whenlightswork

Swee presented at the City Planner Forum 2009 which was the prelude event to the 2nd Professional Lighting Designer Conference (PLDC), which was held in Berlin. Her topic for discussion is targeted towards the implementation of the Singapore Lighting Masterplan and how the incentives had encouraged the employment of lighting designers in Singapore projects. Yet, with these incentives and regulations, there are certain issues that will need to be relooked into, to improve on the implementation of the Singapore Lighting Masterplan.

About City Planner Forum 2009

Current activities in the lighting market indicate interesting developments and changes. Public clients are beginning to show a huge interest in LED technology. International observations show that current developments and offers from leading manufacturers are interesting for the wide public. The demand to save energy in the public domain is the driving force for cities’ openness to replace existing installations and street lighting schemes using new LED technologies. City planning and lighting is a new impulse for investments and can be described as a dynamic future market.

For this reason, on Wednesday, 28. October, 2009 and prior to the three-day Professional Lighting Design Convention, PLDC in Berlin, the PLDC team will be staging a one-day forum dedicated to urban planners and decision makers at local government level. The forum will comprise lectures on Urban Lighting Strategies: What they are and what benefits they incorporate; reports on Urban Lighting Solutions that demonstrate the economic and social benefits of designed lighting schemes; real information about Energy Issues: What is energy efficient lighting, which technologies are sustainable and what perspectives do LEDs offer?

The CPF will also offer a first-time-ever opportunity for public clients to meet lighting consultants and designers in a unique Client Meets Designer format.

In this day and age urban lighting strategies are the intelligent way forward for towns and cities that wish to enhance their respective urban environments for people living and working there, improve the town’s economy by attracting people to spend more time and money in town centres, and make their urban centres interesting and attractive for visitors and tourists.

Attendees at the City Planner’s Forum, CPF can upgrade their knowledge in all matters regarding designed lighting in the urban environment. It will put people in a position to make an educated decision when it comes to the lighting in their town or city.

The Forum will be held in English, but professional lighting designers from different countries will be available to consult. Your personal Client Meets Designer meeting can therefore be held in a language of your choice.

Internationally renowned speakers will give lectures on and discuss the topics stated above. The pre-convention meeting is a joint project of the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association, PLDA, the Lighting Urban Community International, LUCI and VIA-Publishing which is an ideal partner with its new magazine for city planners.

Speakers and topics scheduled for the session,

Roger Narboni, PLDA, ACE/F – “It started in France”

Jon Dawson/UK: Liverpool research carried out by the city to  evaluate and verify the benefits of their new lighting schemes

Ong Swee Hong/SGP – Singapore lighting master plan: what has been learnt

Ulrike Brandi, PLDA, IALD/D : lighting strategies in mainland Europe, Lighting Detectives’ findings

Jöran Linder and Erik Olsson, Jönköping/S - St. George’s Square, Liverpool example + some Swedish examples.

Tor Mjøs/N, Energy saving through dimming – overview of the experience gained in Norway.

Kevan Shaw, PLDA, IALD/UK: real information about what energy efficient lighting is with input from Jean Sundin/Enrique Peiniger regarding the New York LED street luminaire.

Mr Martin Lupton, the president of the PLDA was the moderator for the event, when many interesting issues were raised on how the perception of lighting varied internationally. I must conclude that as the only Asian presenter that afternoon, this session gave me insight on how participatory design in lighting can be worked on (via the swedish example), investigation on lighting (lighting detectives’ ideas presented by Ulrike Brandi) and, of course, how masterplan is designed, implemented or is that a need to review the planned plan?