On southern-west coast of Singapore, there is a huge and grand garden called “Gardens by the Bay” at 54 hectares. On 29th June this year, the Bay South Garden featured in two colossal glass enclosed glasshouses and a cluster of 18 distinctively shaped structures of various sizes called “SuperTrees” opened. Immediately after it opened to the public, this new garden became an icon in Singapore. The origin of this project is an ambition to make Singapore a “Gardens City” or “City in a Garden.” To achieve this, National Parks Board launched an international competition for designers of the Masterplan in January 2006 and Grant associates and Gustafson Porter were awarded the Masterplan design for the Bay South and Bay East Gardens respectively. However, the local consultants for the Bay South tried to invite few international lighting consultants including Kaoru Mende and his colleagues to bid for the lighting design of the garden and they were awarded to work on the project.

Since 1999, the Transnational Tanteidan (TNT) has been traveling around the world to survey lighting conditions in different cities. This time, they traveled to Taiwan and had a short but impressive event with Taiwanese people. In this event, members of TNT discussed with participants on their survey and went out to detect lighting conditions in five areas in Taipei City. That was a typhoon night, yet these detectives didn’t be defeated by the wind and rain. They walked in the areas and observed carefully to find out heroes and villains – good lighting and bad lighting.

A recent article by PSFK labs explores the relationship between lighting products and human interaction. Could light be used to bridge two remote experiences? If so, what kind of stories could it tell? In a trend we are calling Remotely Connected, PSFK Labs explores how synced lighting experiences are helping bring to life the unique connections between people. With their ability to convey shared experiences, awareness or proximity, these lighting displays are being creatively deployed to evoke an emotional response between people.

previous article: Interview with Ta-Wei Lin on Giant Bicycle Headquarters – Interacting with a vivid building, Making LED not to be like LED (1/2) Ta-wei Lin, a member of PLDA, is a MA of interior design (Pratt Institute) and an international lighting designer who has won IALD Award of Excellence and IIDA Award of Merit. Lin is now the principal of CMA Lighting Design, mostly focusing on lighting projects in Taiwan.

In order to promote the concept of “lighting environment activity,” Coretronic Culture and Arts Foundation (CCAF) started up a series of events in hopes to make our lighting conditions better. Last year, staffs of CCAF invited the pioneer of Chinese lighting designers, Mr. Chou Lien, to present a lighting show at Wind God Temple in Tainan, Taiwan and explained how lighting design affects our daily life. As staffs and all attendees impressively understood how important lighting is, CCAF decided to recreate the lighting circumstance around Wind God Temple.

Philips Hue has been installed at the Photon Project’s Photon Pod at the London Design Festival. The all-glass pod is a prototype for the Photon Project that will collect invaluable data and insights on the links between light, health and wellbeing over a planned four-year period. The Photon Project is a groundbreaking scientific study initiated by glass engineering company Cantifix, and Oxford University, to explore in detail the effects of light on the biological clock – which in turn affects the health, wellbeing, mood and behavior of each of us.

Ta-Wei Lin, a member of PLDA, is a MA of interior design (Pratt Institute) and an international lighting designer who has won IALD Award of Excellence and IIDA Award of Merit. Lin is now the principal of CMA Lighting Design, mostly focusing on lighting projects in Taiwan. In 2012, he won IESNA Illumination Award by his lighting design, Giant Bicycle Headquarters in Taichung, Taiwan. We are very honored to have such a chance to interview Mr. Lin on his award-winning project.

Keratonat The Plaza is the latest addition to The Luxury Collection® Hotels & Resorts by global hotel chain Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. The Luxury Collection is an ensemble of hotels and resorts offering unique, authentic experiences that evoke lasting memories. Keratonat The Plaza is a luxurioushotel located in Jakarta’s well-known landmark Plaza Indonesia. Setting its sights on a high-quality and efficient lighting solution, KeratonatThePlaza specified GE Lighting’s provenLED system tailored to create an air of elegance at the luxury hotel.

The St. Botolph Building, over 500,000 sq ft space with 14 stories high, is one of the largest office development in the City of London. Speirs + Major was appointed by Minerva plc to design the lighting scheme for the internal public area: the reception, central lift core, outer stair cores and atrium.

Event Name: Middle East Smart Lighting & Energy Summit 2013 Region: Middle East Location: Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi, UAE Dates: Nov. 11, 2013 - Nov. 12, 2013 Exhibitors: DK LED, LUG Light Factory, Lightworks, Musco Lighting, Tridonic, Speclight, Decolight, Uni-Lights, Corvi LED, Light Factor, Cinmar, C2SmartLight, LeadsLED, Trilux, Schreder, Zubair Electric Group, Multipole CitySmart, Steinel, Sapa, Lightitude, UL. Website: www.lightingsummit.com The MIDDLE EAST SMART LIGHTING...

TNT, Transnational Tandeidan, is a non-governmental organization that has been dedicating to promote a better lighting world. For more than a decade, TNT has already held countless lectures, workshops and events to invite people around the world join their lineup to feel the light around ourselves. This year, TNT traveled to Taiwan and collaborated with Xue Xue Institute to invite Taiwanese people to observe the lighting world.

How do people interact with the surroundings at night? This must be achieved through light. However, according to a survey conducted by Coretronic Culture and Arts Foundation (CCAF), there are 97% of Taiwan’s residents admit that our cities need better lighting infrastructure. For this reason, the association launched an event to improve the lighting condition and reveal the importance of appropriate lighting design.

Every kid has a dream to live upon a treehouse and hide his or her face behind tree branches. However, most of us are unable to achieve such a difficult dream for build a firm, wide tree house in some beautiful location. Believe it or not, there is actually one place that accomplishes this fantasy. Inspired by the nature, the Yellow Treehouse Restaurant, which offers 25 seats, in New Zealand is a stunning architecture that typically built on an enormous redwood tree for diners to enjoy their dishes while being immersed into the wonderful environment. As the dusk fall, you can also see the restaurant shines like a golden cocoon wrapped up by dark shade. This astonishing architecture is a significant project of a New Zealand based architecture studio – Pacific Environment Architects Ltd. (PEL).

When you flip the switch, you don’t want to wait for the compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulb to brighten up. GE Lighting’s award-winning Bright from the Start®, a hybrid halogen-CFL light bulb that provides instant brightness, is now available in a 100-watt replacement bulb for table or floor lamps, as well as globe lights commonly used for bathroom vanity lighting and recessed lighting in kitchen, living and dining rooms. They are perfect choices for residential lighting.

After six years, visitors can return to the National Center for Traditional Arts (NCTA) and wander around there at night this summer. NCTA therefore launched a special summer project called “66 nights in NCTA – ‘Along the River During the Qingming Festival’ under the starry night” (Editor’s note: “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” is a famous Chinese painting that depicts bustling streets in Bianjing, now Kaifeng, along an ancient canal in the Song Dynasty) to feast visitors. In order to enrich the beauty of nights in NCTA, the owner worked with Delta Electronic who provided its LED lighting integration program which adopts hardwire and software controlling systems and power supply design, so it is possible to protect our environment by 63% lower energy consuming while enhance the gorgeous scene.

There are several reasons to explain why LED rises so quickly in recent years. One of them, maybe the most important one, is that LEDs are more energy efficient. LEDs are brighter and cooler than traditional lamps; this also indicates that they consume less energy to emit the same lumen. As the producing process getting improved, the costs to produce LEDs are lower, and this fact encourage people to consider using LEDs instead. In addition, LEDs are more flexible for different situations. Designers can achieve almost everything they want. Other than advantages of energy and flexibility, brightness is another beneficial feature of LED fixtures. Now, European countries are striving to cut as many costs as possible, and the United Kingdom is not an exception. When Wigan Council was planning to start their Street Scene and Lighting project, it was necessary to find a balance between brightness and money. The manager, Keith Benson, sought help from Philips and there was a perfect solution: Philips’ product called “SpeedStar LED luminaire.”

The tallest construction in New Taipei City, a.k.a. the Xinbei Bridge, reveals that even the latest architectural technology can dance elegantly with beautiful scenes when it is given help from appropriate lighting design. Taipei City is the biggest city in Taiwan; across the rivers surrounding it, it is the second biggest city – The New Taipei City. For decades, these two major cities have been connected by several bridges and become the Big Taipei Metropolis. However, as the population increasing, it is necessary to build a new one that can improve traffic conditions for the most densely inhabited districts. And the answer is Xinbei Bridge, literally “New Taipei Bridge.”

In an old capital like Beijing, the most impressive thing should be visiting those mysterious mansions in alleyways. The night lighting in Beijing is more elegant than other Chinese cities as it is calm and noble. The main purpose of lighting design for Beijing is not about to highlight the architecture, but about to integrate light with the architecture and surroundings to let the architecture and its background culture tell their own stories.

The Comal School District (“District”) in San Antonio is installing indoor and outdoor lighting and controls from Acuity Brands in schools across the district to achieve significant energy and maintenance savings. The District needed energy efficient lighting and controls solutions for multiple high performance school designs.

This project was located in a newly constructed park in suburban Shanghai. Originally, the building was designed as a public facilities room in the park, yet never been used since the park was completed. Due to the fact that there is a newly finished subway station, it also provides fresh energy to the surrounding area. For this reason, local government is willing to introduce a whole new design concept and a different business model so that they can try to create a new building type that would be more suitable to regional residents and customers. Designers and builders applied a series of copper gilded and carved out metal sun shading boards in shape of tea leaves at the southern part of this building to achieve the “eco-friendly, trendy and cultural” concept, and make this building an energy-saving and poetic lounge that represents the Chinese tea culture.

Spearing into the blue sky, Burj Khalifa – also called “the Dubai Tower” – has been regarded as one of the most remarkable building in human history. Burj Khalifa is a landmark among Middle East, where is mostly dominated by Islamic culture, and also an icon of how high technology can help to construct an “automatic” building. Across the Persian Gulf, there is a vivid comparison to Burj Khalifa –Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. The museum is a beautiful architecture that collects enormous number of Islamic artworks. Both of these two great building are lightened up by fixtures from Philips.

Public-private partnership between Illuminate the Arts, CalTrans & artist Leo Villareal turns bridge into The Bay Lights sculpture: 4.5 miles of LED supported by solar; spurs local economy In a shining example of public-private partnership, The Bay Lights, the new LED lighting system for the Bay Bridge that was developed by Philips Color Kinetics, has been gone to live since May. Fulfilling the brainchild of Ben Davis, chairman of Illuminate the Arts (ITA) and the vision of acclaimed artist Leo Villareal, the bridge will become a one-of-a-kind lighted sculpture for the next two years. Installed with the support of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the bridge is expected to be viewed by over 50 million people and bring nearly USD$ 100 million in revenue to the local San Francisco economy. The new LED lighting system uses 85 percent less energy than traditional lighting technologies, energy that will be offset by dedicated solar panels set up in Davis, CA by CleanPath.

The Berlin-based deluxe department store Quartier 206 teamed up with OSRAM AG to infuse its display windows with special lighting. Located on the Friedrichstrasse, one of the top addresses in Berlin, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs for short) were being used to create an impressive setting for the sophisticated fashions at the store. The light technology of the future transformed glass panels into luminous surfaces which emit a warm, very soft lighting. This permitted the creation of light installations unlike anything seen before.

According to LEDinside, observed from the 2013 regional residential lighting market development, the Chinese market proportion will increase from 19% in 2012 to 24%, becoming the fastest-growing regional market. In terms of the European market, the implementation of comprehensive ban of incandescent lamps and the economic recovery after the European debt crisis gradually had a positive impact on LED light bulb market, and the LED light bulb market penetration rate is expected to increase.

Ulrike Birnbaum has designed for brands including Jaguar, Landrover, Disney, British Telecom, Bodyshop, Vapiano, Christie's Auction House, Bloomberg, Seabourne, Steiner Spa and many more. Having lived in Berlin, Amsterdam, London and New York, she gained experiences as an architectural lighting designer in the world of opera, cruise ship and show lighting. Before founding CONTINUUM STUDIOS, she worked for the 'English National Opera', and later joined 'ARUP' as a senior lighting designer.She was also previously the principal architectural lighting designer for Imagination Ltd. and worked for MRD in New York. Her decision to establish a company for architectural lighting design with studios in New York ,U.S. and Munich,Germany, brought together highly skilled lighting designers with various backgrounds, such as film, opera, product design, textile & material design, electrical engineering, 3D animation, graphic design and digital art. We interviewed Ulrike Birnbaum about her personal experiences with LED light fixtures in architectural lighting design.

Tampa General Medical Group installed LED lighting and controls from Acuity Brands, Inc.​ in its newly constructed Family Care Center in Brandon, Florida. The 10,000 square-foot ambulatory clinic features the latest in modern lighting technologies to minimize energy costs and provide quality lighting for medical staff and patients.

The city of Lyon in France had been awarded the first prize for the project ‘’Le mur vegetalise de l’ Annonciade’’ in the tenth edition of the city.people.light awards last year. The annual global competition is organized by Philips and the Lighting Urban Community International Association (LUCI) to reward projects which demonstrate the contribution lighting can make to the well-being of those who live, work or visit a city or town.

Acuity Brands demonstrated three new advancements in OLED luminaires at LIGHTFAIR® International 2013, April 23-25, in Philadelphia. Each energy-saving OLED luminaire was designed to enhance architectural spaces through their flexible, customizable form factors and give users novel ways to experience and design with light.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) installed 48 Incito™ LED downlights​ embedded with nLIGHT® lighting controls​ from Acuity Brands Inc.​ as part of the University’s renovation of the Great Dome in the Barker Engineering Library. MIT updated the historic dome using integrated Gotham® LED downlighting with embedded controls to provide consistent light levels for reading in the library, while complementing daylighting from the Dome’s skylight. The daylighting and electric lighting work together seamlessly to provide round-the-clock illumination during the library’s 24-hour operation.

Philips continues to lead the smart lighting revolution by launching ‘Friends of hue,’ stepping beyond light to bring dynamic immersive lighting to the home through your fingertips. A Friend of hue is any product or app, created by Philips or an independent developer that integrates and works seamlessly with the hue lighting system. By introducing Friends of hue, Philips is amplifying the possibilities to feel and experience light – from transporting your TV experience to the whole of the living room making it more immersive than ever before, to bringing stories to life with light, making them more magical.