Professional Lighting Design Convention, Madrid

The PLDC is a biennial international convention for lighting design where speakers and attendees gather to discuss the latest in lighting design trends, technology and governance. This year’s event was held in Madrid from 19-22 October 2011.

The convention is organised by VIA Verlag, a German publishing house that  publish the Professional Lighting Design magazine in conjunction with the PLDA. There were 76 speakers from around the world presenting papers across the following four streams: lighting application research, professional practice issues, Lighting design case studies and exterior lighting solutions.  There was no over-arching theme linking the streams.

There were some interesting papers. Paul Marantz from the legendary New York lighting design firm Fisher Marantz Stone gave an interesting opening address where he proposes that the iPad may be the saviour of the incandescent lamp. Yes, they really are still talking about this issue stateside!

Paul Marantz

I enjoyed Prof Philip Gabriel’s paper discussing ethical issues in the profession. Is the traditional fee for design service model outdated? Is there a better way of providing value to our clients such as the turn-key approach to design and supply of equipment that is gaining traction in China and India? If so what are the implications for peak bodies such as the IALD and PLDA who’s professional membership predicates that professional designers must be independent of suppliers?

Kevan Shaw, as always, was thought provoking and interesting. Kevan asked if the only way to deliver sustainable outcomes for projects is through very tight regulatory control or is there a case for giving designers the latitude and flexibility required to deliver on energy efficiency?

Jim Benya proposed a strategy for achieving recognition for the lighting design profession and called for a uniting umbrella organisation that represents lighting design at the highest level. The manufacturers seem to have their house in order but we are still disparate and that leaves lighting design in a position of vulnerability.

I saw some other excellent papers. A favourite was Kristin Bredal from Zenisk Lysdesign, a Norwegian lighting designer who spends a couple of months a year without seeing the sun.  This seems to provide her with the inspiration to design some beautiful public realm lighting, at the same time respecting the darkness and conserving power.

Kristin Bredal

We contributed to the conference by presenting two original papers. Rachel Burke gave an inspirational paper called ‘A healthy Light’ in which she explored contemporary thinking and research in the field of innovative design in the healthcare sector. She suggests a way of addressing the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of lighting design in healthcare settings.  And I gave a paper on professional practice issues aimed at those practitioners who are interested in setting up in private practice.

The feedback that I heard the most was that the conference was somewhat mixed; some exceptional papers interspersed with others that could have been much better. Moreover, the venue and general planning of the event were less than ideal. There was little or no gap between sessions which were held of 4 floors without a decent lift. This meant traipsing up and down stairs all day without a moment to sip a glass of water (if you could find some, that is).

Having said that, a conference that is all about lighting design is a great idea and it was good to be part of it. I met some interesting new people, learned some things I didn’t know and got to check out the fabulous city which is Madrid. And for that I’m very grateful. For more on the conference check out our facebook page.