5 Highlights from 2011

At the start of 2012 I have been reflecting on what we did last year and have distilled a few highlights to share.

Community projects

2011 was by far our biggest year for community projects. In February we organised a fundraiser called Floodlight for victims if the QLD and VIC floods. We also got heavily involved with the Light in Winter festival at Fed Square, organising the Meaning of Light, Ready Steady Light and Fabulous Foyers and Facades. Then to cap it all off we orgaised another installment of LightCycle, a sustainable light fixture design competition as part of the State of Design Festival. These events we principally aimed at challenging people to think about light, perhaps in a different way and to continue the lighting conversation.

LightCycle 2011 opening party

Awards

We were very proud to collect a further 3 IESANZ design awards for Lonsdale Street, Victoria State Legislative Chamber and Westfield Sydney, bringing our practice’s tally to 14 gongs.

The lighting conversation

2011 saw us make a significant contribution to the online lighting conversation. We tweeted, we facebooked, we wrote blog posts, we asked and answered questions on LinkedIn. And we made some new friends in the process.

Our team

While it has been sad to bid farewell to some departing team members, in 2011 we were pleased to welcome some fabulous new faces to the team. We were joined by Jim Birch, Tina Atic and then Christopher Knowlton who all joined us for periods as a guest designer; all of whom made a significant contribution to our work and have provided new perspectives on our design thinking. We were also joined by Elisha Howard, our super practice manager.

Speaking engagements

Members of Electrolight’s team were invited to speak at a number of events in 2011. We gave papers at the Future of Light Summit in Melbourne as well as the PLDC conference in Madrid. In addition to that, our Dave Anderson co-organised the world’s first lighting Pecha Kucha which was incredibly well received.  Sharing ideas and hearing the ideas of others is a great source of inspiration for our practice.

We look forward to seeing what 2012 will bring.