The use of lighting on our buildings and landscape plays a huge part in sculpting a bewitching atmosphere. Good lighting installations, when employed cleverly, not only can reveal, but also highlight features and nuances of the city and its buildings not seen in bright daylight. The Civic-Cultural district of Bras Basah-Bugis has some of our oldest buildings and public institutions gracing its grounds. These buildings aren’t just architectural monuments, but are vessels of rich histories, untold stories and forgotten memories, inextricably linked to their contextual surroundings.

A Little Light Magic invites artists and designers to use the medium of architectural lighting to dream and imagine narratives via the canvasses of these buildings. As daylight slowly disappears, and nighttime comes on, these buildings, together with the cityscapes around them can become places of respite, a reverie of dreams, inviting the city dwellers to slow down, ponder and wonder about them.

Website: http://alittlelightmagic.sg/

The lawn, often perceived to be subservient space to the built architectural form, the sometimes left-over plots in the process of design. Yet, if we were to examine the relationship of architecture to the green, the lawn is of compositional importance to the architectural forms, from antiquity to the current times. In this instance, our interpretation of the lawn, is more than it being a residual space, a backdrop, or a supporting space, but an important foreground to Architecture.

We see the slice of green, in front of the National Museum of Singapore, as an extension of the Fort Canning Park, an active urban space. So, the lawn is celebrated through this installation, where we re-examine the lawn as  of equal importance to the Museum. Through lights, the lawn is now ‘recharged an active foreground with the Museum, receding into the quiet night – from picnicking in the night to people watching. This slice of green is transformed into a magical lawn of happenings.

This installation is created for A Little Light Magic, installation presented for the National Museum of Singapore, for National Heritage Board )Bras Basah Bugis Precinct) and jointly presented by  Luke Smith-Wightman and whenlightswork,  sponsored by Xicato and supported by BEZ Balloons.

Find out more about the event: www.alittlelightmagic.sg

About Luke Smith-Wightman

Luke divides his time between architectural lighting design and creating objects for everyday life. Having spent several years working for BDP in London, in 2009 he formed his company Fine Science as a vehicle to engage other design projects whilst continuing with lighting design consultancy. Luke’s approach to design is primarily a process of reduction and innovation – with the aim of maintaining an appropriate balance between simplicity and significance.

www.lukesmith-wightman.com

PLDA  Professional Lighting Designers Association - www.pld-a.org
IALD International Association of Lighting Designers - www.iald.org

Find out about us: www.xicato.com

Swee Hong was being approached by FiveFootWay on an interview about her thoughts of Asian Cities at night, and of course to share her ideas on what makes a good night-time city. The below are extracts of the article and do look out for more exciting information that are posted on FiveFootWay.

Source: http://www.fivefootway.com/magazine/article/a_light_hearted_conversation

About FiveFootWay

FIVEFOOTWAY is a media brand focused on Asian cities.

Created to feed the sharp minds of global citizens and stakeholders of Asia’s built environment, FIVEFOOTWAY features stories and reportage on the people and forces shaping the region’s cities.

This digital magazine explores 10 themes across the year, with articles delivered weekly via its Magazine and a daily Broadcastof what’s happening in the cities of Asia, providing a quick day-to-day survey and in-depth reads across the week.

The articles are presented in a mixture of formats, ranging from commentaries, essays, photo slideshows, infographics and movies. These are contributed by our growing network of correspondents across the world, and are put together in our headquarters in Singapore, which comes under creative studio Awesome Anything. You can access our entire database of content through Fivefootway.com with a monthly subscription.

Besides publishing, FIVEFOOTWAY also produces various Programmes to bring its readers together and further explore ideas about the city. Past projects include Magical Spaces, Confessions of an Architect and our regular Sessions. Since FIVEFOOTWAY began in 2007, it has also supported various architecture projects and organizations in Singapore, including the city’s annual architecture festival, Archifest. Fivefootway is regarded as an emerging voice in Singapore’s architecture fraternity, and it was selected to represent Singapore at the prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008.

People who made Guerrilla Lighting 2011 happen for Singapore Night Festival 2011.

On the 26th and 27th of August 2011, guerrilla lighting happened again for the Singapore Night Festival! We were basking in a kaleidoscopic display of colours, lights and sounds (from the Substation and the singing of the invited performers at the Peranakan Museum). 30 students, together with the help from Miss Janice Tan Li-Ling (Lecturer in-charge) from the Singapore Polytechnic, School of Design, helped in making the installations happen.

The colourful display of lights will not happen without the GDS LiteWare UL and GDS LiteWare HO, that are sponsored by Desisti Asia Pte Ltd and Global Design Solutions (UK). Please contact GDS and Desisti Asia on more product information, and check our event website for the exciting writeups on what inspired us for the installations and our rehearsal updates! 

website:

www.guerrillalighting.sg

http://www.desisti.tv/

http://www.gds.uk.com/welcome-to-global-design-solutions

Voyage Night Festival 2011 introduces Whenlightswork, a new local design team that draws inspiration from the lighting ‘guerilla’ movement first developed in the UK to light structures and transform environments in surprising and innovative ways.Whenlightswork embarks on a mission to ‘change’ the night environment along Stamford Road at the Civic District, with the help from students from Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Design. Brandishing special ‘torches’, they will illuminate the passageway in a colourful kaleidoscopic inter- play of light and shadows on the facades of various buildings. This transient lighting installation helps to re-discover some forgotten spaces within the event perimeters of Voyage Night Festival 2011, whilst reminding all that we can celebrate our architectural volumes and reinvent our spaces through the use of light.

Our secret weapon is a battery powered LED uplighting which has the wireless DMX control system (http://www.gds.uk.com/gds-products/liteware) check out the amazing website for the products and call your local agents for a preview of the amazing products GDS has!

Check out the following pictures showing a preview of our site works and what we have up our sleeves,

website:

www.guerrillalighting.sg

http://www.nationalmuseum.sg/EventDetail.aspx?id=279&cat=3#Passage

As of July 2011, Swee Hong, the founder of whenlightswork has joined ONG&ONG as the director of their first Lighting Consultancy studio. We envision this integration to be a revolutionary one, where architecture and lighting is now as one, and there will not be any scope of works difference during project discussion, even at the point of intrusion into the project. This will also be a major step in completing the ONG&ONG comprehensive design offering, and definitely setting the pace for designers in this region of the world. Yet through the autonomy in the management of the studio, the lighting studio is still open to working with other architects and clients who shares our vision in design.

The ONG&ONG Lighting studio believes in a more integrative approach in design, and hence, we believe that the future of lighting consultancies should be one that moves towards a totalistic approach towards lighting design, hence,

Light inspires us, be it natural or artificial lighting. The definitive lighting experience should be one that is emotive, whilst complementing to space and activities, through layering of time, pattern of use and experience. We believe that good lighting can tell a poetic ‘visual’ story of space, about its occupants, design intent or the intended ambience.

The ONG&ONG (Lighting Consultancy) believes that spaces and volumes should be celebrated in good lighting. We define our practice as “light architecture”, where we approach our designs through being inspired by architectural volume and language. Since 2006, the studio director had been invited to present her extensive knowledge on various aspects to lighting design at different international conferences and her recent proposed scheme on “Intelligent Urban Lighting Solution for Eindhoven” is the only shortlisted submission in Asia. Furthermore, the studio has been instrumental in introducing events to increase public awareness of good lighting practices in Singapore. We aimed to be the first lighting design consultancy in Singapore that introduces Daylight design to craft spaces that is defined as a totality of artificial and natural lighting.

We aim to be the definitive lighting design studio of the future, where we combined our excellence in research, our eye for an experiential illuminated environment, being inspired by the moment created by light, the ability to re-define light as a design tool, and our sensitivity to architectural patterns, to tell a story of space through light.

Talk to us.

This year, for the Singapore Night Festival 2011, whenlightswork will be planning another round of ‘guerrilla lighting attacks’ on 2 locations near the Night Festival event hub (National Museum of Singapore). The invitation came as a pleasant surprise to us as the curator team is looking at having an architectural lighting event to be incorporated into the overall festival programme. This will be the first for the Night Festival and for us to work with other lighting designers to conceptualize ideas for our sites. Certainly, we will be back for more. Catch us on our event website (www.guerrillalighting.sg) which will be updated with a fresh new look – courtesy of octopus ink and it should be launched very soon!

Stay tuned!

Official guerrilla lighting SG website: www.guerrillalighting.sg

Night Festival 2011 website: http://www.nationalmuseum.sg/EventDetail.aspx?id=270&cat=3

stalk us,

http://whenlightswork.net

http://asialightingdesignersnetwork.wordpress.com

http://community.lighting.philips.com/community/events

We have an opening for an internship position for student who want to work on a variety of work, concerning research, lighting design events and practicing in Asia. Candidates with Architectural lighting background will be preferred, and it will be a bonus if you have a degree in Daylighting study. Do drop us an email at swee(at)whenlightswork.com, if you love what we do and want to be know more.

Following is the article that covers the aspects of urban reuse of Strijp-S, which was extracted from website ( http://www.projetosurbanos.com.br/2010/03/12/reuse-strijp-s/)

Reuse of Philips complex Strijp-S

Transformation – new developments and reuse of Philips industries in Eindhoven

The urban renewal plan for Strijp-S includes over 400.000 square meters of program and its final phase should be completed in the year 2020. The share of reused industrial structures is about 150.000 m².

•     Total area: 27 ha
•     Residential floor area: ca. 285.000 m²
•     Dwellings: 2.500 – 3.000
•     Dwelling types: studios, apartments, urban villas and lofts
•     Office floor area: ca. 90.000 m²
•     Retail and culture: ca. 30.000 m²
•     Flexible: ca. 30.000 m²

The idea of Trudo housing corporation is to maintain the industrial atmosphere of the complex, mixing the creative industry with lively functions of gastronomy, bars, culture and housing. This is to be carried out in small scale permeable interventions within the existing big scale structure. The characteristic installation corridor will be maintained with new exciting functions.

Trudo director Thom Aussems criticizes the liveliness of the former urban plan and states that dealing with a place of industrial atmosphere should not be confused with the protection of industrial heritage. It´s a delicate matter. A project can easily go wrong like the reuse of the Witte Dame, he says, where space after renovation became too expensive and therefore not interesting anymore for the cultural avant garde with its lack of capital. The people with the least resources, states Aussems, are the ones who make the place more lively.
Strijp-S should be much more vibrant, creative and industrial than renewal projects like Kop van Zuid (Riek Bakker) and the Hamburg harbor project (Kees Christiaanse). Rather like the Distillery and the Meatpacking District in New York. Can this come true in Eindhoven? Aussems thinks it can, having over 8.000 small creative entrepreneurs in the region, with a turnover greater than the local construction sector. No comparison is made however with Dutch incubator projects (‘broedplaatsen’), such as Amsterdam NSDM wharf. The ambition is definitely there and so are the first creative inhabitants of the area. What the future of this hot spot will be, in terms of gentrification, creativity and real estate development, we´ll witness within the next decade.

One of the most eye-catching buildings in the complex is the Klokgebouw (Clock building). In this structure many activities have started already and several creative firms have rented a studio. Among others, there is an urban skate park called Area51, sports facility Fit For Free, a sports climbing hall and pop music stage Popei. Many cultural events take place, such as the Dutch Design Week and Flux-S. The Popei stage was designed by En-En architects as colored suspended boxes in the main structure, for maximum sound insulation.

Read more

Reuse of Philips factories in Eindhoven (Projetos Urbanos)
www.projetosurbanos.com.br/2010/03/12/reuse-of-phili…ries-eindhoven

Strijp-S
www.strijp-s.nl/
www.strijp-s.nl/downloads/strijps_vakpers.pdf

Klokgebouw
www.klokgebouw.nl
www.klokgebouw.nl/files.aspx?PID=12558&FID=5274

Popei
www.architecten-en-en.nl/projecten/interieur/popei-in-klokgebouw—eindhoven.html
www.architecten-en-en.nl/public/pdf/9/documentatie/0477—popei—ebook.pdf

Flux-S / Dutch Design Week
www.flux-s.nl
www.dutchdesignweek.nl/ddw//download/strijp.pdf

Thom Aussems (Trudo) lectures on reuse of industrial heritage (Dutch language, in 4 parts)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm-8fHafxSw

Open the Strijp-S project in Google Earth
www.strijp-s.nl/downloads/DO%20stedenbouw%20Strijp-S.kmz