whenlightswork

Swee Hong was interviewed by My Paper on her views on the Singapore and Asian cities’ lightscape.

The above are the published articles, dated on the 15/10/2010 and the following are extracted from the email interview with the journalist,

 

Based on your observation, how has Singapore’s lightscape evolved over the years?

<Swee Hong> We are seeing designers being more ‘adventurous’ in the use and integration of façade lighting design strategies, as part of design feature to accentuate the architectural forms in the night. Also, I think the introduction of the lighting masterplan in the 2006 by the Urban Redevelopment Authority does signal the need for architects to consider the aesthetics of our cityscape at night too., and the authority’s awareness in how lighting can impact the appearance of the cities at night. In fact, the lighting masterplan and the introduction of the lighting incentive, had boost the lighting industry and had signaled the need and awareness for architects to consider the illumination of their building, and how it might contribute to the appearance of our city skyline. The impact detected is greater than the response generated after the first introduction of the lighting plan for the Civic District in 1996.

Also, more architects have experimented with the use of media façade, as part of the design strategy to engage their architectural façade with street activities. Iluma is a successful example where the media façade had captured the attention of passerbys and shoppers, and had successfully integrated design with the street life, and where we have seen public standing and admiring the media façade along the streets. This will not happen without the vision set forth by the URA for Bras Basah, where they will want to encourage more luminous signages, buildings with integrated advertisements or the use of media façade, which is also befitting for Bras Basah, as the new lifestyle and entertainment area in Singapore. Furthermore, the revisiting of the guideline for advertisement and the allowing of more interactive media, have allowed more flexibility in how architects and lighting designers define our building geometry.

What is so unique about Singapore’s lightscape as compared to that of other countries?

<Swee Hong> We are seeing a cityscape that is adequately lit, the streets are well illuminated, and where people can roam around the streets and actively using our spaces at night. This is well fulfilling one of the four main agenda in Urban Lighting, which is a well-lit outdoor space, where people can use and access easily. And in comparison, our nightscape in the city center (particularly the shopping belt of Orchard and our Commercial Hub of the CBD and Marina Bay areas) is well structured and the nightscape well-orchestrated with a structured lighting plan in mind. Furthermore, the URA had taken care to ensure that all façade lighting design proposals are submitted and checked through by the authorities prior to installation, and that will ensure a certain consistency in the choice of lighting design strategy, and to ensure that all exterior spaces are sufficiently illuminated.

Furthermore, with the introduction of the ilightmarinabay 2010 festival and the guerrilla lighting student workshop, we are seeing more events to promote the need and increase in awareness in how lighting design can affect our perception of urban spaces. So in comparison to the other cities, we do love our nights, and we have taken great care to maintain the aesthetics and functional quality of our illuminated streetscape, yet maintaining a certain sense of responsibility to ensure that glare and light pollution is reduced to a minimum.

Based on your knowledge, what is the most common type of lighting used in Singapore’s lightscaping? And why so?

<Swee Hong> If we are looking at the core of Singapore (the 4 city areas), we have a variety of lamp sources used, from Light Emitting Diodes (LED)  to metal discharge lamps, and coupled with a kaleidoscopic range of lighting design strategy – from media façade, uplighting, downlighting, feature lighting, integration of lighting fittings to architectural detailing etc.

However, for the suburban, the common lamp source used will be the fluorescent lamps (in its different forms), which is mainly to be used for the illumination of public spaces in our housing estates. Yet, some housing estates have gradually introduced the use of LED as the alternative option to the provision of a more energy efficient option.

However, there is an underlying misconception to the use of LED, as the use of LED does not equate to being energy efficient, if the total wattage used in the illumination of the same floor area, were the same as compared to other lamp sources. Energy efficiency is an equation of total wattage used in a specific floor area, resulting in a certain lighting level for the specific use of the space.  Therefore, to simply equate LED to energy efficient lighting will not be advised, but we will need to look at the total energy consumed by the provided lighting fittings to achieve the certain lighting fittings, and that is drawn as a comparison to having the same lighting level achieved through use of other lamp sources.

With lighting technology, especially in the area of LED, gaining tremendous speed through recent years, and the LED technology is still undergoing research and development, it might be too early to celebrate LED being the only option towards energy efficient lighting strategy, as it will only be energy efficient, if used wisely and adequately.

Does different lightscape reflect different culture? And how is this achieved?

<Swee Hong> Yes, truly it does. In asian culture, we have often used light as a way to celebrate, and light often has a cultural significance for most Asian countries. We celebrate light in festivals and sometimes, celebrate festival with lights. Also, the Chinese cities at night (Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hangzhou etc) are often vibrant and have caught up with the technologies used by the Europeans and US in façade illumination for their cityscape. In fact, the nights of Chinese cities are much more vibrant, in comparison to the European cities or the American cities.

The vibrancy of the nightscape in Chinese Cities might be a display of their increasingly strong economic power and a display of the cities vibrancy, and the need to create a well-illuminated skyline for the residents to see and celebrate. Perhaps, in this sense, the Chinese cities might have a comparatively vibrant nightscape, but we will also need to look at how and why lighting of the nightscape is needed in the first place, and if we are illuminating our environment to suit the purpose of the area. That is extremely important for urban lighting, as we are primarily lighting people’s cities and so lighting must complement activities planned for the area, instead of lighting taking the priority over the use of space.

In your opinion, which countries/cities are most successful examples of lightscaping? And why?

<Swee Hong> Although through our travel ‘escapades’ to various European, American and Asian Cities, I think there is no city that can be the signature or to illustrate a successful example, as each night city is unique in its own rights, and a nightscape is successful as long as the residents enjoy being outdoors at night and the illumination of the nightscape complements the activities that is intended for the spaces.  I had always enjoyed looking at cities at night, as they are also a reflection of the use of public spaces at night, and the accessibility of these public spaces for its city dwellers. This is especially important for tropical cities, as the heat of the sun often inhibit us in the use of our public spaces, yet in the comforts of our nights, we are given the use of our public spaces again, and it is thus important for the illumination of our public spaces to be good to cultivate the use of these public spaces at night.

As put forth by Jan Gehl in his book, bright lighting does not equate to better lighting, as we will need to have lighting to complement social objects, and primarily, it’s people we will need to light in space.

However, if we were to look at the social responsibility in lighting masterplan and the need to be environmentally responsible in our use of energy for urban lighting, the city that is a good representation of this social agenda will be Lyon in France. Lyon had first launched its lighting masterplan more than 20 years ago, and the city had been active in the promotion of good urban lighting, not merely on the regional level, but it started the LUCI, which is a platform that helped started cities to look at its nightscape once again. Furthermore, Lyon had constantly revisited its lighting masterplan, ensuring the technical specification is kept up to the improvements in lighting technological developments, and they have also looked at the recycling and replacement of the less energy efficient lighting equipments for the existing installations. This is important as lighting technology had developed tremendously through the years and we are seeing more energy efficient lighting equipments being researched, so to allow a parallel between the guideline and technological advancement is effort worth learning from.

There have always been concerns about light pollution and using of excessive light is not environment friendly, how can countries/cities strike a balance between attractive lightscape and causing light pollution?

<Swee Hong> Light Pollution is definitely an issue when we will want an attractive nightscape, and it is often hard to achieve both simultaneously. Yet, I think it is important for architects to understand that a good lighting designer will often take care to propose a lighting scheme that considers the “maintainability” of the proposal, the achieved lighting level and the quantity of lighting fittings used to achieve the proposed lighting level. It is often a misconception that lighting designers are only employed to create an aesthetically pleasing night environment, but good lighting designers will also look at designing a proposal that suits the required lighting level for the usage of the area, and to prevent over lighting, and to propose a lighting design strategy that is easily maintained by the clients, or a lighting control system that reacts to the use of the space we are designing for. But for the part of the lighting designers, in order for us to be socially responsible in our proposal, we will often need to look at the methods to which we will need to reduce the use of energy in our proposed lighting design strategies, the reduction in use of up-lighting strategies, where this will result in light spillage and light pollution, and of course methods to reduce over provision of lighting, which we will often advise clients accordingly when clients require a lighting level that is too high for the said space or a lighting strategy that suits the emotive quality that is required for the space, which is especially so for hospitality or social spaces.