About WLW
Whenlightswork is a firm that aimed to push the boundaries of lighting design consultancies, where we combined our excellence in research into lighting design consutancies, and we have always welcomed collaborations with other international teams on projects that promote lighting design excellence. Since 2006, Swee Hong, the founder and director of whenlightswork, had been invited to present at numerous international lighting design conferences to share her extensive knowledge with the audiences. Besides organizing events to promote local lighting design awareness in Singapore, with local authorities like URA, Singapore Institute of Architects, with collaboration with overseas partners, whenlightswork is involved in the lighting design consultancy for projects in Singapore and internationally. Besides achieving excellence in lighting design consultancies, Swee Hong had been featured in several print media on her outlook of Singapore Nightscape, and had been invited to share her expertise in lighting design in several lighting design conferences. She believes in achieving design excellence and exploring fullest design potential in all projects.
About director and founder
Swee Hong, the founder and director of whenlightswork, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Architecture), from the School of Architecture, National University of Singapore, in 2003, and she decided to pursue a career as an architectural lighting designer, in Mr Kaoru Mende’s Lighting Planners Associates Inc, Singapore. During her practice at LPA Inc, she was extremely inspired by how lighting masterplanning can be formulated and the intricate relationship that can be drawn between urban design theories and lighting perception of space at night, particularly works done by LPA, like Singapore One-North Lighting Masterplan, Roppongi Hills Lighting Masterplan etc. After close to two years in practice, she decided to pursue her interest in urban lighting studies and was awarded the National University of Singapore Research Scholarship to work on her post-graduate thesis on the ‘Design Basis for Quality Urban Lighting Masterplanning’. She continued with her interest in urban lighting design after graduating with a Masters in Arts (Architecture) by practicing in Project Lighting Design, and was involved in the conceptualization of the lighting masterplan for various projects, like the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort exterior lighting masterplan, 78 Shenton Way, Burj Dubai Old Town lighting, and several projects of different scales and genre.
Besides her lighting design practices, she have contributed in various publications and conferences locally and internationally, and has been invited to give lectures on lighting design. Swee does not stop at writing about light and working on light, she aims to spread this awareness on lighting design through collaborations with various designers and working on events to educate public on the beauty of light in space. Inspired by Lynch’s writings, Good City Form and Image of the City, her research direction is mainly structured upon the imageability of the night cities and currently, she is working on a series of research that links night cities to cultural and geographical context. Besides centering her works on research and design consultancies, she is keen to spread the awareness on how light can transform forgotten public spaces. In 2010, swee had completed a series of projects and most notably, it is the Singapore Guerrilla Lighting Student Workshop (jointly organized with Light Collective UK, sponsored by URA AUDE Funding programme, Technolite (S) Pte Ltd, 3M Singapore, OSRAM and Philips Lighting). She always seeks to translate her research excellence in her design consultancies, and always aim to deliver a project that is unique to its brief.
Besides her passion in lighting design, she is still much involved in researches and exploring the ideas of urban lighting masterplanning, as an extension to their post-graduate thesis that explored the basis of good lighting masterplanning. She is currently working on exploring potentials and proposals of lighting masterplanning through collaborations with government authorities, communities, combining thorough understanding of the site and its context, with relation to form, space and activities. Whenlightswork aimed to push the boundaries in lighting design consultancy, through excellence in design, conceptaulization and developing strategies for clients that relate to current and future lighting design technologies and trends.
contact: swee(at)whenlightswork.com
