance can be very uneven, resulting in intense patches of light being reflected upward from the ground.
For some amateur astronomers, their local stray-light sources are simply so distracting that they cannot become fully dark-adapted. They no longer know their limiting visual magnitude, making it impossible to appreciate if overall skyglow has changed for the better or worse. In other words, they cannot see the skyglow for the glare.
So, in effect, many advances in public lighting design standards and usage aimed at better controlling light pollution may have been in vain for the majority of people who study the sky.
Neighbours seldom intend to be a nuisance but need to light their property. And
no one can blame someone for choosing a cheap, low-running-cost solution, particularly in recent times.
But why isn’t the professional lighting industry protesting about environmentally-damaging lighting products in DIY shops, garden centres and electrical supplies distributors?
The situation is akin to manufacturers making great efforts to design low-emission trucks and buses only to witness car suppliers being allowed to sell people high-emission, noisy, low-cost vehicles.
We now have a feel for what amateur astronomers are experiencing. What is the scientific evidence about changes in night sky brightness?
Numerous academic-led research programmes and papers are published on the subject of artificial light at night (ALAN). Some studies rely upon remote sensing, typically satellite observations.
But at least two significant satellites cannot detect wavelengths shorter than 500nm, so are blind to the highly scattering 450nm band produced by blue-rich white LEDs.
One of the most interesting papers analysed photographs taken over time by different teams of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Unsurprisingly, the general scientific consensus is that night-sky brightness continues to increase, perhaps at a rate of 2% per year. In the UK, both total radiance and spread of ALAN are increasing.
However, rather than rehash the literature on monitoring ALAN, we want here to discuss the results from our two citizen science projects, which don’t rely upon the eyesight and observing skills of the general public.
In the 2016 article we mentioned that the British Astronomical Association’s Commission for Dark Skies (CfDS) wished for a network of ground-based observatories to monitor the night sky for changes in light pollution.
Although this project is still in formation, several amateur observatories have been at work and the results from two of them are discussed below.
First, Dr Chris Baddiley, a CfDS committee member, has been measuring night-sky brightness at his observatory to the west of the Malvern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, since 2012.
In this very rural location, there are few nearby stray sources of light. Sky brightness is mostly skyglow from distant conurbations, some over a hundred kilometres away. Over the years, he has acquired a mass of data and images, which he has used to develop and refine a protocol for making credible measurements suitable for long time-series study.
When lunar and clear meteorological conditions are right, Chris automatically records darkness using a photometer, in this case a Unihedron Sky Quality Meter (SQM) mounted in a weather-resistant housing.
The SQM measures integrated light coming from a 20-degree patch of sky offset to the north of zenith (to miss the Milky Way) and outputs in units of visual magnitudes per square arc second. The greater the magnitude the darker the sky.
In addition, an all-sky camera equipped with a fish-eye lens is employed. The camera is used in other ways to investigate sky brightness over the whole sky, including nearer the horizons. It also confirms that the SQM is not recording a spectacularly dark sky when it is actually foggy. Both instruments are linked with an automated computer-driven network system which logs every two minutes.
The all-sky image and accompanying isophote plot (figure 2 below) shows how horizons are relatively bright compared with the zenith. Note how the light from Birmingham and Bristol penetrates deep
into the country from both these cities.
Ten years of dedicated work have yielded a much deeper understanding. His key findings on sky brightness from the Malvern hills countryside are that:
• light pollution depends on many variables such as the seasons, humidity, wind speed, thermal disturbances, distant clouds, natural light sources, and so on;
• it can change from minute to minute, caused by atmospheric conditions affecting ALAN and natural light;
• brightness follows a ‘bathtub profile’ curve, reducing from the evening shallow end until reaching a peak of darkness in proximity to the ‘plughole’ before dawn;
• highest SQM values are typically 21.2 mag/arcsec 2 , (0.36 mCd/m 2 ), between 02:00 and 03:00 UT;
• light pollution was largely unchanged during the 2020 lockdown from the same period two years earlier;
• it has barely changed with the uptake
of adaptive lighting;
• it is now being affected by satellite constellations, which have become a nuisance with fewer unaffected allsky images;
• peak zenith darkness has changed very little in the past six years;
• horizons are noticeably lighter and much whiter, again caused by ALAN.
Given the variable nature of darkness it is not a trivial matter to be able to determine trends. Each night will have its peak moment of darkness, setting a point from which nights, seasons and years can be compared. So, photometry needs to be applied continuously, over all seasons and for many years in order to be able to identify these peaks and therefore trends. Only then we can be confident about what is truly happening as the years pass.
The second set of results comes from work in 2017, where we and Chris had a meeting with the Hampshire Astronomical Group (HAG) and Dan Oakley, dark skies ranger for the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA). As ILP members
Holophane Europe Ltd is proud to be a member of the International Dark Sky Association, helping to accomplish their mission to protect and restore our natural night environment.
Under this programme Holophane has successfully obtained the ‘fixture seal of approval’ for these street lighting products.* * Note that only fittings specified with colour temperatures 3000K or warmer are approved under the IDA.
may well be aware, The South Downs, a beautiful haven of peaceful countryside in an otherwise overcrowded region, has been awarded Dark Sky Reserve status by the International Dark-Sky Association.
It was agreed that HAG would start a programme, headed by member Steve Futcher, recording night-sky brightness at its observatory near Waterlooville.
Its method is based on Chris’ protocol and uses an SQM funded by the SDNPA. The aim was, in part, to develop the existing protocol; instead of an all-sky camera, Steve introduced a cloud detection instrument to validate qualifying measurements.
The cloud sensor may be a better option than an all-sky camera for a network of observatories perhaps run by non-specialist amateur astronomers. As well as the SQM used at the HAG observatory, Steve is also evaluating a TESS photometer.
Night skies from the HAG observatory are slightly brighter than the Malvern hills. In contrast to the findings from the Malvern Hills Observatory, the HAG measurements are showing an increase in zenith sky brightness since 2017.
The accompanying plot (figure 3, below) shows peaks of darkness over five seasons with a regression line showing this clear worsening trend.
Bringing all the evidence together, one English citizen science project is detecting less light pollution.
However, another citizen science project from two dark-sky areas suggests that light pollution is worsening both at the zenith and towards the horizon. Equally, international academic research projects show worsening. Finally, most amateur astronomers continue to experience
worsening conditions.
So, from this what should we conclude? We conclude that the night sky continues to brighten because of artificial light. Our goal, of course, is that one day this trend will reverse.
ALAN is increasing not just in total radiance but in creeping coverage over wider regions. If this trend continues, the South Downs and other dark-sky reserves risk losing their dark-sky credentials.
This matters not just to local communities but to the natural ecology of whole, relatively unspoiled, rural regions.
As we try to tackle the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, we must not forget that reducing light pollution has a considerable role to play.
The night is a huge natural habitat needing protection. Moreover, during the whole history of our evolution, the human race has been able to appreciate and interact with the environments around it.
We still find a starry sky an awe-inspiring sight. Yet the simple fact is that most of us have never seen it, more especially nowadays as new lighting technologies and lack of control have resulted in light routinely going into places where it is
manifestly not needed, and in lighting units producing far more light than required.
Our national parks, AONBs, nature reserves, forests and hills have become vital havens of peace. Darkness may still be found there because of the efforts of hard-working staff – in the continuing absence of any regulation of lighting, such as has been enacted in France, Mexico and other countries and regions.
The CfDS is a leading supporter of the recently formed UK Dark Sky Partnership (https://ukdarkskies.org.uk). This emerging group, led by South Downs’ Dan Oakley, brings together the ILP, dark sky reserves and national parks, nature-promoting organisations, and existing darksky campaigns in a common cause. Please continue to support our efforts.
To conclude therefore:
• light pollution continues to increase in many parts of the UK;
• the cause of this is not just street lighting changes alone;
• domestic and commercial stray light, often caused by very poor lighting products, has a significant impact on amateur astronomy;
• a great deal more action is needed to turn the tide of unsustainable increases in artificial light at night; and
• crucially, the professional lighting community could be doing more to address this trend.
The authors wish gratefully to acknowledge the contributions made by Dr Chris Baddiley, Steve Futcher, the SDNPA, the HAG and all participants in the surveys.
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Least year’s European City of Science, the Dutch city of Leiden deliberately plunged itself into darkness in September to celebrate our night skies and highlight how artificial light at night is increasingly breaking our connection with the stars
By Nic Paton
The Dutch city of Leiden sits between The Hague and Amsterdam and is known both for its stunning architecture and for being the birthplace of the artist Rembrandt.
For 2022 it was named European City of Science by EuroScience, the biennial interdisciplinary meeting on science and innovation, with the city as a result holding a full 365 days of interactive activities, events, workshops, excursions, and exhibitions.
A key part of ‘Leiden2022’, as it was known, was ‘SEEING STARS Leiden’, an event held on 25 September designed to celebrate the night sky above the city.
At the same time, the event was designed to focus minds on how light pollution, skyglow and artificial light at night is leading to us increasingly losing our connection with the stars over our heads.
SEEING STARS Leiden ran from 10pm-11.30pm. During those 90 minutes lights across the city were turned off, residents were asked to switch off their domestic lights and the city’s inhabitants were encouraged out on to the streets to revel in the stars above them.
The city also aimed to use the event to discuss a range of questions, including which stars were most visible, and how many? How much energy was saved as a result? Did people feel safer when there was less light around them? Did people feel there was too much light at night? How did residents feel artificial light was influencing nature? How did people experience the dark?
The event was a collaboration between the Mayor of Leiden, Studio Roosegaarde and UNESCO.
The event followed similar a switch-off in the city Franeker, north of Amsterdam, and the intention is for it to travel to a range of cities around the world, including Sydney, Venice, Stockholm and Reykjavik.
‘Everyone is now in their own little bubble, disconnected from each other. I realised that every night, there is actually an amazing light performance hidden up high in our sky. SEEING STARS brings the stars back to your own street. The stars are one switch away,’ said artist Daan Roosegaarde of the event.
Kathleen Ferrier, chair of the Netherlands Commission for UNESCO, added: ‘More than 80% of the planet’s population lives under a sky, polluted by artificial lights; a barrier that stops us from experiencing the beauty of the universe.
‘Everyone should have the right to see the stars in a non-polluted nightly sky. Looking at the stars makes you feel connected to each other, we are after all part of the same cosmos. This is the common and universal legacy that I strive for. SEEING STARS is an important step forward,’ she said.
A movie of the event can be viewed at: https://www.visitleiden.nl/en/ highlights/seeing-stars-leiden
The Institution of Lighting Professionals is one of the signatories to the inaugural ‘ROLAN Manifesto’, or Responsible Outdoor Lighting at Night Manifesto
The manifesto sets out ten core principles for external illumination (outlined below), in particular how to preserve and even emphasise darkness at night.
The manifesto also sets out a plan of action to implement positive change in the lighting community to lead to a more sustainable, healthier, and safer future for all.
The manifesto is designed to forefront the role and impact of responsible lighting at night, especially within the context of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), even though these do not explicitly refer to external illumination and its multiple impacts.
In other words, by following the principles outlined in the ROLAN Manifesto, governments, businesses and individuals will be able to support the implementation of 11 of the 17 SDGs, as shown below.
The ILP is one of the founding partners of ROLAN, along with: the ILLUME research group/the Gdansk University of Technology (led by Dr Karolina M Zielinska-Dabkowska); The Society of Light and Lighting (SLL); The International DarkSky Association (IDA); The International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD); The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES); and The Lighting Industry Association (the LIA).
Graham Festenstein, CEng FILP MSLL and the ILP’s Vice President – Architectural, said of the move: ‘The ILP is delighted to be signatories to the ROLAN manifesto, which for the first time draws together the environmental objects of design, engineering and scientific disciplines into a single joined-up approach to tackle the environmental challenges all of us involved with external public lighting are working to address.
‘We feel that it is also a significant achievement that the manifesto has been adopted in a collaboration of the foremost international professional bodies for the lighting industry and Dr Zielinska-Dabkowska should be acknowledged for making this possible,’ Graham added.
The ten principles of the manifesto are:
1. Everyone should have the right to access darkness and quality lighting, and light needs to be used and distributed fairly without discrimination.
2. Start your design with darkness and only add light if it supports nocturnal placemaking and protects a view of the stars.
3. In all projects, strive to maximise the benefits of outdoor light at night by creating legible, safe spaces and journeys, limiting each project’s environmental and financial costs.
4. Apply the ‘Five Principles of Responsible Outdoor Lighting’ in all lighting projects, namely that:
– All light should have a clear purpose.
– Light should be directed only to where it’s needed.
– Light should be no brighter than necessary.
– Light should be dimmed down or turned off when not required.
– Use warmer colour lights where possible.
5. Collaborate with researchers from different disciplines and specialties, such as astronomers, ecologists, biologists, lawyers, and so on, so they can provide expertise on unfamiliar topics.
6. Educate your clients about the importance of ROLAN.
7. Ensure the community you work with is an active stakeholder and participant in all lighting projects. Enquire about their needs and wishes at night, and provide them with access to information to make informed decisions.
8. Embrace technology by asking for support from the lighting industry to ensure that night-time biodiversity is sustained and energy consumption is reduced. Engage with the lighting design industry to deliver an appropriate lighting solution.
9. A circular economy should be integrated into the brief, design, specification, and manufacturing process of your project, as well as its installation.
10. After project completion, visit the site at night with community stakeholders, to verify that your lighting design was fully implemented and meets ROLAN principles.
Figure 1. The 11 (of 17) UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where ‘ROLAN’ may make a differenceThis winter’s energy crisis is bringing a real possibility of blackouts and switch-offs. The ILP has created guidance to help lighting professionals respond
By Nic PatonAlot has happened since Lighting Journal brought ILP members together in the autumn to discuss the ongoing energy crisis, its likely impact on the industry and the important role lighting professionals could play (‘Winter is coming’, October 2022, vol 87 no 9).
We’ve had a change of government (twice in fact), energy bill support packages for both consumers and businesses (if time limited) and, until December, a relatively mild (if wet and stormy) autumn.
Yet, with the war in Ukraine showing no sign of being resolved anytime soon and the impact of the energy crisis starting to affect spending on energy for road street lighting, this is a conversation and debate that remains very much ‘live’ within the industry.
Not the least of this is growing worries over the threat, and possible reality, of power shortages and blackouts, as the National Grid has warned could yet happen this new year [1]. Of course, any blackouts will be nothing compared to what Ukraine is already experiencing this winter, as Russia has targeted its energy
infrastructure, but could nevertheless be challenges for communities and businesses unused to such privations.
More widely, there is the ongoing concern about how, in extremis, councils and municipalities may yet feel they have to respond to the crisis. Whether the UK may yet be forced to follow other European cities in cutting back on, or even turning off, street, exterior or public realm lighting [2].
To that end, the ILP’s Technical Committee came together in November to consider the key concerns and questions posed by the crisis and discuss how the industry should best respond if the worst does happen and local authorities begin to switch off street lighting.
As the committee heard, local authorities are already starting to question when and what lighting must be provided. Local authorities are also starting to question what lighting is more perhaps just a ‘nice to have’.
As committee members pointed out, feedback they were hearing on the ground was almost unanimously grim. The ‘energy crisis is the top of agenda in local authorities’; ‘we are on the brink of a
This image and overleaf: Kyiv at night, showing the scale of the city’s blackout. The situation will not, of course, be as bad for UK cities, but switch-offs, shortages and blackouts are still being discussed as a possibility this winter
financial emergency’; ‘typical energy costs are rising from 16.5p to 34p a unit’ (and possibly even as high as 60p a unit in some cases); ‘there is immense pressure to reduce costs and a lack of knowledge and experience on councils in decision making’.
Some authorities are already taking matters into their own hands. Leicestershire County Council, for example, is partnight switching off on roads between junctions between midnight and 6am. Warwickshire County Council, too, is switching off residential road lighting at midnight to 5am, albeit with some variations of hours at weekends. Other local authorities are looking to reduce or switch off night-time lighting in some rural areas.
The result of the committee’s deliberations was the publication of a document for members, ‘Strategies for Tackling the Energy Crisis: Guidance for Lighting Authorities’, drafted by Allan Howard, David Lodge and Guy Harding, but with input from across the committee.
The full document is available for members to read on the ILP website but, in sum, it pulls together and summarises the relevant legislation and the impact these have on decision-making, on installing and maintaining lighting, and on dimming and switching off strategies during this time of energy crisis.
The document emphasises, first, that a highway authority has the power and ability, though not an obligation, under the Highways Act 1980 to provide and maintain road lighting. Similarly, the local lighting authority – usually the parish, town, district or borough council – has the same power to provide and maintain footway lighting.
If the worst should happen and switchoffs are suddenly on the table, it is beholden on lighting professionals in any response to consider the Crime and Disorder Act 1988, which requires community safety to be taken into account as part of any decision. It is also imperative that correct lighting standards and industry best practice guidance are followed at all times.
When assessing infrastructure, it is important authorities consider all
applicable documents in a hierarchy order, in other words from any Act of Parliament downwards. This should, naturally, include any and all relevant ILP publications, such as Professional Lighting Guides, Technical Reports, and Guidance Notes.
At all times – throughout the planning, decision and application process – risk must be managed, with the Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM) and the ILP’s CDM guidance document key resources. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations should also be considered closely [3] When it comes to switching off street lighting, the document makes it very clear this should not be a decision taken lightly.
‘While there is a power not a duty to provide street lighting, to remove streetlighting the Lighting Authority must show that the risks resulting in the installation of the lighting are no longer present,’ it states.
‘For example, lighting of a dangerous stretch of road might be reviewed and removed if the road arrangement is revised to reduce the danger. Lighting provided to reduce crime, or the fear of crime, might be reviewed and removed if the actions have been taken to reduce the risk of criminal behaviour in that location,’ it adds.
Equally, reducing overall lighting by switching off every other streetlight must be done carefully and in a considered way. The document cites BS 5489-1: 2020 section 4.3.4 in terms of advising on variable/ adaptive lighting, notably that, with respect to switching off sources: ‘If switching light sources off is the method used to vary the lighting level, the uniformity requirements should be met.’
However, the document also emphasises that uniformity will not usually be achieved when switching off every other light, as the height-to-spacing ratio of lighting columns rarely allows the column spacing to be doubled.
The document references work by Professor Steve Fotios at Sheffield University, who has argued that uniformity is of higher importance than average illuminance for pedestrians to feel safe and secure when walking the streets. This, in turn, suggests that adapting lighting levels – rather than the wholesale switching off –of luminaires is the most appropriate energy saving adjustment.
However, the document also makes the
important point: ‘Reviewing and where appropriate reducing the lighting class can be an effective method of reducing energy consumption. It should be noted that BS5489: 2020 effectively reduced the required lighting levels.
‘This change removed the need for calculating the impact of S/P ratios on the standard lighting level requirements reflecting the change of light sources from sodium light sources to white light from LEDs.
‘Any further reduction in lighting class should be based on a site-specific lighting level risk assessment in accordance with the Standard.’
Crucially, when considering a departure from Standards, it is important to protect both the authority and decision-makers in terms of legal liability, the document makes clear.
‘Ensure that a suitable departure risk assessment is completed and that those involved in that risk assessment are competent and understand the implications of the departure on safety and liability,’ it states.
To that end, the guidance recommends that, either before or as part of the departure risk assessment, a review is carried out of the authority’s documents and lighting policy and to update these where necessary. ‘This will ensure that the
‘Strategies for Tackling the Energy Crisis: Guidance for Lighting Authorities’ can be found by scanning the QR code
decision taken in the risk assessment are based on current and appropriate guidance and policy,’ the document argues.
With the impact of the energy crisis starting to affect spending on energy for road and street lighting, the ILP is holding an event next month to help asset managers, street lighting engineers, public realm designers and energy managers navigate a path through.
‘Local authority lighting: energy crisis questions and answers’ will take place at the Mercure Daventry Court Hotel in Daventry, the West Midlands, on Thursday 2 February.
The whole-day event, which will run from 10am to 4pm, will include presentations and advice on how to make the case for not turning streetlights off, future funding streams, how to gain savings from your inventory, and the role of alternatives such as solar.
There will be a panel discussion on the crisis and next steps for lighting professionals and a showcase exhibition of technology, equipment and services.
To find out more and register for tickets, scan the QR code
[1] ‘Blackouts would be last resort, says National Grid’, BBC news, November 2022, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63458441 [2] ‘‘Holiday Lights Dim as European Cities Look to Cut Energy Costs’, Bloomberg, November 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-11-19/europe-is-reducing-christmas-lighting-to-save-energy; ‘“City of Light” Paris shines a little dimmer amid energy crisis’, The National, November 2022, https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/2022/11/21/city-of-light-paris-shines-a-little-dimmer-amid-energy-crisis/ [3] ‘The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 Health and Safety Executive, https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/index.htm; ‘Managing health and safety: legal duties’, Health and Safety Executive, https://www.hse.gov.uk/managing/legal.htm; ‘Guidance Note 4/16: CDM 2015 overview’, The ILP, 2016, https://theilp.org.uk/publication/ guidance-note-4-cdm-2015-overview/
OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES
ILP guidance documentation, https://theilp.org.uk/resources
PLG08 2016 ‘Guidanceontheapplication ofadaptivelightingwithinthepublic realm’, the ILP, https://theilp.org.uk/publication/ plg08-guidance-on-the-application-ofadaptive-lighting-within-the-publicrealm
‘Adviceforconsideringswitchingoff streetlightsinthepublicrealm’, the ILP, https://theilp.org.uk/publication/ switch-off-2015
‘TG17 - DeparturesfromStandard’, Hampshire County Council, https://documents.hants.gov.uk/ transport/TG17TechnicalGuidanceNote-DeparturesfromStandard.pdf
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The majority of fluorescent lamps are due to be phased out during this year (2023) under EU regulations, with the first changes coming as soon as next month. It is important ILP members familiarise themselves with what’s happening, audit their inventory and, if need be, speak to their suppliers
By Guy HardingAs Lighting Journal reported in the autumn, the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (also known as RoHS) is going to have a significant impact on lighting as an industry (‘Mercurymatters’, October 2022, vol 87 no 8).
Peter Johnston’s article, if you recall, outlined how some lighting products containing mercury will no longer be able to be sold into European markets from as soon as next month (February 2023).
Peter made the point that, for street
lighting in particular, this change could have an effect on areas where fluorescent technology is still commonly used, such as sign and bollard illumination and fluorescent street lighting applications.
However, he also made it clear that, with many suitable alternative products now available on the market, finding a replacement should be relatively easy in the scheme of things.
For this article, I intend, first, simply to remind members that this change is now coming up fast, as it is important. In fact, it
is arguably one of the most significant regulatory adjustments to the market for a number of years.
Second, I intend to outline what this change will mean for general lighting rather than, more specifically, just street and external lighting.
In essence, RoHS means that majority of fluorescent lamps are due to be phased out during this year (2023).
RoHS restricts the use of certain substances in electrical and electronic equipment. This is to protect the environment and public health and also to aid recycling. The material of concern, as already highlighted, is mercury, which is of course used in the production of fluorescent lamps.
Up to now, there had been exceptions in place for some lamps, but the majority of these are now due to expire.
The result is that compact fluorescent lamps will be banned from production from 24 February 2023. Linear fluorescent tubes T5 and T8 will then follow six
months later, being banned from production from 24 August 2023.
Bear in mind, there are, however, still some exemptions. For example, circular fluorescent and some specialist linear lamps for industrial/food use not being phased out until 2025 and even 2027.
This includes the 6W, 8W and 13W TL lamps commonly used in emergency lighting, as the LED alternatives are not considered to be suitable, as documented in IEC 62776.
Another notable exception is the 1m 36W T8, which is still in common use in transport applications.
The good news, of course, is that the major manufacturers have already produced LED alternatives for the majority of the common specifications.
However, because of the form of LEDs, the retrofit lamp tends to have directional distributions. This affects the light distribution and could lead to lighting of signs, for example, suddenly being deemed not to standard.
Therefore, it is important all ILP members familiarise themselves with the changes that are coming from next month, assess their inventory and gauge how they may be affected.
It is also worthwhile noting that the dates refer to a productionban. Therefore, any lamps delivered to warehouses and stockholders will still be available for sale until the stock is exhausted.
If you foresee a need for any lamps, the key then is to get in touch with your supplier as soon as possible. This is especially important given that these changes may have an effect on demand which may, in turn, have a knock-on effect on pricings, at least in the short term until things settle down.
As a footnote, the exemptions for SON and metal halide lamps look set to continue until 2027
• Under RoHS, European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, the majority of fluorescent lamps are due to be phased out during this year (2023)
• Compact fluorescent lamps will be banned from production from 24 February
• Linear fluorescent tubes T5 and T8 be banned from production from 24 August
• The dates refer to a production ban, meaning lamps can still be sold until stocks are exhausted
• While alternatives are often readily available, this change could affect could some areas of lighting, such as sign lighting
• Audit your inventory and check with your supplier for availability and/or alternatives
The government’s general guidance on RoHS can be found by scanning the Qr code below.
EUR ING Guy Harding CEng FILP MSLL is the ILP’s Technical ManagerThe ILP’s latest Guidance Note updates best practice around protecting exterior lighting installations from electrical surges
By Guy HardingProtecting electrical and electronic equipment from electrical surges is, as any ILP member will know, an absolutely critical part of being an effective lighting professional.
To that end, the latest Guidance Note from the ILP – GN13/22 ‘Surgeprotection for exterior lighting installations’ – an important technical update that members should be taking note of.
The GN outlines the measures that can be introduced by designers to mitigate the effects of damage to electrical and electronic equipment lighting equipment from transient over-voltages (lightning) and spikes and surges within the electricity supply network.
Traditionally, HID luminaries of course used magnetic control gear, which was highly tolerant to transient voltages and currents. The advent of LEDs, however, has introduced electronic devices and control gear, which are more vulnerable to these disruptions.
Transient surges or spikes superimposed on the supply cables from switching of large motors or inductive loads are frequent and can travel along the network and cause damage to unprotected electronic components.
In addition, direct lightning strikes and indirect strokes can cause destructive damage to networks and components of lighting installations.
The GN therefore discusses both of these in detail and gives guidance on where surge protection devices (SPDs) should be installed.
While LED luminaires do now generally have an integral SPD fitted, these do not protect other control devices, cabling, cutouts and so on, which are critical to the operation of the lighting installation.
Additional locations of SPDs, such as column bases, distribution boards and
within feeder pillars are discussed within the guidance, as well as practical solutions for systems such as high masts, bollards, signs and CMS.
The types and coordination of SPDs is discussed as well as rated input voltages.
Finally, the GN covers best practice in terms of risk assessment, as detailed in section 443 of BS 7671 with regard to the consequence of failure and interruption of service as well as a cost/benefit analysis.
As it concludes: ‘Protection against transient over-voltages shall be provided where the consequence caused by over-voltage:
1. Results in serious injury to, or loss of, human life or
2. Results in interruption of public services and/or damage to cultural heritage or
3. Results in interruption of commercial or industrial activity, or
4. Affects a large number of co-located individuals.’
In summary, GN13/22 is an important addition to the lighting professionals’ practice toolkit. It is a vital document that has been developed to assist asset managers, designers and specifiers understand the different types of SPD and how they can be used to protect installations in an exterior lighting environment.
Lighting professionals involved in electrical design should consult, and use, this document to understand the need for surge protection in lighting installations.
GN13/22 is available as a free download from the ILP website. Scan the QR code for more:
The ILP gratefully acknowledges the following for their assistance in the production of this document:
• Jeff Lewis, Regional Technical Liaison Officer, LDC Manchester
• Haydn Yeo, ILP Vice President – Technical
• Peter Harrison, ILP Technical Director (retired)
• The ILP Technical Committee
The BCT’s Jo Ferguson said of the launch: ‘The event will take practitioners through the main changes to the document and will bring together a cross-section of the industry for knowledge-sharing discussions.
The ILP and the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) have been working together on an update to GN08 ‘Batsandartificial lightingintheUK’, which was also a
collaborative document between the two organisations.
A launch event for the new guidance note is expected to be held on 28 February in London, hosted by Arup.
‘Previous BCT lighting symposium attendees have included ecological consultants, lighting engineers and designers, highway engineers, local planning authority ecologists, and bat conservation experts,’ she added.
Full details on the venue, location and how to register to attend will be published shortly on the BCT website www. bats.org.uk
For those of us who are glass-halfempty pessimists, November’s COP27 climate-change summit probably simply validated a growing sense of gloom about how our planet is warming and where, as a result, humanity is heading.
Between the very visible evidence that our climate is irrevocably changing and the dire predictions that any aspirations to limit global heating to 1.5degC died at that conference, the news when it comes to global heating can feel unremittingly grim.
Whatever the reality of accelerating climate change in the years ahead - and whether you’re an optimist or pessimist about climate change – it is also only too clear that it will be future generations who will bear the heaviest burden of any failure to mitigate CO2 emissions in the coming decades.
We also all know the role lighting can play in this – as either a contributor to or, hopefully more positively, a mitigator of climate change – remains an absolutely central part of the global heating conversation.
In an attempt to bring together these two sides of the climate change debate, Lighting Journal in November joined forces with the YLP (Young Lighting Professionals) to hold a panel discussion on how young lighting professionals in par-
ticular see lighting and sustainability.
What role will they have – will they need to have – in shaping change going forward? Is embracing the circular economy going to be enough? How do young lighters feel the industry needs to adapt and change? Is this happening fast enough, and what are the barriers to change?
As YLP chair Toby Penter put it, opening the debate: ‘This conversation is important to me because it is about looking forwards; it is a lot of the stuff we’re going to be doing for the next ten, 20, 30 years. I think it is going to filter into a lot of our work. It is important we are all on top
By Nic Patonof the way the industry is going and the way the conversation is going.’
Ryan Carroll, YLP vice chair, highlighted that this conversation also needs to be seen through the prism of the unfolding energy crisis and how that may act as a welcome catalyst for change.
‘Recently, the energy crisis has really been an eye opener to the vast amounts of opportunities available to the lighting industry – to reduce energy consumption and, in tandem, actually reduce the amount of light pollution as well. For me,
It will be future generations who will bear the heaviest burden of any failure to mitigate CO2 emissions in the coming decades. How, then, do young lighters feel the industry will need to change and adapt? A YLP panel discussion found out
the two go quite closely hand in hand,’ he said.
‘It is important to me because, obviously, we’re talking about the future of the planet. I’ve got two young girls who will be also dealing with all of this long after I’m gone. So, I want to do the most responsible thing during my career to try and ease the burden on them when they get to my age,’ Ryan added.
Liv Cairns, environmental consultant at WSP, emphasised the importance of not overlooking safety, vulnerability at night and perceived vulnerability at night within any discussions around switch-offs, ‘dimming and trimming’ and advances in adaptive lighting.
‘There is a balance between having higher levels of lighting, which means that people feel safer and therefore drive faster, versus lower levels and then curbing the speed back. Certainly, during hours where there is less traffic on the roads, we can be thinking about adapting our lighting and bringing it down to lower levels,’ she said.
All lighting professionals, wherever they are in their career, have the potential to influence these conversations; to help organisations and local authorities to be more intelligent with their lighting, Liv added.
The impact of artificial lighting at night on wildlife and ecology also had to be part
of this debate, highlighted Abigail Aspin, street lighting technician at Aptus Utilities.
‘I am very interested in the wildlife side, how artificial lighting affects bat populations, for example. I think it is important to be making sure that climate change mitigation is increasingly a part of what we’re doing’, she said.
‘Definitely, it is about what we design,’ agreed Giorgia Rossi, senior architectural lighting designer at WSP.
‘We often mix the aspects of feature and functional lighting together, trying to incorporate both at the same time within one single product, or we strategically position the fixture within the architecture in a way so that it can simultaneously create both effects.
‘This should reduce the number of luminaires and of different typologies of luminaires, creating ways to save energy and rationalise the maintenance process,’ she added, also highlighting how we are now seeing some products being made with at least 90% recycled aluminium, so requiring much less energy use.
However, for Stuart Morton, professional lead for roads and aviation, electrical design, transportation, people and places, at Jacobs, the conversation needed to become much more urgent – and much more fundamental.
‘The question that our team often asks other designers or developers – and which we now try to ask ourselves on every project – is “why are we lighting this?”. It is a very basic question. It is very easy to assume you’ve got to light for x, y, or z reasons,’ he said.
If lighting as a profession is serious about tackling climate change, arguably that will mean a wholesale rethink of what lighting standards, actually, are for or trying to achieve, Stuart contended.
‘How as a group do we expect we’re going to change the legislation or challenge the standards? Even to support not lighting in the right situations? The British Standard is pretty much risk-assessed towards illuminating,’ he said.
‘The standards and guidance notes need to be updated to support what it really means to not light or to have lower levels of lighting. Clients, too, need to have a degree of accountability with that,’ Stuart added.
If the current standards could be perceived as one barrier to change, what were others, the panel was asked. Clients? Local authorities? A hard-to-shift culture of disposability and short-term replacement? Political inertia? Stuck-in-the-mud senior decision-makers? All of the above?
‘I work with different local authorities around the UK and one barrier can be that their specifications can be quite
‘I go down the store for the contractors I work with and there are big bins full of stuff that is two or three years old, and you just think “why?”. We’re even getting to a point where we are replacing lamps that are five years old, because they are less energy efficient. For me, it’s the first principles that I think we’ve got wrong as an industry at the moment,’ he added.
restrictive,’ said Chris Smith, street lighting designer at Aptus Utilities.
‘For example, I can do a lighting design and pick from the hundreds of thousands of different optics and lanterns out there to make it the most energy efficient possible, with the fewest number of assets and so on. But the issue local authorities then face is they’ve got to maintain this.
‘If I’ve got a new development with 25 columns on there and I use 25 different optics – because that’s the most energy efficient solution that reduces the assets down – that’s perfect on the first installation. But when you get ten to 25 years’ down the line when these assets start failing, it becomes more difficult because they’ve got to send their operatives out there and they’re not going to have the exact lanterns you had.
‘So, it is finding the right balance between the specifications. Does restricting it to a certain type of lantern in a certain area really work better than having full access to the entire range of products out there to bring the energy down as much as possible?’ he added.
Time and money often acted as constraints, and this could become more so in the current challenging economic climate, highlighted Katerina Xynogala, the YLP’s editorial representative. Teething issues around new, more sustainable technologies can also act as a barrier to take-up. ‘A lot of these new technologies, they’re so raw, so new that, first of all, there doesn’t exist enough data to prove whether or not they can save carbon at the end. And second, they are not quite ready yet,’ she pointed out.
‘So it is about just keeping an eye on things, waiting for the industry to slowly adapt and grow with new technologies,’ Katerina added.
‘I am optimistic broadly about things, but the barriers I see are definitely senior
technical people within the industry still; their older perceptions,’ said Stuart Morton, adding that he had heard stories of rural clients being put under pressure by the Department for Transport to light places they never used to illuminate.
‘If you’ve got that baseline decision wrong in the first place, then the circular economy is almost irrelevant. You’re just landing yourself in heaps of trouble; extra energy bills and so on,’ Stuart added.
On that note, what about the circular economy? Its ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ principles, clearly, are great – and tools such as TM66 are already making a real difference, especially around helping to understand carbon capture and embodied carbon. But will lighting need to go further than simply embracing a circular economy approach?
‘The circular economy, it’s a great talking point, it’s on trend, people like talking about it. But there is still a lot of wastage,’ Stuart Morton agreed.
‘We are always told, reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order of priority,’ said Toby Penter. ‘The circular economy conversation is very centred around recycle and reuse whereas, really, if there’s that pressure from DfT to light rural environments that wouldn’t typical have needed lighting – or wouldn’t have needed lighting in the past – that’s the opposite of reducing. For me, that’s the first priority; that’s the key way. Rather than doing something more sustainably, we should be trying not to do it at all.’
‘The circular economy has become a buzzword, which, on one hand, is exactly as it should because it is bringing it into the forefront of our conversation. It is something new and we can use it as an educational piece, which is great,’ said Liv Cairns.
‘But we shouldn’t sacrifice that for a holistic look at everything else that is going on. We should, equally, be investing in renewable technologies. How we can be retrofitting solar panels to lighting columns? I think, no, the circular economy can’t be the only thing we’re looking at, we need to branch out further. But that can be difficult given our time and resources,’ she added.
For Chris Smith, there was still too much of a ‘swap out and replace’ culture within lighting and, if anything, the transition to LED sometimes made that conversation harder.
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‘The different generations of LED lanterns have helped to reduce energy usage. However, as the technology has developed, what we’ve found is people now have less involvement in repairing the lanterns. Anything down to a faulty cell breaking, because the lantern is sealed, undoing it will wipe the warranty,’ he pointed out.
‘It is often a case of you simply take the whole unit off, send it back to the manufacturer and put a new unit on. Even wiring, you have to undo the lantern, which voids the warranty. It seems like we’ve almost regressed. Every time there is the slightest thing wrong, you’re taking off a whole unit and basically binning it; and that’s a complete waste,’ Chris said.
As the discussion drew to a conclusion, the panel was asked to consider two final questions. Given where young or early-career lighting professionals tend to sit within an organisation, what sort of advocacy or influencing role can we realistically expect these new generations to have? And, given that, how optimistic or pessimistic are our young lighters about the future?
‘Some councils I think really do “get it” and they are really trying with this, and you can tell the knowledge exists among them,’ said Chris Smith. ‘Others, they are a little bit stuck in the Dark Ages.
‘The best thing we can all be doing is just trying to provide as much knowledge out there to everyone as possible, and to get them realising, get them working on the chains of command. In terms of optimism
versus pessimism, I’m quite in the middle!
I think half of them will get it right, half of them will get it wrong,’ he added.
Too often, at all levels, there can be a tendency within lighting just to stick to the specification or what the client is asking for, said Abigail Aspin. Lighting professionals need to be asking themselves whether a client really understands what it is asking for and whether, in the content of climate change mitigation, that’s the right solution? ‘It’s about trying to know what’s right and what’s wrong rather than just trying to keep everyone happy,’ she said.
That education piece was important, our panellists emphasised. Ryan Carroll highlighted how there is an urgent need to be looking at creating new pathways into lighting, especially how as an industry lighting can be doing more to entice people into lighting who don’t typically fit into the ‘electrical engineer’ bracket.
Education is really important, agreed Liv Cairns. ‘It is about the power of stakeholder engagement and getting our stakeholders onboard early; for them to become early advocates for the programme or the project. And then, at the end, sharing that success and providing the learnings to avoid siloing knowledge,’ she said, adding that carbon literacy training could be valuable in this context.
‘It’s becoming increasingly obvious that we don’t have to tell people about climate change; they can see it for themselves. The warm weather we experienced last summer was a prime example of showcasing climate change to everybody. I think really until last summer, people were finding it quite difficult to see and imagine what it
could be like in years to come, but this is now an instantaneous threat. That helps us to bring people on board, to make them advocates for mitigation and our adaptation.
‘I’m something of an optimistic pessimist. I feel like we make gains in one area and then we draw back in others. From COP27, for example, talking about creating a global loss and damage fund for countries most affected by climate change was
‘IF WE LOOK AT LIKEMINDED PEOPLE WITHIN OUR GENERATION, WHO ARE ALL HAVING THESE CONVERSATIONS –WE’RE TALKING ABOUT IT MORE THAN WE EVER HAVE BEFORE – WE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT CAN LEAD THAT CHANGE.’
Ryan Carroll, Designs for Lighting
positive. But then there were very limited additional commitments on cutting emissions,’ Liv added.
‘We need to communicate in a language that is positive and which feels personal to people,’ said Katerina Xynogala. ‘We need to help people see the issue in an emotional way, to help them empathise. As long as we can find ways in the future to communicate this better with different stakeholders and people, then this is a message that will carry on.
‘In terms of optimism or pessimism, I’m also in the middle. I’m optimistic, however, in the sense that I think things are moving along; people are talking more and more about this, which is a good sign. With more research, we will learn more and how to improve. But at the same time, the challenge we face is immense,’ she added.
‘I agree we’ve got to pull on people’s heart strings with this,’ said Ryan Carroll. ‘Potentially it is something that we as engineers, understanding the technical side of things, are maybe more challenged at being able to do.
‘Maybe that is something the ILP can help with, in terms of marketing and promoting messages perhaps, or perhaps bring lighting professionals together with marketing people to find out ways to get people gripped by the issues that we’re talking about? Because, actually, when people understand what we as lighting professionals are saying to them, they do care. And they will buy into it.
‘I am optimistic, however. Because, if we look at like-minded people within our generation, who are all having these conversations – we’re talking about it more than we ever have before – we are the people that can lead that change. I am certain that over the next five to ten years we are in a good position to lead positive change, as long as we get the messages right and keep believing in what we’re saying,’ Ryan added.
‘Advocacy doesn’t come as a strong point for lighting engineers, does it? We’re very technically based,’ agreed Stuart Morton. ‘But we have to advocate for reducing our impact in terms of climate change; we’ve got to do it. It has got to be almost our new mission.
‘We need to recognise our sphere of influence. Yes, you’re new to the industry but people will want to hear what you think. We need to brave enough to challenge the accepted but do it in a positive way. We’ve just, as an industry and as individuals, got to do the right thing now. We’ve got to stick our heads above the parapet.
‘I am optimistic, however. I’ve seen the huge changes from the first generation of LEDs, the huge drops in colour
temperature, the positive shift to not light, and so on. I see that we do want to do the right thing, and things are changing,’ Stuart added.
‘As a young lighting professional, I don’t know how you implement systemic change ten levels above you in an organisation,’ said Toby Penter. ‘But you can keep pushing from where you are – your sphere of influence, as Stuart says – and keep trying to get other people to push as well. Just keeping making a noise.
‘I’m a staunch pessimist who tries to find optimism where it exists! We try to do our best and think about what we can do –try and pull a streetlight out or go for a warmer colour temperature, for example – but then you flick the TV on and, during the World Cup for example, you see £220bn being spent to build ten football stadiums with air conditioning in the middle of the desert. So there is a danger of
Giorgia Rossi CEng MCIBSE AMSLL, senior architectural lighting designer, WSP UK
thinking “what’s the point?”.
‘But we mustn’t let those wider things get us down. We just need to shutter all that stuff and recognise that can exert positive influence in the small piece of the world that we do have control over,’ Toby added.
The final word was left to the ILP’s Jess Gallacher. ‘This has been a really good way for the next generation of lighting professionals to be speaking to the generation above and even maybe to be thinking about the generation to come,’ she said.
‘You are all doing amazingly with what you are doing; you are all brilliant. It’s true, we can’t fix this just by ourselves. But if everybody nudges a little bit in the right way and doesn’t do stuff in the wrong way, that’s the only thing we can all do. And that is better that not nudging at all isn’t it?’ she added.
Ryan Carroll BSc IEng MILP, YLP vice chair, department lead, lighting impact and planning, DFL-UK
Katerina Xynogala MSc BA (Hons), YLP editorial national committee representative and engineer, lighting and energy solutions, WSP
Olivia Cairns, operations and safety consultant, WSP
Abigail Aspin, street lighting technician, Aptus Utilities
Toby Penter BA (Hons) IEng MILP, YLP chair and senior engineer, lighting and energy solutions, WSP Stuart Morton EngTech AMILP, professional head, roads and aviation electrical design, transportation, people and places solutions, Jacobs
Chris Smith, street lighting designer, Aptus Utilities
The Society of Light and Lighting’s annual ‘Ready Steady Light’ competition returned in October, bringing together lighting designers, manufacturers and students
By Nic PatonThe Society of Light and Lighting’s (SLL) annual ‘Ready Steady Light’ competition took place in October.
The competition, held in association with south London’s Rose Bruford College, has run now for 19 years and brings together teams of lighting designers, manufacturers and students to create external lighting installations, using a limited selection of kit, no budget and in only 180 minutes.
The students come from Rose Bruford Lighting and Design BA, with the competition giving them an opportunity to learn from and assist lighting professionals working in a unique and time-pressured environment.
There were three awards up for grabs: the SLL Technical Award, The SLL Artistic Award (supported by the International Association of Lighting Designers, IALD), and the coveted Peer Prize, decided by the contestants taking part.
Team Cundall won the 2022 Technical Award, which was judged by SLL president Andrew Bissell and Eliot Horsman, chair of the SLL’s marketing and communications committee.
Andrew Bissell said of the experience on social media: ‘Well done to all of the lighters who entered and a special well done to the winners. A lasting memory for myself will be the freedom the students of Rose Bruford had to explore, experiment and be themselves.
‘As I walked towards reception a group sat on the kerb chatting, suddenly played a little ditty on a ukulele. Later on, I was sat in the courtyard prepping for a Teams call and two students walked out of class and decided to practise their dance routine. A young chap sat in the grounds was randomly drumming. What a magical place.’
Andrew also described how the teams had to think on their feet. One team, for example, ‘used the gravel material of the land to create patterns and shadows to amplify the effect of the lights. We also
saw a finesse to some of the gel use, with different shades and multiple gels used to create a swathe of colours in the landscape,’ he said.
Of the winning Team Cundall, Andrew added: ‘They had deliberately included darkness between the lit viewing position and the lit wall you viewed. They didn’t shy away from lighting the fan coil unit and downpipe; they embraced those items and worked on getting the colour, beam angle, aiming and shadows spot on.’
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Team CBG Consultants won the 2022 Artistic Award for its installation ‘Parkland Crime Scene’. The award was judged by IALD chief executive Christopher Knowlton, IALD UK project manager Emma Cogswell, and Ben Ratcliffe, Rose Bruford College’s subject leader in lighting design.
Chris Dicks, associate director at CBG, posted: ‘Can you see the police lights at the suspect’s door, and his cheeky cache of stolen acorns picked out in the searchlight below? Yes, the squirrel did it...
‘Possibly the best compliment of the night was a complaint we’d broken the rules, as we surely must have climbed a tree to put such focused light where we did? I can confirm, no trees were climbed.
‘It was a great night, a big thank you to Rose Bruford College, the SLL and the IALD for organising it,’ he added.
ILP members were prominent among many of the teams taking part. For example, Scott Pengelly, ILP Vice President –Products was part of the team from
Designs for Lighting. He said of the event: ‘This fantastic event is a great way to get hands-on with lighting, putting our engineering and creative skills to the test.’
Kimberley Bartlett, Vice President –Education, was also part of the team from Elementa Consulting. It was their first time at Ready Steady Light and Kimberley described the experience as ‘a blast’.
Finally, the 2022 Peer Prize was awarded to Team Marlow Integrated Design (MID), for its blue-and-yellow Ukrainian lighting tribute, which was described by operations director John Moul as a ‘fantastic team effort’.
Team CBG Consultants’ winning Artistic Award and (below) Team Cundall’s Technical Award winnerThe inaugural LiGHT 22 show and exhibition in November saw the lighting community come back together face to face, with the ILP as an event partner. Two days of CPD included veteran lighting designers Sally Storey, Nick Hoggett, and Mark Major discussing the past, present and future of lighting
By Nic PatonWith more than 3,000 visitors passing through the doors of the Business Design Centre in London’s Islington, and more than 100 exhibitors, the inaugural LiGHT 22 show and exhibition in November certainly felt busy and buzzing.
Perhaps it was a post-Covid appetite to get back to meeting face to face or simply the fact that there are now many fewer such events and exhibitions in the lighting calendar (with the Covid effect again perhaps to blame).
Nevertheless, there seemed to be a definite appetite within the lighting profession and design community for the two days of CPD discussion, networking and exhibiting, of which the ILP was a partner.
As a pleased Paul James, managing director of organiser [d]arc media, put it: ‘The show has been a resounding success with the design community coming out in force to support this first year.’
As well as exhibitors, the event encompassed a wide range of panellists and speakers, including an ILP ‘How to be brilliant’ event featuring Brad Joseph and Juan Ferrari of Hoare Lea (and see the panel at the end for more on this).
One of the highlights was a ‘Masters of light’ panel discussion that brought together Sally Storey, founding director of Lighting Design International, Nick Hoggett, partner at dpa lighting consultants, and Mark Major, senior partner at Speirs Major.
The discussion opened with
moderator Matt Waring, editor of arc magazine, asking the three lighting veterans to reflect on how they first became involved in architectural lighting.
‘I started in lighting design, like most people, by accident,’ said Nick Hoggett. ‘When I was at school I did my work experience at the age of 15 at dpa, which at the time was a practice of both architects and lighting designers. I left school at 16 – I suffer badly from dyslexia so I wasn’t very good at education – and went to work for an architect.
‘Two years later there was an advertisement for an architectural technician working with Derek Phillips at dpa. I applied for that job and I started there in 1979, and very quickly became enchanted by the whole lighting design work that Derek was going.’
‘My start was studying architecture at Bristol University,’ said Sally Storey. ‘I then in the second year had to choose a subject for a thesis, and one of the things I felt we weren’t being taught very well –and seemed to shape everything I was looking at internally – was lighting.
‘So, by studying for that thesis, I then came into contact with Janet Turner, who was very influential at the time, and John Cullen. And I ended up working with him when I left university, doing the lighting design from the deep end.
‘Then in 1986, when suddenly Chase Manhattan Bank wanted a project of an independent lighting consultant, I started Lighting Design International,’ she added.
‘My start into lighting of course involved a pub,’ said Mark Major to laughter. ‘I was studying architecture and I was doing my postgrad in Edinburgh, and I was looking around for a summer job. A friend of mine suggested that, rather than look around the architects in Edinburgh, that there was this strange duo that had just set up a lighting practice.
‘It was an architect – the late Jonathan Speirs – and the lighting designer Andre Tammes. And the rest, as they say, is history, in the sense that I found my way there for a summer job and I’m still doing it!’
What was the state of architectural lighting design at that time, asked Matt Waring. Was lighting even a profession?
‘The situation in the UK was that lighting design was around, but it wasn’t as wonderfully recognised as it is now,’ replied Nick Hoggett. ‘I think the big difference is at that time we were out selling the value of lighting design to people.
There was a real lack of understanding of the value of light. That, for me, is a big change that’s happened.’
‘I think the influences that came into my world were very much drawn from America. We relied very much on magazines like LD+A in order to get information; it was all about self-education,’ said Mark Major.
‘In those early days, we weren’t just passionate about light, we were passionate about selling the idea of working with lighting designers to the clients, to the architects, to everybody out there. Selling light and the idea of light, and what light could do for architecture and do for landscape, was really a daily task at that time,’ he added.
‘I think one of the things was architecture as a subject didn’t really take it [light] seriously,’ agreed Sally Storey. ‘It was about trying to get that energy and excitement through to make people realise that there was a lot more than could be done than what you were taught, and how do we make it happen?’
Given how the industry has changed and expanded, had the awareness of the need for good-quality lighting design got easier as a result, Matt Waring then asked the panellists.
‘I would love to say it has,’ said Mark Major. ‘It is interesting that, in the 30-odd years that I have been involved, rather than us going around in a way looking for work, work much more comes to us, to all of us in the lighting profession in the sense that, I think the idea of having a lighting designer on a project is now much more accepted than it used to be.
‘It used to be an exception to the rule, and now I think most teams for reasonably prestigious projects, the client will say, “I need a lighting designer”,’ he added.
‘I think we don’t have to sell why lighting is so important now,’ agreed Nick
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Hoggett. ‘Everybody comes to you and says “lighting is the most important thing” and this, that and the other. Which is fabulous. But what people still haven’t quite grasped, I think, is the importance of the quality of light, and the amount of time and thought that that takes the lighting designer, the architect – and the interface with manufacturers – and the importance of quality of lighting products,’ he added.
‘There is I think a feeling now that people have been in fabulous spaces and really comfortable spaces; where you go to places you know when something makes a difference. And how does that look?’ agreed Sally Storey.
‘I think that is what we try to let people understand. It makes such a difference, and people know it does; it is the tangible quality of light that is really important,’ she added.
The discussion considered how lighting, and lighting design as a result, had evolved in recent decades, including the transformational arrival of LED. One important strand within this was the recognition that lighting has a responsibility now to be leading the conversation around sustainability, energy reform and climate-change mitigation.
‘There were terrible things we did, energy wise,’ conceded Nick Hoggett. ‘We used these miniature xenon lamps instead of fluorescents or cold cathode and, when you think about that, it really was a terrible use of energy as well as being very un-maintenance-friendly,’ he added, also highlighting the rare-earth mining that used to go into the manufacture of some light sources.
While the industry’s historic environmental track record was important for everyone to reflect on, Nick nevertheless emphasised that things had improved, and continued to do so. ‘There has been fantastic change in the time I have been involved, and generally for the better,’ he said.
Asked to reflect on any key projects, Mark Major highlighted his practice’s work on the Bluewater shopping centre in Dartford.
‘The brief was “we don’t just want you to do the pretty bits, the malls, we want you to do the road on the way in, the car park, all the landscape, the exits, the welcome”, it was a totally holistic brief. We had never had a brief like that – we didn’t know how to light a road, let alone a car park – though of course we said we could!’ he explained. ‘For us, that very holistic brief was where we began to get into the
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idea of working from a very rounded picture, from the whole site down to the small detail; and that we were allowed to do it, we weren’t just being reserved for the “good” bits. That was a gamechanger, definitely,’ he added.
Finally, Matt Waring asked the panel what they did they feel the future held for the lighting design industry? ‘Both in terms of where you want it to go, and where you think it will go?’
‘I think we’re all under, quite rightly, a lot of pressure – light is a very visible form of energy use,’ said Mark Major.
‘There is lots of other energy use out there. I always say if we could see the heat escaping from buildings, it’d be equally terrifying. But what people see is large office blocks with the lights left on, and it has become symbolic of the challenge that we face.
‘It sounds trite when you say it, but it has to be fundamental for the future, for us to change our behaviour. We all know that. And there is no time like the present,’ he added.
‘I agree entirely,’ said Nick Hoggett. ‘I think lighting designers have used energy too liberally at times – all of us. We have layered up lighting and then put dimming systems in there; we’ve put lots of light in, lots of layers, dim it all back and make wonderful lighting scenes. I think we need to be much more careful of every single fixture that we put into a project in the future.
‘I think the profession has a fabulous future. I think lighting is this amazing commodity that so many people recognise has changed the quality of our lives, the quality of the environment that we are in. So I think there is a great future for us; I think we just have to be very careful about how we use energy moving forward, as there will be pressure on us to do so,’ he added.
‘The fact of considering energy brings innovation, and that is how it has changed so dramatically since the 1980s; in the last 30 or 40 years there has been a huge change driven by energy use rates, and that is what I see; I see that going forward,’ agreed Sally Storey.
‘I remember when I was studying architecture being surprised that, way back when, I was told that only 25% of buildings in the UK were designed by architects,’ highlighted Mark Major in conclusion.
As a partner of LiGHT 22, the ILP had a busy stand over the full two days at the Business Design Centre, promoting the benefits of the Institution – and ILP membership – to the profession.
The latest ‘How to be brilliant’ was also held at the end of the first day, and saw Brad Joseph and Juan Ferrari of Hoare Lea make a passionate – and impassioned – call for the industry to be much more ‘on it’ when it comes to the environment and sustainability. Keep an eye out in next month’s (February) LightingJournalfor a report on their talk.
Giving just a flavour of some of the other panel debates over the two days, Michael Grubb, founder of Michael Grubb Studio, Marci Song of SEAM Design and United in Design graduate Isaac Nwaku discuss routes and pathways into the industry.
Colin Ball of BDP, Carmela Dagnello of WSP and Kristina Allison of Atkins Global discussed the sustainability and the lifespan of projects, especially how lighting – or, more often, lighting’s clients – needs to be weaned off the culture of short-term disposability that has so dominated the built landscape for decades.
‘I should imagine that hasn’t fundamentally changed. If you take all built stock, I am sure that’s pretty much the same now. I would think the figure for lighting – how many people design lighting? – is way, way, way, way lower. So that’s the opportunity; it is enormous.’
For those interested, a recording of the full discussion can be found at https://vimeo.com/777355791
Elektra Lighting’s Neil Knowles and interior designer Anna Burles of Run for the Hills analysed their recent project to transform the Tivoli Cinema in Bath, including discussing the evolving relationship between interior and lighting design.
Mark Sutton Vane of Sutton Vane Associates, Simon Shuck of Inspired by Design, Darren Orrow of Into, and Nick Wraith of Unbox unpicked the complexities of offering, and delivering, bespoke lighting services.
Edward Bartholomew of Light Justice, Ruth Kelly-Waskett of Hoare Lea and independent designer Satu Streatfield discussed ‘the weaponisation of light’, in particular how the design and delivery of lighting in under-privileged areas can contribute to, and often exacerbate, societal inequalities.
Nathalie Quadrio of Nature in Light, Raluca Dascalita of Delta Lighting Design, Inessa Lomas of Arup, and Dan Oakley, lead ranger for South Downs National Park Authority, the current challenges we face around dark skies and what lighting designers and manufacturers can do to help dark sky environments.
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Research across the European Community examined the demand for particular job roles that cover a range of lighting tasks. The four top roles being:
• Smart lighting system specialists
• Road lighting safety and lighting security specialists
• Light pollution and environmental impact of lighting specialists
• Lighting designers
The research results indicates that, within the next five years, there will be a high demand for lighting professionals who can undertake these roles. That demand is reflected by the order that they are shown.
The needs may vary from country to country. For example, at present France needs light pollution specialists while Italy and Greece are looking mainly for ‘intelligent lighting’ system professionals.
Global interviews undertaken confirm the findings from the ECOSLIGHT quantitative survey and support the need to have well-trained professionals mastering the light pollution and environmental impacts of lighting as a priority.
Each role holder will need to have a mix of competencies, as shown in figure 3 on the right.
Looking at each of these. ‘Lighting competencies’ is the ability to implement lighting solutions that meet the need of the task being lit.
‘Digital competencies’ is not just the ability to deliver BIM, this relates to the EC’s ‘DigComp’ framework (digital competence framework). It considers a set of skills, knowledge and attitudes that
enable the confident, creative and critical use of lighting technologies and systems so users can engage confidently and safely with them.
Next is ‘entrepreneurship competencies’. This relates to the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, which offers a comprehensive description regarding knowledge, skills and attitudes that professionals need in order to work with others and shape the future for the common good.
This is followed by ‘life competencies’. This looks to ‘personal, social and learning to learn’ as a set of competencies, applicable to all spheres of life, which can be acquired through formal, informal and non-formal education.
This is essentially what many of us would call continuing professional development (CPD).
Finally, there are ‘green competencies’. The quantitative survey revealed that green competencies are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most in-demand within the lighting sector. These are best summarised as being able to:
• Understand and promote the value of sustainable lighting
• Understand new sustainable lighting techniques applied to sustainable lighting
• Understand the sustainable assessment of lighting systems and solutions, including purposes, methodologies, and standards
• Understand the circular economy approach to THE lighting sector, in other words maintenance, reuse/ redistribute, refurbish/remanufacture, and recycle processes
• Understand the new sustainable/ green trends in lighting and how to integrate the environmental / sustainability criteria in the lighting design process
Stages 3 and 4. Development and delivery of training courses
The ECOSLIGHT training and development programme ‘Essential Skills for Environmentally Conscious Smart Lighting Professionals’, termed MOOC (or ‘Massive Online Open Course’) has
been developed with a full curriculum, and is now open for registration https:// www.ecoslight.eu/ MOOC, is freely accessible by anyone. It aims to support lighting and wider construction industry professionals (or aspiring ones) to improve their lighting, digital, green, entrepreneurial, and life competencies. It offers specific learning modules aimed at enhancing know-how in the following areas:
• innovative, sustainable, and human-centric lighting systems and products,
• digital technologies for co-creation processes,
• entrepreneurial mindset and critical thinking.
The ECOSLIGHT research is good, as is the development training programme. It supports and provides data to what, as lighting professionals, we already know, namely that we have a shortage of competent lighting professionals.
What it does not answer, however, is how we look to encourage students at school level to consider light and lighting as a career. So, to my mind, this big question still hangs over the whole industry.
Having courses is good but they will only run and survive if there is demand. Therefore, we need to look to create that demand, not just at university level but also for apprenticeships and other entry points into what is of course a fascinating, ever-changing professional industry.
Figure 2. The key identified ECOSLIGHT role profiles Figure 3. The different lighting competencies, as defined by ECOSLIGHT SMART LIGHTING SYSTEM TECHNICIAN LIGHTING CONSULTANT ECOSLIGHT VET CURRICULA
‘Off Grid Series’ (2022) by Jacqueline Hen
‘Halo’ (2019) by Karolina Halatek
‘Peacock’ (2020) by Chila Singh Burman ‘In Lucem’ (2019) by Tamar Frank
see so many amazing female light artists brought together.’
Another work on display, ‘Peacock’ (2020) by British artist Chila Singh Burman, was part of the hugely popular 2020 neon installation on the exterior of the Tate Britain ‘Remembering A Brave New World’.
By Nic PatonThe ILP has long worked to celebrate all the talents within lighting, but especially women who have made what has historically been a male-heavy industry their home.
That meant ‘Collected Light’, an exhibition in November featuring the work of six women light artists from the UK and Europe, was therefore bound to catch our eye.
The exhibition at the SoShiro Gallery in London’s Marylebone was curated by Light Collective, the ‘activist’ lighting design practice run by Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton. It was sponsored by formalighting.
The six displays encompassed, first, ‘In Lucem’ (2019) by Danish artist Tamar Frank. This is a series of 20 small light panels, of which four were on display. A seeming still image with a central focus gradually blends into different colour compositions, with the colour gradients inspired by the changes in natural light over the course of one day, which change very slowly so that the transition itself is not perceived.
Tamar described the piece as ‘an introverted work and I hope the viewer can take the time to stand still and observe.
‘Ideally it works both ways, where the work enhances the space and the space enhances the work. It aims to capture the slow changing presence of natural light over the cycle of a day – these moments that captivate us, especially during transitions of sunrise, sunset and the blue hour of dusk and dawn,’ she added.
On the fact of being in an all-women exhibition, Tamar said: ‘When I started working 25 years ago, I could hardly find any peers in light art, and female light artists were non-existent or hidden at least. I am incredibly thrilled to
As she explained: ‘My “Peacock” piece explores the birds’ symbolism of regrowth, rejuvenation, beauty and love. The peacock is native to the Indian subcontinent, in this way it is also a reference to my Indian heritage.’
‘Halo’ (2019) by Polish artist Karolina Halatek is a circular-shaped immersive installation. Visitors interacting with the work at the SoShiro were encouraged to lose themselves in the contemplative, pure and abstract environment.
As she said of the work: ‘Halo takes over almost an entire room on the ground floor of SoShiro. It almost looks like an object from outer space that has landed in the living room.
‘Viewers are invited to stand in the centre, where white light encircles them, providing an immersive experience that is personal, pure, and generates stillness.
‘Omnipresent light returns attention to on own bodily sensations, focus on the personal, and clear thoughts. This mindfulness is needed more and more in a modern culture of overstimulation,’ Karolina added.
The fourth installation was ‘The Lost Girl’ (2020) by Australian/British artist Kate McMillan. This is an immersive film-based installation centred around the fictional character of a cave-dwelling girl on the east coast of England.
It uses DH Lawrence’s book of the same name as a starting point, with the film narrating the experiences of a young woman seemingly alone in a dystopian future, with only the debris washed up from the ocean to form meaning and language.
Kate said of the fact this was an exhibition bringing together so many female light artists into a single space: ‘Given my research on gender inequality in the art world, it is great to be part of a project dedicated to showcasing women who work with light.
‘I am a strong advocate for women supporting each other, which is exactly what this exhibition and programme of events does.’
Also part of Collected Light was the installation ‘Off Grid Series’ (2022) by German
artist Jacqueline Hen. This installation investigates the perception of the body in space within our digital realm. Mirrors and an arrangement of lights create the illusion of infinite space, of luminosity and darkness. The perception of the space changes with the viewer’s perspective, inviting them to, as the organiser put it, ‘investigate their self within infinity’.
Jacqueline said of the work: ‘Mirrors have been associated with vanity throughout history. But reflective surfaces also play an essential role in our psychological health, helping us to shift our perspective and to develop our sense of self.’
Finally on display was ‘Stardust – The Deep Field (Lenticular)’ (2018) by British artist Lauren Baker. This is a six-image ‘lenticular’ (or double convex lens) backed by an LED light box. As she described the work: ‘As people walk past, the six images merge, revealing an exploding star. The changing galaxies are magical, and it usually takes a moment to notice the shooting star.
‘Moving past the artwork brings it to life: suggesting a celestial dance of explosion and implosion, separation, and unison, change and repetition,’ Lauren added.
The Collected Light exhibition has been accompanied by a book by Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton that, in turn, has built on their presentation on female light artists at last summer’s ILP Professional Lighting Summit in Bristol.
The book WomenLightArtists: CollectedLightvolumeonelooks at the inspiring light art created by more than 40 female light artists.
Sharon and Martin have said of the book: ‘Our hope is that by profiling these women artists who use light within their work, we are opening a door for others to do the same and for all to be celebrated and widely known for what they create.
‘We also hope that the beauty of each piece of work offers inspiration to those who discover it and, whilst created by women, is valued as incredible art, non-dependent on gender.’
You can find out more about the book, including how to get hold of it, by going to: https://womeninlighting. com/site/page/collected-light-book
November’s ‘Collected Light’ exhibition in London celebrated the work of six cutting-edge female light artists and provided opportunity for immersion, contemplation and reflection
Becoming a lighting designer is not just about landing a job in lighting. As Katia Kolovea and Leni Schwendinger explained at a recent ‘How to be brilliant’ event, it is also about working out your lighting identity and ‘brand’ and building your networks as well as channelling your creativity and curiosity
By Nic Paton
Regular readers of Lighting Journal will be well-aware that the ILP’s ‘How to be brilliant’ free, informal talks, presentations and lectures are designed to connect successful, senior lighting designers with students, juniors and new entrants to the profession.
That was very much the case, but with a globe-trotting twist, when the ILP recently held a ‘global edition’ of How to be brilliant.
The online event brought together lighting designer and founder of Archifos, Katia Kolovea, dialling in from Athens, and Leni Schwendinger, veteran pioneer of urban lighting and public art, who presented from her base in New York City.
Katia opened the discussion by emphasising the focus of the talk on how to help participants to be ‘brilliant in your work, in your career, in your path, in everything’, especially for those who feel introverted or shy about putting themselves ‘out there’.
Her presentation therefore focused on things you can do, and reflect on, as a new entrant to the profession to help you stand out and progress within lighting.
With a snapshot poll suggesting 46% of
the audience felt themselves to be introverts rather than extroverts within lighting, Katia quoted the author Susan Cain from her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking: ‘The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers – of persistence, concentration, and insight – to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems; make art; think deeply.’
In the context of progressing within lighting, this meant, first, thinking about your own ‘personal brand’ and how you communicate what you do as a lighting designer to the world, Katia argued.
‘You are your own brand. This is your asset. No matter if you’ve just graduated from university, no matter if you work fulltime for a company or you’re running your own business or you’re in the process of finding a job, your “personal brand” becomes your resumé over time, and it unlocks new opportunities,’ she said.
‘Personal branding allows you to show to other people what matters to you. Your
branding must reflect the skills and the interests that you have, and what you’re interested in. You can start building your own voice by sharing your perspectives on your industry; you can reflect on current developments or follow up from big industry events and networking opportunities where you participate; communicate your job achievements and so on.
‘There are many ways to develop a personal brand and it starts with knowing who you are and what you want to be known for. My biggest advice is to be authentic. If you are authentic, this is the beginning of everything. Throughout your professional journey, together with your knowledge and expertise, you will need to build your self-confidence and your self-awareness, and this takes time,’ she added.
Within this, it is very important to be proactive on growing your network of personal connections and contacts. ‘Growing your network is super important; the more you develop your professional brand, the easier it will be for other people to understand what you do and reach out to you in order to collaborate and connect,’ Katia advised.
Engagement and interaction with social media is increasingly a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have’ for any aspiring lighting designer. ‘Social media can be a great business tool for you as an individual, no matter your age or the level of your career. Presenting yourself is important and social media is a great tool for us, the designers, as it allows us to communicate easily through visual and interactive ways,’ she recommended.
‘We work with light, so we can use picture and videos; we can share moments from our work and behind the scenes. We all have something super interesting to share. I have been in meetings with young designers who will come to me and say “why should somebody care about what I think, why should they care, I am just starting out and I am very new”.
‘That’s not the right mindset. There is always a target audience that wants to hear where you are in your career; people who will get inspired by what you do. So, don’t feel intimidated, no matter where you are, you have interesting things to share. Even if you have just come out of university, share your projects and activities. Explain what they meant to you and what you learnt during your studies,’ Katia emphasised.
The LinkedIn professional networking and social media platform could be valuable within this, she recommended.
‘It is very important to start and build real connections and start conversations. So, don’t just send a request and wait for the other person to accept your invite to connect. Customise your message. Just write two or three lines – say who you are and why you want to connect with this person? It is very, very important, please do it! It really is the starting point of building a real connection with people who you don’t know,’ Katia advised.
The easing of the pandemic had seen the gradual return of physical, face-to-face networking events. For introverts, such events can be challenging and nerve-wracking, Katia conceded. The key is to remain focused on what it is you want to achieve from the event and to try not to become overwhelmed.
‘First of all, breathe. Before you jump into a conversation, before you jump on stage, before you get the mic, before you present your pitch to your client or before you present in front of your team, take three conscious breaths; it is really important,’ Katia said.
‘Second, practise the art of listening. Not just listening to respond. Listen in order to connect with the other person; listen to
understand where they are coming from and then build a conversation from there. You can obviously share your thoughts and interact but don’t listen just to respond. Listen to understand,’ she emphasised.
‘The next thing is to start asking the right questions. If you know you’re going to an event where you will possibly see people that you admire or perhaps a future employer or people who could potentially connect you with other people, it is very important to have prepared questions that you can ask. Prepare specific questions that you are interested in and use them when you want to break the ice with someone you don’t know.
‘Do your homework in advance, especially for those who are just starting in the industry and don’t have a big network. Do your research; try to understand what you would like to ask your role model if you meet them and have the chance to talk to them for a few minutes. Also, don’t forget! Always smile!
‘You cannot predict what can happen from just one conversation. I have had lots of massive breakthroughs just by going out of my comfort zone and initiating conversations. Don’t hesitate — ask your question,’ Katia advised.
Alongside that, don’t discount the value of the online networks you may develop as your career progresses. ‘For example, I have five very important people in my life who I met through Instagram. Some of them I haven’t even met them in real life but we have build a strong connection. It is very important to understand the tools that you have in your hands right now and use them,’ Katia said.
‘We need to be open to get inspiration from other designers, from architects, from engineers, from people who are working with the environment, from people who are talking about psychology; we need to build communities and
connections with specialists outside of our industry,’ she added.
‘Finally, remind yourself frequently that you are doing great, no matter on which stage you are, no matter what you do daily. Remember to not compare yourself with others; everyone has their own way of doing things and their own speed. In the end of the day, it is all about having a plan, being committed and consistent, and willing to find your brilliance,’ Katia concluded.
For the second half of the event, Leni Schwendinger focused on how her own experiences, her own life, had helped –indeed, sometimes forced – her to be creative and take risks. How it had helped ‘propel oneself into new modalities’, as she put it.
Leni explained how she had grown up in California, moved to London and returned California, to San Francisco, and finally settled in New York City.
At that time, Leni opened Leni Schwendinger Light Projects, fulfilled her goals to light neglected and infrastructural
Co-designing with local communities is a central feature of Leni Schwendinger’s work. This was seen in her recent ‘Light Braid’ initiative in East Harlem, where old and young came together to create long, sparkle light strings
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spaces for 20 years. She outlined her work with Arup and explained that since then, she revitalised Light Projects, her trademarked ‘NightSeeing™’ night and light initiative that she launched in 2009, and her work setting up the International Nighttime Design Initiative ( https:// nighttimedesign.org/), of which the ILP is a member.
‘There are an awful lot of possibilities in life and, if you follow your interests, you can reshape, redesign and design your life,’ Leni emphasised.
It is also worth thinking ‘what am I?’ in the context of being a lighting designer, she argued. In other words, what is it you most want to do, to be; what do you most enjoy about lighting and lighting design? In Leni’s case, it was about being her own boss – ‘I found that I really needed to run my own firm and be in charge’, as she put it – but also recognising that her focus was very much at the blurred interface between art, theatre, community engagement and lighting design.
‘Am I an artist or a designer? There is a difference. My definition of the artist/ designer gradient is, that if you define more of the criteria [of a project], you are an artist. If you define less criteria, you are a designer,’ Leni said.
‘In the middle, I like to say that theatre is the most collaborative discipline in the lighting design field. There is so much overlap that I like to think about theatre as a model for creative collaboration,’ she added.
The ‘NightSeeing™’ initiative (https:// www.nightseeing.net/) works to transform participants’ perceptions of cities at night and make cities much more welcoming and inclusive after dark.
Its name was a play on ‘sightseeing’, Leni explained. ‘I say let’s speak of lighting, especially with the general public if we’re
working on city-sized projects. Can we say, “is it sparkle or glitter?”. Asking “what’s the difference?” requires thoughtfulness and fun, which can combine; it’s a form of active learning.’
In the three-part programme, attendees learn about and work to apply Leni’s nighttime design methodology, focusing on ways to enhance safety, increasing walkability, promote economic development and prioritise the health to neighbourhoods. They aim is to, as she describes it, ‘express the functionality and poetry of the after-dark environment through active learning’.
‘We want to create holistic after-dark strategies to both retain populations and invite and entice visitors,’ Leni added.
‘FISHING
Leni discussed a number of key projects she had led on: her immersive ‘active light’ transformation of a parking lot in Alingsås in Sweden, for example, plus her ‘Water above Water’ floating landscape – a ‘fishing net’ of light – on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow.
As she said of that project. ‘This was my moment of connecting art and activism, which is really the underlying meaning of this talk. How do we mix our desire to create art and our need to create art in public space with the desire and the need and the feeling so passionately about entering the world, sharing the world, and making the world a better place?
‘It was about taking a very in situ or site-specific idea, the cartography of the canal, and transforming it into an art concept. I was able to make a fishing net of light that, as the water goes down, we can see the net. And as it comes up, it disappears,’ she said.
The activism focus of her work emphasised the importance of co-design – genuinely co-designing with communities and the general public. Leni adding that she was a massive proponent of pilots,
workshops and tests; of involving whole neighbourhoods.
In the case of Water above Water this involved bringing in the canal lock keepers, local children, students, kayakers and the wider community, among others. Floats and boats were created by the children based on stories she had written, she added.
‘How are we going to change up our own brilliance, our own passions?’ Leni questioned of the How to be brilliant audience. ‘What is the most challenging step that you could take to change your role in the future?’
Leni ended her presentation with a challenge to the audience: to be prepared to take risks, to challenge yourself, to believe in yourself, even when everyone says no. ‘To find a way; to involve, rephrase and reconfigure a process or a product. It feels risk to do that and often it is, but we have to take these risks,’ she said.
‘Think about what you need training in, given your passion for the future and your aspirations, to make sure it is the right training. What challenge do you see that might be valuable for the future even though you feel it also might be impossible?’
‘If you want to take the kinds of risks I have, always ask for the impossible. For me, that is the only way to get there. You have to keep dreaming,’ Leni concluded.
You can get the latest updates on the upcoming How to be brilliant programme, as well as listen to Katia’s and Leni’s full presentations by scanning the QR code:
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Much detail has been added to the ILP’s ‘Strategy 2026’ fiveyear roadmap since it was launched last summer. Now we need your help
By Justin BladesIn last September’s edition of Lighting Journal, ILP President Fiona Horgan outlined how the Institution is developing a new five-year strategy for growth, development and transformation (‘Be the change you want to see’, vol 87 no 8).
Fiona explained how, as an Institution, we are working to develop a new ‘roadmap’ to take us through to 2026. In the process, it will focus the ILP around six core values, namely being an Institution that is: professional, ethical, honest, open, accountable, and innovative.
On top of this, we set out five strategic aims that would underpin the development and delivery of services for members going forward. These are:
• Aim 1. To be respected for our professionalism and competence in lighting.
• Aim 2. To be trusted as a source of technical information on lighting by supporting and enabling a diverse group of practitioners.
• Aim 3. To deliver value, information and services to members and the professional lighting community 24/7 365 days a year, regardless of location, using digital platforms.
• Aim 4. To secure the future of the lighting profession by encouraging the next generation of lighting professionals to join the industry – and equip them with the skills and knowledge to succeed.
• Aim 5. To ensure that legislation, technical standards, and other legal instruments that affect lighting have best practice as their foundation.
I am very pleased to be able to update you here on progress, as a lot has happened over the summer and through the autumn to work out details and articulate the strategy.
First, a 14-page document is now available as a pdf on the ILP website for members to read, digest and reflect upon. This can be found at https://theilp.org.uk/
strategy2026/ and I would urge members, if you haven’t already, to take the time to read it.
So, what’s been happening?
We’ve developed five strategic ‘streams’, aligned to the five strategic aims. These set out practical steps that will help us move forwards, essentially what ‘success’ will look like in the context of each aim.
For example, for meeting Aim 1, the goal will be the ‘delivery of membership and qualifications that assess and recognise competency and professionalism in lighting’.
What this means in practice, as the document makes clear, is us working to develop a set of competency frameworks that clearly define the knowledge and skills required to achieve professional competence and qualification in lighting.
Alongside this, it will mean working to develop a digitally delivered membership application, upgrade and competency assessment process that is clearly understood, easily accessible and rigorous.
We’ve set out an ambition for a third of ILP members (as a minimum) to be professionally qualified and registered and for the Institution, rightly, to aspire to embracing as diverse a membership population as possible.
To meet Aim 2, the priority is the ‘development of dependable, peer-reviewed lighting knowledge’.
What, again, does this mean in practice? We want to ensure peer-reviewed consultations with members on technical issues have a positive impact on the development and delivery of, crucially, sustainable lighting solutions. We want the ILP to be recognised as the leading global learned society for lighting research and knowledge transfer.
Led on the ground by our new Technical Manager Guy Harding, we want to develop and deliver a clearly articulated technical strategy and core lighting knowledge base. Crucially, we want this to be one that reflects the depth and
breadth of the lighting profession, from engineering to design.
For Aim 3, the strategic activity stream is focused on developing membership support and engagement that allows ILP members ‘to develop competence and share knowledge’.
The key here is, and will be, ‘digital first’. That, to emphasise, does not mean ‘digital only’. It does, however, mean we have a digital platform that is fit for purpose, secure, and resilient and delivered to high industry-standards using Cloudbased technology solutions.
This, in turn, will enable members and other stakeholders – wherever they are in the world –easily to access the services, information and communication tools they need to support the development of their lighting knowledge.
While face to face will, of course, remain a vital part of the ILP ‘family’, with face-to-face events and training and our HQ in Rugby all continuing, the strategy is clear that the aim going forwards is for the ILP to evolve into a virtual organisation model, one that will enable the seamless and efficient provision of services.
For Aim 4, the focus of the stream is ‘delivering services, information, events and training using business-like processes and systems’. The ILP is a membership organisation; you, our members, are our lifeblood.
To that end, we’ll know when we’re delivering on Aim 4 when we can show we have a strong influx of new members and a low membership ‘churn’ rate.
We’ll be able to show we have effective lighting careers’ outreach campaigns, resources and tools in place enabling us to attract – and retain – a diverse range of future talent to the profession.
‘Success’ here will mean being able to show – most likely through evidence and feedback from our industry partners –that ILP membership is contributing to
the development of a healthy and sustainable talent pipeline of suitably qualified and competent lighting professionals. All of which is supporting the sustainable and ethical growth of the profession.
Finally, to deliver on Aim 5, the focus going forward will be on ‘acting as the voice of the lighting profession to government, policy makers and society-at-large’.
We’ll know we’re achieving this aim if (or more hopefully when) our best-practice documents and technical information are widely adopted by local authorities, consultants, contractors and manufacturers. When government and regulators regularly call on us to input and consult on the development of legislation and technical standards. And when we are the ‘go to’ for media organisations and industry peer groups for lighting expertise and knowledge.
Of course, I appreciate that, as busy lighting professionals, the key question you want answered is ‘what does this all mean for me and my membership?’.
First, don’t worry, yes the ILP is changing but we recognise the absolute imperative of not losing what’s always been so valuable about ILP membership: the technical authority; the industry-leading training and events; the networking and being part of a professional ‘family’; and, yes, access to the best lighting journal in the business!
However, next year – 2024 – is a special year for the ILP, in that it will be our centenary year. We want to be able to celebrate that knowing we are on the right track, the right path, delivering a comprehensive, creative, accessible and flexible suite of membership benefits that really matter, that really make a difference.
To do that, we need your help. For 99 years now, members have always answered the call to help support the
profession, to build and maintain lighting’s position as a respected and dependable provider of one of the most basic requirements that society has – delivering lighting safely, effectively and sustainably. Arguably, against the backdrop of an energy and climate crisis, this is a responsibility that is even more important right now.
So, my call to you as we look to 2023 and a new year is, please, step forward and volunteer to help us to deliver on these aims.
It is only with your help that we can ensure the Institution of Lighting Professionals secures its future and gives current and future generations of lighting professionals the support and guidance they need.
Together, collectively, we can ensure the ILP continues to be a success for years to come.
To discuss the strategy, find out more or get involved, please contact Justin Blades on justin@theilp.org.uk
You can find ‘Supportinglighting professionalsforthebenefitofsociety: InstitutionofLightingProfessionals Strategy2026’at https://theilp.org. uk/strategy2026/
The Covid-19 pandemic meant an overnight switch from face-to-face events to online. Now physical ILP activities across the UK and Ireland are returning, all led by our Lighting Delivery Centre (LDC) network, why not make a new year’s resolution to reengage and reconnect with the wonderful volunteer teams behind your LDC?
By Jess Gallacher
As we all know, the Covid-19 pandemic profoundly changed how we engage, communicate and work together. For the ILP, it meant an almost overnight pivot away from face-to-face activities and events to online, with the Institution very successfully developing and delivering a whole suite of CPD webinars and online networking events, such as ‘Hi Lights’.
That shift had a number of unforeseen positive consequences, not least making our events, especially our ‘How to be brilliant’ programme, accessible to a much wider audience around the UK and Ireland, and often even to an international audience. This is something that, as Chief Executive Justin Blades has explained in the previous article, we’re looking to build on as part of the ILP’s Strategy 2026.
The downside of course, however, was the loss of face-to-face learning, education, communication and networking, particularly these delivered locally through our Lighting Delivery Centres (LDCs).
This was despite the fact that, throughout the pandemic, our LDC networks remained vibrant and active, with many of our volunteer teams chairing or leading online events and activities.
Now, thankfully, face-to-face events are returning, as we’ve seen in recent weeks
with the LiGHT 22 show and exhibition, the return of How to be brilliant as a hybrid programme (in other words both face to face and online), and last summer’s Professional Lighting Summit in Bristol.
That has meant, in turn, our LDCs have been able gradually to return to offering and running face-to-face activities. ILP Durham, for example, has run a number of CPD and social events over the autumn and ILP Birmingham a technical CPD event and factory tour, among others. Our LDCs also continue to run online events, with ILP Scotland last month running a winter technical CPD webinar.
Why is this important to be highlighting? Well, as we look to a new year of ILP CPD, training, events and networking, our LDC network will be at the forefront of activities in your area.
This means that, after nearly three years of all of us ‘living’ too much online, to get the most from your ILP membership in 2023 it will be important to check your communications preferences to ensure you are receiving all notifications of events – physical and virtual – that are most relevant to you.
Bear in mind, too, that even if you’re located geographically in one LDC area, all LDC events are open to all ILP members, wherever you live. So make sure you’re being notified about events that simply are convenient to you or that align with your interests.
Finally, while all LDC details are listed online on our website (at https://theilp. org.uk/branches/), we’re going to use the opportunity of a new year to ‘reintroduce’ members to your local LDC.
Your LDC of course never went away during the pandemic. But we recognise people move around, roles and responsibilities adjust, faces change.
So, after three years of Covid disruption, we feel now is a great time for us to be updating you on the volunteer teams behind your local LDC – who they are, what’s going on, and how you can best engage and communicate with them.
Therefore, keep an eye out in upcoming editions of Lighting Journal for coverage of your local LDC volunteer team, what they’re up to and what’s going to be happening in your area. After all, the beating heart of our LDCs is the amazing people behind them.
In fact, while LDCs may stand for ‘Lighting Delivery Centres’ I always like to think of them as simply our ‘Lovely Dynamic Communities’. Make sure you make the fullest use of yours in 2023!
Jess Gallacher is Engagement and Communications Manager for the ILP
Last year, Lighting Journal throughout 2022 celebrated and showcased inspirational women working in lighting, running a series of short Q&A-styles profiles in each edition.
This year, we intend to shine a welldeserved spotlight on young, up-and-coming and new-to-the-profession lighters.
As many members will know, the Young Lighting Professionals (YLP) is an integral division of the Institution of Lighting Professionals.
The YLP’s vision is focused on providing a supportive professional network to assist with career progression. We work to represent the views and opinions of young lighting professionals – and all ILP members below the age of 35 are considered YLP members.
We also work to provide informative and independent training advice and professional development for those interested in a career in lighting, alongside regular networking and CPD events.
The YLP was founded by Rebecca Hatch (now of course ILP Senior Vice President) and Scott Pengelly (now Vice President –Products) to provide young lighting professionals with the opportunity to get involved within the lighting community.
They both received a special award at the 2011 Professional Lighting Summit for having had the vision and drive to make the YLP a reality.
The YLP is particularly important because it supports and represents the future of the ILP and the wider lighting industry. It helps to develop the next generation of professionals who will go on to shape the industry and future technologies.
Over the coming year we will therefore be looking to showcase young and up-and-coming lighting professionals and lighting professionals who are new to the industry, as coming to the industry later in life is of course not uncommon.
We will aim to get under the skin of how they’ve entered and progressed within the industry, why lighting inspires them, and what they’ve learnt along the way. The series aims to celebrate the great things YLP members are doing but also the massive contribution new talent of all ages makes to the profession.
We also hope this series will help to promote discussion and reflection, and give younger members the confidence to get
actively involved with the ILP and Lighting Journal
So, how’s it going to work? It’s very simple. All you have to do is drop a line expressing your interest to Lighting Journal editor Nic Paton on nic.cormorantmedia@outlook.com or the ILP’s Jess Gallacher on jess@theilp. org.uk. We’ll then send you a questionnaire to return with a photograph, and off things go.
To emphasise, we’re keen to hear from young lighting professionals (so those aged under 35) but also simply those new to lighting or early in their career, who could be aged over 35.
You’re never too old to shine in lighting! We’d love to hear what you’ve got to say.
For 2023, Lighting Journal is joining forces with the YLP to showcase and celebrate young lighters, up-and-coming lighting professionals and those who are new to the industry
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Opening the first of our 2023 profiles of industry newcomers, Dutch lighting engineer Guus Ketelings outlines his route into lighting, how light inspires him, and his hopes for the future
By Guus KetelingsI’m Guus Ketelings, senior lighting engineer for DFL-UK. I’m a first-generation immigrant to the UK, having moved from The Netherlands in 2017. I’ve got a real passion for tinkering, engineering solutions and especially being creative in whatever media is presented to me. The lighting industry ticks all those boxes for me!
I started in stage lighting back in 2012 as a 13-year-old, assisting with the building and breaking of tiny gigs (fewer than 500 attendees). In 2016, I took the plunge and reached out to my then (and still!)
favourite record label to see if I could get involved. This resulted in operating shows for 10,000+ people.
Stage lighting was great but incredibly intermittent and not easily combined with my other endeavours, so I looked to turn this into a career in 2017. Ever since joining the industry, it’s been a wild ride.
Lighting is beautiful, essential, and a bit of an underdog in creative media. I get huge pleasure out of seeing people interact with the schemes I have designed. Sharing this passion I have for beautiful lighting by using only light as language, and succeeding, is what really drives me.
The interface between creativity and technology. My role covers anything from ideation and concepts all the way up to construction.
I can be working on projects where you need to convert your ideas to a practical and buildable solution but which can also be very challenging yet, equally, incredibly rewarding once you’ve cracked a particular tough nut (often one that I have created!).
All of them! There is always one element in the projects I work on that I am particularly fond of.
If I had to pick one, I would have to say volunteering (through the ILP) for the Illuminated River project. As I described it in Lighting Journal at the time it was a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity because it gave you the chance to impact millions of people on a daily basis (‘Spanning the moment’, June 2019, vol 84, no 6).
Getting involved in Illuminated River was what really pushed me towards public realm lighting and breaking away from functional lighting – which has been nothing short of a paradigm shift.
I think that perpetual awareness of light that we all share really helps me find inspiration.
No matter where you are or what is producing the light, nearly every day I will see something and think ‘oh, that’s cool how the light interacts with that – hadn’t thought of that before’.
I can only speak for the sector I work in –consulting. But I think a significant push could be made on getting more apprentices without formal education into the industry.
Further education didn’t interest me; I wanted to build a career. The industry is missing out on excellent people who can be guided into becoming successful engineers.
All my employers have been primary drivers who supported me in developing my career: DFL-UK, CU Phosco, Meno TV and so on. I have to give a special mention to The Corner Crew, who also helped push me into the work I love doing.
The ILP has created a platform that has allowed me to learn from industry stars, network with lots and lots of people and presented once-in-a-lifetime opportunities such as the Illuminated River work.
WHAT’S YOUR AMBITION IN LIGHTING? WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE IN, SAY, TEN YEARS’ TIME?
Outside of my day job, I’m involved in things like game/software development and virtual events.
I think this latter space is currently heavily overlooked in the lighting industry. Integrating the knowledge we have within this field has already yielded some interesting results.
I’m particularly interested in integrating artificial intelligence, automation of robotic processes and more in our design flow, to see what new and interesting answers this brings to the table.
Find your passion and run with it. There is no better feeling than waking up in the morning and thinking ‘another day –another interesting problem to solve/ another cool lighting design to produce’.
If you can do what you love and get paid at the same time, life is good.
Don’t forget, if you’re under 35 or new to the industry and would like to tell your story during 2023, simple email LightingJournaleditor Nic Paton on nic.cormorantmedia@outlook.com or the ILP’s Jess Gallacher on jess@ theilp.org.uk. We’ll then send you a questionnaire to fill in and return with a photograph. Simple!
Guus Ketelings EngTech AMILP is senior lighting engineer at DFL-UKBEng CEng MILP
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E: REBECCA.HATCH@WSP.COM
WWW.WSP.COM
National team of specialist lighting and energy professionals offering the latest thinking and best client service across all aspects of lighting and energy, both public and private sector. Architectural, Highways, Environmental, Local Government, Electrical and Technical Expertise
IEng MILP
SHD LIGHTING CONSULTANCY LTD BOLTON BL2 6SE M: 07834 490 192
E: STEVE@SHDLIGHTING.CO.UK
WWW.SHDLIGHTING.CO.UK
Outdoor lighting design consultancy specialising in street lighting and private lighting design services. We provide Section 38, Section 278, Car Park lighting designs, Commercial lighting and Environmental Impact Lighting Assessments and planning application consultancy advice throughout the UK.
BEng(Hons) CEng FILP FSLL WSP
HERTFORD SG13 7NN T: 07827 306483
E: ALLAN.HOWARD@WSP.COM
WWW.WSP.COM
Professional artificial and daylight lighting services covering design, technical support, contract and policy development including expert advice and analysis to develop and implement energy and carbon reduction strategies. Expert witness regarding obtrusive lighting, light nuisance and environmental impact investigations. registered personnel.
IEng FILP
ATKINS
NOTTINGHAM, NG1 5FW
T: +44 (0)115 9574900 M: 07834 507070
E: ALAN.JAQUES@ATKINSGLOBAL.COM
WWW.ATKINSGLOBAL.COM
Professional consultancy providing technical advice, design and management services for exterior and interior applications including highway, architectural, area, tunnel and commercial lighting.
Advisors on energy saving strategies, asset management, visual impact assessments and planning.
MILP
M: + 353 (0)86 2356356
E: PATRICK@REDMONDAMS.IE
WWW.REDMONDAMS.IE
Expert lighting and electrical infrastructure for all interior, exterior, and emergency lighting applications. On street EV charging infrastructure design. Authorising Officer and Live Working Manager for Local Authorities.
BEng (Hons) CEng MILP MIET
MHEA -Managing Director
DFL-UK
WINCHESTER SO23 7TA
T: +44 (0)1962 855080 M: +44 (0)7779 327413
E: ANDREW@DFL-UK.COM
WWW.DFL-UK.COM
Professional lighting design consultancy offering technical advice, design and management services for exterior/interior applications for highway, architectural, area, tunnel and commercial lighting. Advisors on lighting and energy saving strategies, asset management, visual impact assessments and planning.
IEng FILP
STAINTON LIGHTING DESIGN SERVICES LTD
STOCKTON ON TEES TS23 1PX T: 01642 565533, E: ENQUIRIES@STAINTONLDS.CO.UK
WWW.STAINTONLDS.CO.UK
Specialist in: motorway, highway schemes, illumination of buildings, major structures, public artworks, amenity area lighting, public spaces, car parks, sports lighting, asset management, reports, plans, assistance, maintenance management, electrical design, Lighting Impact Assessments and Dark Skies Compliant Lighting.
IEng FILP MIES
NICK SMITH ASSOCIATES LIMITED
CHESTERFIELD, S40 3JR
T: 01246 229444
E: MAIL@NICKSMITHASSOCIATES.COM
WWW.NICKSMITHASSOCIATES.CO.UK
Specialist exterior lighting consultant. Private and adopted lighting and electrical design for highways, car parks, area and sports lighting.
Lighting Impact assessments, expert witness and CPD accredited Lighting design AutoCAD and Lighting Reality training courses.
IEng FILP FSLL
ALAN TULLA LIGHTING WINCHESTER, SO22 4DS T: 01962 855720 M:0771 364 8786
E: ALAN@ALANTULLALIGHTING.COM
WWW.ALANTULLALIGHTING.COM
Visual Impact Assessments for planning applications. Expert in minimising environmental impact. 3D building modelling of light spill. Exterior and Interior architectural lighting design. Site surveys and lighting measurements. Specialises in problem solving and out-of-the-ordinary projects..
IEng MILP CMS MCCANN LTD
NOTTINGHAM NG9 6DQ
M: 07939 896887
E: M.WALKER@JMCCANN.CO.UK
WWW.MCCANN-LTD.CO.UK
Design for all types of exterior lighting including street lighting, car parks, floodlighting, decorative lighting, and private lighting. Independent advice regarding light trespass, carbon reduction and invest to save strategies.
Asset management, data capture, inspection and testing services available.
EngTech AMILP
WILLIAMS LIGHTING
CONSULTANTS LTD.
OFFICE 6, STONEHOUSE BUSINESS CENTRE, 1A MIDDLE ROW, CHIPPING NORTON,
WWW.WLCLIGHTING.CO.UK
Based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, established for 30 years, our long serving staff have an extensive knowledge of the exterior lighting industry. Paired with our unrivalled stock levels, we are able to distribute our industry specific range of products quickly and conveniently throughout the whole of the UK with the use of our fleet of Hiab equipped vehicles. We are complimented by our Grangemouth (Scotland) & Bridgend (Wales) branches, ensuring short lead times & guaranteed delivery schedules. Our vast range of stock includes - Cable, ducting, chambers, earthing equipment, feeder pillars, steel & aluminium lighting columns, lanterns, photocells, cut-outs & isolators. We are your one stop shop for any lighting projects.
Light & Energy Distribution Ltd Front Street, Seaton Burn, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE13 6BW
Email: sales@lightandenergydesigns.com • Web: www.streetlightingsupplies.com Office: 0191 217 0119
Also: Bridgend - Tel 01656 335 835 • bridgend@streetlightingsupplies.com Grangemouth - Tel: 01324 665602 • sales@streetlightingsupplies.com
CU Phosco have had 100 award-winning years of illuminating roads, motorways, airports, ports, shopping centres, housing estates and sports stadiums - throughout the world.
A century ago, Charles Albert Marques M.B.E, founded Concrete Utilities.
As we celebrate the past and reflect on how far we’ve come, we’d like to take a moment to thank all of our wonderful customers, suppliers, partners and industry friends who have supported us over this incredible journey. Here’s to the next 100!