We Need to Ask How We Can Make Change Happen?

designing lighting global magazine catches up with Marci Song, founding director of SEAM Design, on how smaller lighting design practices can keep up with fast-changing trends in the sector.

How does a smaller firm like yours keep up with fastchanging environmental trends and developments?

It is quite hard to keep up, to be honest. Especially during and after the Covid years, and the work-from-home trend. The exchange of information, dialogue, group problem solving is limited and limiting. The in-person engagement, which includes trade shows, conference attendance, in person product presentations, CPDs and in person training is not at the same levels as before the pandemic. People are so used to staying at home or near home, not wanting to face the inconveniences of commutes to work or to meetings or to events, and Covid still is around. Transitioning out of that ‘everyday’ that we were used to, takes effort, and again, it starts with a shift in mindset or attitude. Professional responsibility, gaining skills and knowledge takes time, effort and inconvenience; we all must do our part. For us, we are working on ourselves at the moment and how the studio and the team works in this new hybrid-normal. We do appreciate that working remotely and the reduction of in-person meetings reduces our footprint.

Is there special challenges to working across various geographies with different environmental laws and expectations?

Of course there is! It is a challenge already to gain knowledge in one’s home country – local regs, laws, sustainability measures can be vastly different from one country or region to another. There are different design cultures that we must adapt to, when designing in other areas of the world. If we know how to ask the right questions, we can understand our parameters and restrictions early. Communication and collaboration are so important to have an open exchange of information.

We are lucky in that all of our team comes from different parts of the world. This enables us to conduct deeper research to understand the requirements, culture and trends, but we still have to ensure that everyone in the team has SEAM core standards in their mind and that they can be applied to our work across all of our projects.

Song: 'It’s a challenge to gain knowledge in one’s home country –local regs, laws, sustainability measures can be vastly different from one country or region to another.'

Often we determine the right approach to lighting –wherever we are designing – is about our attitude, our design ethos which includes our responsibility to building strong legacies. Sustainable and successful design often takes the banner of these new limitations to all projects regardless of location.

'Where regs or standards for a project in one country are positive and sensible, we might adopt those as best practice within SEAM,' says founding director Marci Song.

How does a practice like yours influence the development of laws and codes?

I would love to know! Lighting designers need to have a seat at the table when it comes to writing regulations at the policy level. So how do we get there? Please send me their contact details.

As a starting point, there are many tables at which we can already take a seat. For example, on projects where there is a sustainability consultant, perhaps that is one of the first teams to talk to, not just to ask ‘what are the rules on this project’ but also why.

It is a chance to deconstruct what is being asked of the lighting performance for the lighting design of the project, understand what they mean and if they don’t make sense.

If we see other areas of improvement to maintain efficiency and not at the expense of the design or end-user comfort, the dialogue can start there.

Also the earlier the better, not at the end of Stage 4 when most of the coordination has been completed. Course correcting is a constant check along the way.

We all have to be our own agents of design advocacy especially for lighting. That starts with asking the questions – where do I need to be to make change, how can I make change happen?

We also have to educate ourselves where possible. My starting point was the Green Light Alliance which I learned about from Recolight.

From there, I learned about the Life Cycle Assessment platform that Leela Shankar has been spearheading which endeavours to create a set of circular economy design principles for the industry. Through the LCA meetings, I’ve met a number of people who are truly passionate and truly concerned about the profession’s impact to buildings, the built environment and climate change. They are all very approachable.

Song: 'We still have to ensure that everyone in the team has SEAM core standards in their mind and that they can be applied to our work across all of our projects.'