Lighting Jounal July/August by The ILP

Professional best practice from the Institution of Lighting Professionals

July/August 2021

BALANCING PEOPLE, PLACE AND PLANET Arup’s Florence Lam on the need for ‘humanity-centred’ lighting HIGH-FIBRE DIET Understanding fibre optic LED lighting, and how to get the most from it STILL CELEBRATING How Covid-19 hasn’t stopped lighting showcasing best practice

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Contents

06 TAKING CHARGE

A recent ILP webinar led by Westminster City Council’s Dean Wendelborn drilled down into the significant capacity, technical, maintenance and operational challenges local councils are needing to grapple with as demand for electric vehicles, and EV charging solutions, accelerates

HIGH-FIBRE DIET

BALANCING PEOPLE, PLACE AND PLANET

Fibre optic LED lighting is becoming ubiquitous in decorative, architectural, museum and heritage projects as well as for underwater lighting schemes. But how does it actually work and how, as a lighting professional, can you maximise its use over traditional light sources? David Rich provides the answers

Renowned lighting designer Florence Lam was awarded the SLL’s President’s Medal in May for her lifetime contribution to the industry, becoming the first woman to receive the accolade. Lighting Journal spoke to her about lighting beyond the pandemic, how spaces can be made safer and more inclusive, and the need for ‘humanity-centred’ lighting

RIPPLING 30 RAINBOWS AND TWINKLING TRUNKS

Once rundown and neglected, a mix of new lighting and public art has put the heart back into the Coventry’s Hertford Street retail quarter, all as part of the city’s UK City of Culture 2021 regeneration programme, write Jo Shore and Andy Hart

THE 32 CIRCLING PLANET

The ILP’s latest ‘Light, Seen’ Premier member showcase event saw OrangeTek drill down into the practical challenges and opportunities of embracing a ‘circular economy’ approach to lighting. Presenter James Coton outlines what it covered

If the lighting industry is serious about doing its bit to tackle climate change, it needs to stop thinking that switching to LED is enough by itself. Genuinely embracing a circular economy approach can be challenging but, as this road tunnel lighting case study by Ross Evans shows, is perfectly doable

24 SHIP SHAPE

DESIGN, 48‘‘GOOD’ BAD MANNERS?

The maritime industry is responsible for transporting around 90% of trade around the world. Yet many ports’ operators still have not ‘got it’ when it comes to understanding the benefits of modernising to LED, as Yuli Grig explains

28 SAFE HARBOUR

A series of eye-catching sailing mast-style 19m-high wooden lighting columns are at the heart of the regeneration of Ostend’s old fishing harbour in Belgium

STILL 42 CELEBRATING

With new publications, a digital version of its International Lighting Vocabulary, a free guide on visual impairment and a virtual conference in September, the CIE has been keeping busy during the past year. John O’Hagan reports

A NEW TUNNEL 38 VISION

Covid-19 turned last year’s lighting awards’ calendar upside down. But that hasn’t stopped great and innovative work being celebrated. We review some of the winners, including ILP members, recognised in last year’s [d]arc awards and Lighting Design Awards, plus look forward to changes coming later this year

LANGUAGE OF LIGHT

By 1943, with the tide of war firmly turning in the Allies’ favour, discussion increasingly began to be focused on what ‘good’ postwar lantern design might look like. As Simon Cornwell shows, the debate became increasingly heated

24 p COVER PICTURE

King’s Cross Station, London, showing the concourse lighting scheme by Arup. Photograph by Hufton + Crow Photography. Arup’s Florence Lam talks to Lighting Journal from page 16 about becoming the first woman to be awarded the SLL President’s Medal and her thoughts on the future of lighting and lighting design

TO THE 52 LETTERS EDITOR

Brian Healy makes the case for the UK government to follow the lead of France and set limits on blue light emissions

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Editor’s letter Volume 86 No 7 July/August 2021 President Fiona Horgan

Chief Executive Tracey White Editor Nic Paton BA (Hons) MA Email: nic@cormorantmedia.co.uk

Lighting Journal’s content is chosen and evaluated by volunteers on our reader panel, peer review group and a small representative group which holds focus meetings responsible for the strategic direction of the publication. If you would like to volunteer to be involved, please contact the editor. We also welcome reader letters to the editor. Design Tolu Akinyemi B.Tech MSc Email: tolu@matrixprint.com

Advertising Manager Andy Etherton Email: andy@matrixprint.com Published by Matrix Print Consultants Ltd on behalf of Institution of Lighting Professionals Regent House, Regent Place, Rugby CV21 2PN Telephone: 01788 576492 E-mail: info@theilp.org.uk Website: www.theilp.org.uk Produced by Matrix Print Consultants Ltd Unit C,Northfield Point, Cunliffe Drive, Kettering, Northants NN16 9QJ Tel: 01536 527297 Email: gary@matrixprint.com Website: www.matrixprint.com

hen we reflect on climate change and global heating it is all too easy to slip into a slump of despair at the scale of the challenge and end up thinking ‘what, possibly, can I do?’. It’s very clear, however, when looking at this month’s edition that, from the perspective of light and lighting, there is in fact a lot the industry can, should be and, positively, already is doing. To me, it says something that I didn’t particularly plan for there to be a theme this edition around the environment and sustainability. So, the fact that climate change was at the heart of my discussion with Arup’s Florence Lam (from page 16), central to Dean Wendelborn’s ILP webinar on electric vehicle charging (from page six), the focus of James Coton’s ILP Light, Seen article (from page 32) and the subject of Ross Evans’ exploration of circular economy practices in road tunnel lighting (from page 38) speaks volumes. It speaks of an industry that unilaterally – in other words, without having to be shoved, prodded or dragged kicking to the table – is recognising for itself that things need to change and being laudably proactive in its response. Of course, there is still a long way to go. There’s no two ways about it, lighting is a contributor to climate change, especially where there is over-lighting or unnecessary lighting, light pollution and older, more energy-hungry forms of lighting being used. The ILP’s advocacy for dark skies, with no less than two webinars being held in May and June (and which we’ll report on in September), illustrates the important debates going on here, but also the progress that still needs to be made. This autumn the UK, as host of the United Nations’ COP26 climate change summit, will have the opportunity to present itself as a world leader, driving forward the global response to climate change. Given that John Kerry, US president Joe Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate, has described the Glasgow summit in November as being ‘the last best chance the world has’ to act, it is urgent that tangible progress comes from it [1]. Just as light and lighting is not the sole cause of climate change, so the ‘greening’ of lighting technologies and processes is not the sole solution, either. Lighting can, however, play an important part in these conversations; in fact, it needs to be part of the discussion. Lighting as an industry has a responsibility to be ensuring the specialist expertise of lighting professionals is heard around the climate change table and that the business case for ‘good’ lighting is articulated. On a final note, I was intrigued in my conversation with Florence Lam about her idea that lighting and lighting design needs to become more ‘humanity-centred’; how lighting needs to move beyond discussions about sustainability, energy consumption and recycling (laudable as they are) to what she terms ‘regenerative design’. In effect, she argues, lighting and lighting design needs to become something where the ambition isn’t just to, as the Hippocratic Oath has it, ‘do no harm’ in the context of climate change and global heating but actually contribute towards and support biodiversity gain. At a practical level, getting from A to B here, clearly, is not going to be easy, especially given the challenging post-pandemic economic backdrop in which the industry is and will be working. But maybe aiming high – these sorts of aspirational conversations – is precisely what we need to be doing as an industry and profession if we are serious about tackling the profound challenges we face in terms of climate change? I’d be interested to hear what you, ILP members, think. Nic Paton Editor

The views or statements expressed in these pages do not necessarily accord with those of The Institution of Lighting Professionals or the Lighting Journal’s editor. Photocopying of Lighting Journal items for private use is permitted, but not for commercial purposes or economic gain. Reprints of material published in these pages is available for a fee, on application to the editor.

[1] ‘John Kerry: Glasgow the last best chance the world has to avoid climate crisis’, BBC News, January 2021, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-55835266

SUBSCRIPTIONS

ILP members receive Lighting Journal every month as part of their membership. You can join the ILP online, through www.theilp.org.uk. Alternatively, to subscribe or order copies please email Diane Sterne at diane@theilp.org.uk. The ILP also provides a Lighting Journal subscription service to many libraries, universities, research establishments, non-governmental organisations, and local and national governments.

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TAKING CHARGE

A recent ILP webinar drilled down into the significant capacity, technical, maintenance and operational challenges that local councils are needing to grapple with as demand for electric vehicles, and EV charging solutions, continues to accelerate By Nic Paton

bout two-thirds of the way through Dean Wendelborn’s recent webinar for the ILP, ‘What should Scotland consider when planning electric vehicle charging?’, he encapsulated one of the key tensions – and challenges – at the heart of the debate around electric vehicle (EV) charging for local authorities. ‘We have a target of 2,800 charging locations being required by 2025,’ said Dean, who is project manager, street lighting, at Westminster City Council, chair of the London Lighting Engineers Group (LoLEG), a member of the ADEPT lighting board and UK Lighting & Technology Board and a member of the ILP’s technical committee. ‘We’ve got about 12,500 lighting columns in Westminster. If we remove those we

can’t use – gas lights, heritage, those on traffic routes with no parking for instance – we come down to about half that, about 6,000. Some of those are probably over 30 years old, so probably can’t be used because of the age of the cabling, the column size, no access and so on. ‘So it is pretty obvious that, to meet the numbers we’re going to need for EVs, it’s not just going to be an in-column solution.’ In essence, Dean was making the point that any assumption in-column EV charging is some sort of panacea solution for the sort of scaling-up the UK is likely to need to meet future demand is flawed. In-column solutions will, quite rightly, be one important part of this charging mix. But, in reality, local authorities are going to be grappling

with managing and potentially maintaining a range of variable charging solutions, with all the operational and technical complexities that can come with this. This was where Dean’s presentation to LDC Scotland provided an invaluable snapshot to the ILP members listening. In truth, despite its title, the webinar hosted by Roy Clarkson and Kevin Ramsay, chair and honorary secretary for ILP Scotland respectively, had little directly to say about EV charging in Scotland, in that Dean’s focus, understandably, was all about his experience within Westminster. What it did do, however, was provide a valuable overview of the day-to-day issues one of the more advanced local authorities has been facing in this area and therefore

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Electric vehicle charging

working to overcome. This, in turn, could provide lessons for all local authorities, in Scotland and elsewhere, now beginning to be affected by these issues and the acceleration to EV.

SIGNIFICANT ROLLOUT

Dean first of all set the scene so far. There were currently approximately 1,000 on-street EV chargers across Westminster, he pointed out. The council’s strategy since 2019 has been for 200 on-street chargers to be installed each year for the next six years, or a stretch goal of 500. In the year to 2021, this stretch-goal target had been met and a further 500 were due to be installed over the next 12 months. When it came to in-column charging, the

council’s varied asset base did create a challenge, Dean highlighted. ‘In Westminster, we’ve got various types of lighting columns, some of which cannot be used for EV installation. We’ve got gas lighting, we’ve got cherished cast-iron columns, for example. But by far the biggest issue we’ve had is adequate room in the column door due to other powered attachments already on the column taking up room within the column base. Also, simply the age of the column, where the door access was smaller or where we just don’t just trust anything being attached to that column. ‘The clear space recommended under BS 7671 on a lot of our doors just cannot be met. The other main issue we’ve had over the years is the earthing impedance

measures required under BS 7671; anything over 100 ohms requires an earth mat. A large number of our columns also have embellishment kits on them, usually castiron, so we can’t drill into them. So, we need bespoke doors made. ‘With a lot of our columns having door-access issues, one solution we have is to install a satellite bollard powered from the column but some distance away from the column. Obviously, that adds more cost, but it does allow more flexibility of locations for charging units. However, we still have issues with these at Westminster due to the narrow footways we have, plus a lot of basements, cellars, coalholes and a maze of underground utilities. So, a lot of pre-installation work is needed,’ Dean explained. www.theilp.org.uk

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Electric vehicle charging

Dean Wendelborn presenting his ILP webinar. The images show some examples of the sort of incolumn charging currently in place in Westminster

Dean continued: ‘Then of course there is the need to be having a safe distance between other earthed metalwork on the highway. In an urban environment finding 2m between the extent of the car and anything else that is attached to it – a cycle rack for example – is not that easy. This is one item the engineers tend to overlook.’

MODELLING FUTURE DEMAND

Dean then discussed how the council had been modelling future demand, including working to reduce the walking distance to columns by drivers or residents. The percentage of chargers within a one-minute walk had risen from 36.9% in 2020 to 66.3% in 2021, and a two-minute walk from 74.2% in 2020 to 93.1% in 2021. ‘We’ve reduced the amount of distance people have to walk to access a charger greatly. This was on purpose. Some of the main complaints we got were that people wanted chargers outside their address. We can’t always do that but, to me, this model simplifies the issue of determining the best charging locations appropriate for the demands on useable columns,’ Dean argued. ‘In Westminster during the rollout EV usage has been looked at by the provider and by Westminster’s EV team to see what specific site usage has been. What was clear is that, for in-column charging, some sites have had little usage. This is due to the bays outside the column being used by regular vehicles for parking, hence resulting in a change of parking bay allocation. There are now more dedicated parking bays through traffic management orders, taking account of current parking measures on those roads we’re impacting through adjusting parking spots. We also allocate in our budgets for additional cost and time for raising a traffic management order. www.theilp.org.uk

‘The final issue around modelling is future modelling for demand, to indicate likely levels of funding required to meet the council’s objectives. This is only accounting for recently owned EVs in Westminster, not visitor EVs, because that is very difficult to gauge the numbers,’ he added. One challenge during the rollout had been the recognition that some of the early chargers hadn’t been installed correctly because of changes to the regulations surrounding impedance, for example the need (or not) to install earth mats, plus changes to the regulations around above- and belowground distances to other metalwork. Dean, for example, highlighted changes to BS 7671 changes and the alignment of ENA G12 in terms of PME versus TT supply, and how this may help in terms of removing the need for earth mats, reducing costs, earthing issues and RCD nuisance tripping. Other ongoing challenges included damage to the charger or, in some cases, the column becoming live after cable damage. Dean cited the example of an EV charger that had been installed for three years. ‘We got a report that steam was coming off the column and the ground around the column was warm. What had happened was that a week earlier the three-month electrical check had been done. What hadn’t been picked up was that the cable between the cut-out and the charger RCD wasn’t mechanically fixed to the backboard and it had been slowly being pushed against the earth bolt by the charge unit. ‘This had been ongoing since the installation and not picked up by the contactor, as they would always have felt resistance when pushing the door. After making it safe, they inspected the charge point and agreed to make changes as part of the maintenance to several thousand chargers and

columns in London, primarily by mechanically fixing the hanging cables to the backboard, which we had always asked for but which they had said didn’t need to be done under certain circumstances,’ Dean said. ‘If this isn’t possible, due to access limitations to the backboard, we’d consider why there are access limitations and the distance stipulations under BS 7671. In rare instances, we have suggested we could also supply a rubber bung to be added to the earth bolt to avoid rubbing. But I’d prefer not to do that. ‘To assist with future proofing, if this is for the whole of the life, you need to be looking at 60% to 70% clear space following initial installation. So, due to this requirement but mainly to be conducive to maintenance working, think about where the charger on the rear of the door is sitting, and the amount of room that it takes up inside the opening. Because of the available space in London, the RCD on a number of the columns we have got have actually been installed on a moving plastic bracket that slides up into the swage of the column. This pushes up the RCD,’ Dean said. He continued: ‘It is not a solution I’m happy with, and I have asked the EV providers to provide a better solution. I gave them a date of June 2020 to resolve it, but nothing has happened, and it probably won’t be until the RCD can be changed or until there is a change in the standards. It does work for now, but if we needed to put more attachments on the column that required power, we have got another cable going up and that will possibly be blocked because of this. ‘By far and away the most common issue we have had is the asset tripping the streetlight with the EV charger attached; it has happened to about 2% of the columns we’ve had installed. We’ve had this issue for

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Electric vehicle charging several years, multiple local authorities have had it. Trying to determine the exact issue, from what we’ve found is that there is not one exact cause, which doesn’t help. The most recent theory is that, as a result of things changing to a DC supply, the RCDs are working at a harmonic that is close to the electrical connection and, without warning, causing the streetlight to go into fault and switch off the fuse, even though the EV charger remains in good working order,’ said Dean. ‘Following conversations between our contractor and EV supplier, we went out and changed all the RCDs to a different manufacturer to see if a slightly different harmonic would resolve the issue. We thought it was working but we’ve now started to get a few more switching off again,’ Dean added, highlighting how EV maintenance can create a whole range of new headaches for local authority lighting professionals.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

As to the future, UK Power Networks is predicting that by 2033 60% of all secondary substations in London will have EVs connected to them, creating questions over whether London was going to be sufficiently powered in the future to cope with the demand. ‘Its [UKPN’s] ongoing analysis shows that home-charging is going to continue to be far and away the most likely scenario. Which means the local authorities need to be focused on that delivery, because 90% of our parking is on-street in London,’ Dean pointed out. ‘I always thought we would replace petrol stations with charging stations, and that putting an EV outside someone’s house is like putting a gas canister outside someone’s house. It is a shortterm measure to encourage it. But it does sound like this is going to be the norm, so we need to be prepared for that. ‘They are also trialling vehicle-to-grid and grid-to-vehicle options to balance out the loading demands at different times of the day. They have been partnering with vehicle manufacturers and energy services operators to basically turn the vehicles into portable storage centres. But I would think that that is probably going to need an additional pillar on the roads, so we need to think about those space considerations as well,’ Dean added. Then there was what we might term ‘the humble lamppost’ question, or the sheer quantity of ‘stuff’ now being added to lighting columns, as the ILP had recognised in its recent GN12 The smart lighting column [1]. ‘We’re not just talking about EVs here; we could be talking about smart sensors, CCTV and 5G, and the associated wiring that goes with it. So, in several London boroughs we are now replacing columns with double doors as standard. I trialled this in Westminster on an 8m and we’ve got some chargers in them, and we can also do double doors on our large grey Wornums. And we’re going to be trialling more double doors on some of our heritage smaller columns this year,’ Dean explained. www.theilp.org.uk

‘What we’re trying to do is we’re having early engagement with the EV team and vice versa to talk about where are they doing their roads and where is my planned replacement? If they mesh, great, we do ours first, they come in and then do their work, and that means that the DNO and the RCD cut-outs are close to each other, and so it removes that hanging cable issue. ‘I also understand that many of us will continue to have budgetary restrictions; it has been a pretty tough year and it was always not the best decade anyway. So, restrictions on suitable numbers of column replacements to match the number of EV chargers we need. But I also keep on saying in different forums that EVs, 5G, smart devices, IoT, they’re not going anywhere. And they currently hold a lot more importance than us in the little lighting industry – until our column falls over. ‘We should try and make the opportunity of the growing importance of the lighting column as a minor structure for attachments and highlight its potential multifunctional use with other devices that can bring income to the council. Smart devices that are attached can provide data, they can potentially reduce maintenance costs, and maybe bring in additional income. So couldn’t a whole-life business case show that current funding allowance is challenged, and it seems we need possibly to increase column replacement?’ Dean questioned. In conclusion, the use of in-column charging was growing exponentially, Dean highlighted, and therefore this would become an issue of greater importance for local authorities going forward. ‘There are issues, mainly as a result of the change of regulations. But I do expect those to change to a more pragmatic solution shortly,’ he pointed out. ‘There are also simple physical restrictions, snags, that for me, as the column owner, I need to engage with the various departments to try and resolve that within the existing budgets. Where that is not possible, we need to try and look at additional funding through the wholelife cost option,’ he added.

FIND OUT MORE

A recording of the full LDC Scotland webinar, ‘What should Scotland consider when planning electric vehicle charging? An experienced street lighting team’s perspective’ is available to listen to at: h t t p s : // t h e i l p . o r g . u k / ilp-scotland-cpd-webinar-what-should-scotland-consider-when-planning-ev-charging/

[1] GN12: The smart lighting column, available from https://theilp.org.uk/resources/

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HIGH-FIBRE DIET Fibre optic LED lighting is becoming ubiquitous in decorative, architectural, museum and heritage projects as well as for underwater lighting schemes. But how does it actually work and how, as a lighting professional, can you maximise its use over traditional light sources?

By David Rich

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Lighting technologies

hile some architects, designers, lighting consultants and consumers know all about fibre optics, we are frequently asked why they are so popular and what are their advantages over traditional light sources? This article intends to answer both questions. Fibre optics are versatile, adaptable, energy efficient and low maintenance. They are used for everything from wet area pool and saunas through to starry sky lighting, display cases, chandeliers, ships and shops. Using fibre optic lighting means the light source and electrical feed are separate from the fittings. Light from the light generator is carried through an optical fibre harness of glass or PMMA (or PolyMethylMethAcrylate) fibre to multiple ‘terminations’ where it is then shaped and controlled as desired. Once installed, the end point (luminaire) need never be accessed again. This makes fibre optic lighting ideal for inaccessible locations, such as: • Underwater lighting. For example, pools, spas and water features • Architectural lighting. This can include façades, towers and high-level interiors • Multi-point lighting from one source. Examples here include ‘starry’ skies and large decorative schemes The fact that the remote source removes heat from the end luminaire fitting also makes fibre optic perfect for delicate and sensitive materials, such as: • Display and showcase lighting • Hermetically sealed conservation cabinets • Ice bars and sculptures Light generators can be mounted in dry and well-ventilated places, while the end-points will be safe in harsher locations. This, again, makes this sort of lighting viable in: • Hot or humid areas, saunas, steam rooms, hammams (or steam baths) and ovens • Coastal or saline environments

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

Unlike traditional lighting, fibre optics combine three separate parts, as shown in figure 1 overleaf. We’ll now look at each part separately. 1). The light generator. The light generator is the ‘engine’ of any fibre optic lighting system. The LED light source housed inside the generator is specifically designed to concentrate the highest possible amount of light into the fibre harness

(and we’ll come to this). The light generator is the only part of any fibre optic lighting system that contains electricity. It is also the only part of the system that will ever require maintenance and can be housed up to 20m away from the light-emitting luminaire for ease of access. With major technological advances being made with LED fibre optic generators over recent years, generators are now very energy efficient and can use a variety of driver options including 1-10V, DALI, DMX and Push dimming. Most also work with DMX controlled colour or twinkle wheels. 2). The harness. The fibre harness is the ‘cabling’ of the fibre optic lighting system and provides the essential feature of connecting the light output from a remote generator to optical luminaires. A harness is made up of multiple strands of glass or PMMA fibre collected into ‘tails’ of 1-10mm diameter each bound into a ‘termination’ that connects to the end light fitting. Fibres from multiple tails are then bound into a ‘common end’, which is connected to the light port of the light generator. Historically, glass was the only material used with fibres as fine as a hair (50μm). Standard tail sizes range from Ø1mm to Ø6mm. A Ø6mm tail is built from 1,1000 raw fibres. Glass use is now limited to high-temperature applications or where closer fidelity between source and output light is required. Most systems now use PMMA fibres, which are thicker than glass at 0.75mm or 1mm diameter and are made up into tails from Ø1mm to Ø10mm. A Ø6mm tail is built from 50 x 0.75mm raw fibres. PMMA fibres are easier to work with, are less expensive and are more efficient in capturing light from generators. Optical fibres transmit light by the phenomenon of total internal reflection (TIR). When light is incident at the boundary of two dissimilar materials, some light is reflected back and some is refracted and passes through, bent at an angle relative to the refractive index of the two materials. At the boundary between high-index material (glass or PMMA) and low-index (air) there is a critical angle of incidence above which all light is reflected. TIR effectively captures the light in the fibre and bounces it along to the end where it is emitted in a beam with cut-off equal to the critical angle. The critical angle for glass or PMMA to air is around 42°, as shown in figure 2 overleaf. Fibre tails for end-light application are sleeved in a black flexible tough flameretardant jacket to protect the surface of the fibres from mechanical damage that would reduce the TIR effect and the efficiency of

light transmission. The common end gathers the optical fibres together for connection to the light port or light generator. Fibres are bound tightly to eliminate gaps; the ends are cut and highly polished to maximise the light transfer from the optical system of the light generator. Before we look at the final core element, the end point or the luminaire, it is worth addressing three other forms of fibre optic application that relate back to the harness and light generator. These are: ‘randomised common end’, ‘side emitting ’ and ‘terminations’. •

•

Randomised common end. The output from the light generator tends to be brighter at the centre and diminishes towards the edges. So, if most of the fibres within a tail are in the centre, that tail would be brighter than one with fibres on the outside. In order to produce a consistent light level across the whole harness, fibres from each tail can be optionally pseudo-randomised across the common end so that on average each tail is collecting the same amount of light. Side emitting. As well as being used for end-light applications, PMMA fibre is also available as ‘side emitting’. The fibre surface is modified by a patented twisting construction so that, while most of the light is transmitted down the fibre, some light is scattered from the surface to provide glowing illumination along the whole length. Side-emitting fibre tails are sleeved with a clear UV stable and algae-resistant jacket, so making them suitable for use in exterior and underwater applications. A good example of side-emitting fibre optic lighting is in the scheme shown here for The 02, with a lighting design by Cory Berhost. Terminations. The free end of the tail is prepared to suit the end fitting it is being used with. These range from a simple clean-cut end for use in a starry sky, say, to a standard termination with aluminium ferrule cut and polished like a mini common end. We can also create a waterproof acrylic termination suitable for wet applications. Other terminations are specialised for starpoints, plasterboard mounting, 90° bends, flexible arms and many others.

3). The end point or luminaire. The luminaire is the ‘end point’ of the fibre optic lighting system and directs, shapes and controls the light from the harness tail to illuminate the object or space with precision. www.theilp.org.uk

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Lighting technologies ensure light quality, sharpness and uniform coverage.

NEXT-GENERATION FIBRE OPTICS

Figure 1. This graphic shows the core components of a fibre optic cable

Figure 2. This shows how optical fibres transmit light by the phenomenon of total internal reflection (TIR)

So, what’s next for fibre optic lighting? We are very excited to give you a sneak preview of the next-generation of fibre optic light generators. First is a fully submersible (up to 10m) IP68 light generator. This has been developed especially for areas where flooding is a risk or in such places where mounting the generator in water is the only solution. The potential is endless also within the global marine and superyacht industry. The FL 1100 XT B-3 is weatherproof and waterproof. It is available in 3000k and 4000k colour temperatures, with colour change and twinkle effects also available. It offers various dimming options, has >90 CRI, and offers natural convection cooling Also coming soon to the market is the multi-port light generator. One thing we are frequently asked is can each fibre optic tail from a single light generator be controlled individually? The short answer was ‘they can’t’, until now. To my mind, the FL 650 MP range is a real game-changer in this context. It is available with 12 or 24 inputs, which means each point of light can be controlled individually via DMX. Other specifications for it include IP20 for interior use, a DMX control system, 12 x or 24 x Osram Ostar LEDs, available in 4000K or RGB, >90 CRI and natural convection cooling.

FINALLY – A SALES BIT

The Frederikshavn Naval Base for the Danish Royal Navy and (right) 200 Aldersgate in London. In both projects a more compact optical system allows for tilt adjustment in even the smallest recessed housings

Luminaires provide beauty and functionality to the only visible element of the fibre optic system. Available in many optical formats, there is a wide variety of styles to help perfect your lighting scheme. As it is not necessary to accommodate the electrical connections or handle the heat generated by conventional or LED light source, the size of fibre optic luminaires is considerably reduced. A more compact optical system also allows for www.theilp.org.uk

tilt adjustment in even the smallest recessed housings, as shown here in our projects for the Frederikshavn Naval Base for the Danish Royal Navy, Denmark and 200 Aldersgate in London.

USE OF GOBOS

Another wonderful application can be to use small GOBO and framing spot projectors at the end of the fibre tails. They produce an adjustable luminous light spot specially designed for the illumination of pictures, paintings and works of art. Integral shutters enable the light to illuminate precisely the target object without any light spill. The projector, fed by standard fibre optic cable, has three lenses to

On a final note – and this is I appreciate a bit of a slight sales pitch but also, I feel, potentially a valuable addition to the lighting professional’s fibre optic lighting toolkit – I ought to point out that RobLight has a downloadable lux calculator. The RobLight Lux Calculator completes can calculate the light output of any RobLight luminaires with light generator and customised fibre harness. You just fill in your selection – fitting, light generator, fibre type, fibre length and number of tails – and instantly get the corresponding lux values, beam angle and beam diameter. Sorted! Registered users can also generate IES files to use in professional light planning software programs and print files (such as shown below). It is available from Light Projects at www.lightprojects.co.uk

David Rich is Light Projects’ product manager for RobLight, formerly Roblon Lighting

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BALANCING PEOPLE, PLACE AND PLANET

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Lighting design

King’s Cross Station, London, showing its innovative diagrid shell. The concourse lighting scheme by Arup uses colour-stable ceramic-based metal-halide projectors to uplight the structure, creating a light and airy atmosphere. Photograph by Hufton + Crow Photography. In May, Arup’s global lighting design leader Florence Lam (inset) became the first woman to receive the prestigious SLL President’s Medal for her lifetime contribution to lighting and lighting design. Photograph by Thomas Graham

he Society of Light and Lighting’s (SLL) President’s Medal is its highest accolade and designed to recognise ‘a significant and lifetime’ contribution to lighting. Its most recent recipient, for 2020, was announced in May as Florence Lam, global lighting design leader at Arup and, notably, the first woman to receive the prestigious award. Florence co-founded Arup’s lighting practice in 2000, growing the practice from a small team of four in London to a global practice of more than 120 designers across 12 countries. Landmark projects (to name but some) have included the V&A Design Museum in www.theilp.org.uk

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The Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Arup’s scheme here is focused on the controlled use of daylight, with daylight introduced from above rather than just through windows. Sunlight is also excluded from the laboratory spaces so as to provide a high level of visual comfort and glare control. Photograph: Hufton + Crow Photography

Dundee, the British Museum’s World Conservation Centre, King’s Cross Station, Leicester Square, the California Academy of Sciences, the Tai Kwun Centre of Heritage and Arts, Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong and The Acropolis Museum in Athens. Florence is also renowned for her research and evidence-based approach to lighting design, and she is a visiting professor for lighting design and engineering at the UCL Bartlett’s Institute of Environmental Design and Engineering. Lighting Journal had the privilege to sit down with Florence in June (virtually of course) to discuss her accolade and, as importantly, consider how the unprecedented year we have just been through is changing, and needs to change, lighting and lighting design. Florence, first of all, emphasised how much being awarded the President’s Medal has meant to her. ‘I am really thrilled and honoured to have been chosen as the recipient. I use the word “recipient” rather than “winner” because it wasn’t something I entered; it was a complete surprise. I’m really, really happy and excited about it, but also I am excited about being the first woman to receive this award and absolutely humbled by it,’ she said. ‘I would say, however, it is also more of a testament to our whole lighting practice. There are many who should be sharing this with me because it is not just my own effort, www.theilp.org.uk

it is a team effort. It is also a very powerful endorsement for me and has given me the impetus to keep doing what I am doing; my commitment to bringing research into design, broadening the influence of industry, really wanting to shift the conversation from “human-centric” to “humanity-centric” lighting, and to drive innovation so that we can really light our way towards a more sustainable future,’ she added.

ROLE OF LIGHTING IN REGENERATION

We’ll return to Florence’s idea of ‘humanity-centred’ lighting shortly but, in terms of her emphasis on bringing research into lighting design and looking beyond the pandemic, Florence highlighted Arup’s recent report The role of lighting in supporting town centre regeneration and economic recovery [1]. Richard Morris, associate lighting designer at Arup, wrote on this for Lighting Journal earlier this year (‘Social landscaping’, February 2021, vol 86, no 2). The report made the argument that lighting potentially has a pivotal role in revitalising high streets and town centres post-pandemic, in improving perceptions of safety (a topic we’ll also return to shortly), in creating new community spaces, and in helping local authorities better to support their night-time economies. This work sits alongside Arup’s ongoing work around lighting the urban night-time.

The ‘Cities Alive’ project, led by Florence, for example is considering how to make nighttime lighting more effective, how we can better understand how people want to use city spaces, how light affects our bodies and our behaviours at night, and why we need darkness as well as light at night [2]. It will also feed into the launch this month of the Light for Future project [3]. This is a project launched by the IALD and iGuzzini to four of the most important international lighting design studios: Arup, Licht Kunst Licht, Light Bureau and Speirs Major on the use of light as a tool for social innovation and urban redevelopment. As Florence explained: ‘We have gathered together some of the youngest members of our team to explore how we can use light as an educational tool to raise awareness about climate change, to encourage social interaction and also cohesion, in building community resilience. ‘The ideas is that those who see light, and get touched by light, will get inspired so that they themselves can also make personal commitments to drive change for the environment and sustainable future,’ she added. At a practical level, Arup has created a set of bespoke light-projecting GOBOs specifically for the project, highlighting air (representing air pollution), bees (to symbolise loss of biodiversity), water (to raise awareness about our scarce resources) and, lastly, carbon – the combustion of which generates

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Lighting design

The Zaha Hadid-designed London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. Arup’s scheme needed to celebrate the complex geometry and illuminate the distinctive long-span roof. This scheme, again, is very much focused on controlled daylight and low-energy solutions. Photograph: Hufton + Crow Photography

the energy needed for human activities but of course, at the same time, is harmful for the environment. ‘We made them to articulate a narrative that invites people to think about human activities, how our activities impact the environment,’ Florence pointed out.

NEED FOR MORE INCLUSIVE SPACES

How, then, did Florence feel the pandemic has changed our perceptions of exterior spaces? Night-time design post-pandemic has been a topic much discussed within Lighting Journal and the ILP in the past year (‘Dark design’, September 2020, vol 85 no 8, ‘Remaking the night’, July-August 2020, vol 85 no 7). Is the fact we are being encouraged to live, work and engage in more open, ventilated spaces (including, of course, the great outdoors) likely to change how we perceive public realm lighting and what we will expect from it in the future? Alongside this, and especially in the wake of the tragic murder of Sarah Everard in March, does lighting as an industry need to be having a more urgent debate around how light and lighting can be used to make spaces safer and more inclusive at night? In answer, Florence cited research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that concluded only twothirds of people generally feel safe after dark walking alone, and only half of Australian women [4]. Arup’s Melbourne office had also

recently done a study with Monash University in 2019 on women’s experiences of using the city, both during the day and at night [5]. ‘What we found was that the discrepancies were less to do with the actual lighting evaluation for those spaces and more about how the lighting was perceived. It was not just the light levels on the ground but how lights are creating the night-time impression of the space. So it does depend, for example, on the choices of trees – you have got those as vertical surfaces on buildings etc – the creation and use of shadow, the colour of light, the colour-rendering properties of light as well,’ Florence pointed out. ‘The fundamental question, therefore, we really want to challenge is: are spaces designed for safety after dark? How can we bring a more holistic approach to create truly inclusive places for cities after dark? How can we bring an approach that means everybody feels safe?” she added.

UNDERSTANDING SPATIAL CONTEXT

Lighting designers, Florence argued, therefore need to look at and evaluate the context of the place they are lighting as much as the actual physical space itself. They may need to include day and nighttime pedestrian flow patterns, for example, how the lighting design interacts with people and place after dark, how it affects the perception of safety and so on. ‘We don’t just come in and say, “we know

everything and this is what you need to have”. It is much more contextually based. It is also about how to do stakeholder inclusion rather than just engagement, so that the stakeholders are part of the design solution for these urban spaces,’ Florence said. ‘If we pick up on the Sarah Everard case for example, there are a lot of other issues around it as well, but I think from a lighting/night-time perspective, it is certainly something that we could do better at, as lighting professionals and as cities as well. How we can holistically consider the afterdark environment properly,’ she added. Part of this needs to be about designers working harder to educate both clients and the public about what ‘good’ lighting really means and can do, Florence contended. ‘We can expand the vocabulary that people use about lighting beyond just bright and dark, or maybe “glary”; to understand that lighting has a purpose beyond just the functional, or beyond just making a place look beautiful. That it has a very, very important role to play in shaping spaces so that people can be encouraged to interact and socialise with each other, or enhance the cultural asset of those places,’ she emphasised. This will, however, also require the industry to be generating conversation and engagement beyond just other lighting professionals. ‘If we keep talking among ourselves as a lighting industry www.theilp.org.uk

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Lighting design The California Academy of Sciences, which is deemed the most sustainable museum in the world. In the rainforest dome Arup’s lighting engineers had to measure the amount of daylight entering and provide an artificial lighting solution to compensate for any light deficit on overcast days. Photograph by Tim Griffith

and never break out to the public or even the politicians, nothing is going to change. We need to step out there and speak to people, to influence policy,’ Florence said. ‘We need to go beyond just talking about the lighting and how you get to see things, or get to see places beautifully, to actually how light and lighting matters to society. Of how you can bring people back to city centres or how you can make sure people feel safe in city centres. We need to be able to demonstrate the evidence as well,’ she added.

NEED FOR ‘HUMANITY-CENTRED’ LIGHTING

All of which brings us back to Florence’s idea of ‘humanity-centred’ lighting. This, she emphasised, is very different to human-centric lighting. It is about effecting a step-change that goes far beyond just tweaking colour temperature throughout the day or looking to save energy through part-night dimming. ‘The conversation around the lighting industry has very much been about “human-centred” or “human-centric” lighting. The reason why I shift that to “humanity” is because I really want our conversations to evolve from sustainable to regenerative design,’ Florence explained. ‘That is why I want the approach really to switch from human- to humanity-centred

design. What I really mean by “humanity” is to really embrace the United Nation’s 17 “social development goals” [6]. Lighting is not just about people and society but about the planet as well. ‘We want to go beyond “sustainability”, not only focusing on limiting consumption, energy, carbon and so on, and move to a more regenerative approach. This means we are designing an environment that has a symbiotic relationship, integrating human activity with the physical, the built element – buildings, bridges – to also nature, the ecological systems,’ Florence said. ‘When I talk about “humanity”, yes that covers human-centric lighting and all the perspectives of wellbeing, health and wellbeing, daylight and night-time design. ‘But it is also about mitigation, the circular design approach to lighting, lighting as a design philosophy starting from net zero impact. We want to be one step further; it is about how can light actually contribute to and support biodiversity gain day and night, things like biodiversity net gain, urban greening, for example? It is building in a whole, holistic approach. From the lighting perspective, for lighting to be truly for people and planet, we need to talk about “humanity”,’ she added.

ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION

If everyone in lighting simultaneously made one small change to how they

currently worked, what change did Florence feel would be the most impactful or beneficial to society? ‘I think we all can do one small change, and ideally all different – because then the total will add up to many, many different changes!’ Florence replied. ‘We are very social professionals. We talk to each other a lot, we network a lot, we are curious to know what each other is doing; we share a lot as a community. But I think what we might not have done enough is to advocate and campaign for good lighting, engage with people outside the industry, outside our immediate community, on why lighting matters and the big potential impact and benefits we can have for society at large,’ she added. Finally, what role did Florence feel the ILP, and individual ILP members, could play in these important conversations? How can industry bodies such as the ILP and others make a difference? ‘The ILP, definitely, is a great hub for the lighting community, practitioners from all walks of life coming together, whether it is manufacturers, academia or practitioners,’ she emphasised. ‘It is about encouraging every member in their own sphere of influence to look outward, so that we can get the bigger lighting message out and be able to really make a positive change for society,’ Florence added.

[1] ‘The role of lighting in supporting town centre regeneration and economic recovery’, Arup: https://www.arup.com/perspectives/publications/promotional-materials/section/the-role-of-lighting-in-supporting-town-centre-regeneration-and-economicrecovery [2] ‘Cities Alive – lighting the urban night-time’, Arup, https://www.arup.com/perspectives/cities-alive-lighting-the-urban-night-time [3] ‘Light for the future’, iGuzzini, https://cdn5.iguzzini.com/news/light-for-future/ [4] ‘How’s Life? 2020’, OECD, https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/c82850c6-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/c82850c6-en; ‘The Australia we want’, Community Council for Australia, https://www.communitycouncil.com.au/content/australia-we-wantsecond-report [5] ‘More lighting in cities alone does not create safer cities for women’, Monash University, https://lens.monash.edu/@design-architecture/2019/05/29/1375201/more-lighting-alone-does-not-create-safer-cities-for-women [6] The United Nations in 2015 set out 17 ‘sustainable development goals’ designed to be adopted by all UN member states as part of its ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. These include ending poverty and hunger; ensuring healthy lives and wellbeing; promoting inclusive, sustainable and resilient infrastructure; tackling climate change and others. A list of the full 17 can be found at https://sdgs.un.org/goals

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LANGUAGE OF LIGHT With new publications, a digital version of its ‘International Lighting Vocabulary’, a free guide on visual impairment and a virtual conference in September, the CIE has been keeping busy during the past year By John O’Hagan

s most ILP members will probably be aware, CIE-UK is the UK national committee of the International Commission on Illumination or CIE (from the French ‘Commission Internationale de l´Éclairage’). The ILP is a sponsoring organisation member of CIE, and therefore this is an update on some of the CIE’s latest, and upcoming, activity during what has been a challenging 12 months. A significant recent publication from

CIE has been the latest edition of the International Lighting Vocabulary. In the world of development of technical publications, terminology is where it all begins. This publication provides a set of agreed definitions and terms for concepts common to a field, reducing the level of ambiguity associated with words and sentences. Before starting work on technical documents, experts first must agree on the terminology, so that everyone understands the concepts which are referred to.

This is particularly important when disciplines come together to discuss topics that overlap their fields. Light and lighting, both science and application, brings together psychology, physiology, photobiology, vision science, engineering, physics, horticulture, and architecture. In the CIE, terminology has therefore always been a key subject. For example, a century ago, in 1921, attendees at the 5th Session of the CIE began to discuss the publication of a lighting vocabulary.

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CIE update t A visually impaired woman enjoying a park in London. The CIE is making its publication Lighting for older people and people with visual impairment in buildings available free of charge to its national committees until February 2022

DIGITAL ‘INTERNATIONAL LIGHTING VOCABULARY’

The first edition of the International Lighting Vocabulary (ILV) was published in 1938. Further editions followed in 1957, 1970 and 1987. The 1987 edition was adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for integration into its International Electrotechnical Vocabulary (IEV). In 2011 CIE published a new, completely revised edition of the ILV, the first time as an International Standard, CIE S 017 ILV: International Lighting Vocabulary. The second edition was published in late 2020 with many new terms, reflecting advances in technology for LED lighting and imaging technologies – the latter of which has its own new section. The aim of the ILV is to promote international standardisation in the use of quantities, units, symbols and terminology related to the science and art of light and lighting, colour and vision, metrology of optical radiation over the ultraviolet, visible and infrared region, photobiology and photochemistry, and image technology. This vocabulary provides the definitions and essential information necessary for the understanding and correct usage of the terms included. It does not give extensive detail or explanations of the application of these terms; such information, relevant for experts in each specialised field, is available in the Technical Reports and International Standards published by the CIE. To support CIE’s aim to promote clear communication, good science, and international standardisation in the use of quantities, units, symbols and terminology, the terms and definitions from CIE S 017:2020 have been made accessible online in an electronic version of the ILV, the e-ILV (http://cie.co.at/e-ilv). This therefore now gives everyone free access to the definitions of CIE’s terminology standard. For those who require the complete ILV, it can be purchased through the CIE webshop. There is also a short video announcing the publication at https:// vimeo.com/493333848.

TWO NEW PUBLICATIONS

There have also been two other new publications brought out by the CIE. These are:

1) Photometry of curved and flexible OLED and LED sources (CIE 242: 2000). The trend for high-tech products is towards the capability of flexibility, for example flexible lighting, displays, cell phones, batteries, sensors, memory, solar cells. Flexible products can be light, thin, break-resistant, and offer more creative freedom for the designer. It is not only for fun and fashion, but also because flexible products are practical. For instance, rollable displays can reduce the limitations of space and add further convenience for portable digital electronic products. As it is thin and light, flexible lighting can be integrated with clothes to increase safety at night. Flexible sources also allow greater variety in lighting design. Because of their power to enrich our life, more and more research institutes are working on developing flexible materials and products. As flexible products become more common, measurement research is needed to support the industry. The report therefore describes the methods of measuring photometric and colorimetric quantities for curved sources and gives guidance for the determination of measurement uncertainties. The measurement quantities include luminance, luminous flux, colour, reflectance, and viewing angle. 2) Discomfort glare in road lighting and vehicle lighting (CIE 243: 2021). This report provides an overview of the research methods, mathematical models and the variables which are considered to influence discomfort glare. The report describes the difficulties associated with the evaluation and measurement of discomfort glare and the variance in the models. One aim of the report is to encourage further research on discomfort glare using methods recommended by the proposals raised in this report. Such research will generate a greater body of credible data, thus enabling the development of a more robust model. It is intended to update this report in due course with these additional data and a revised discomfort glare model.

FREE GUIDE ON VISUAL IMPAIRMENT

Furthermore, CIE is making one publication available free of charge to its national committees for a year (until February 2022). CIE-UK is able to offer this to UK members of the ILP, again by emailing tracey@theilp.org.uk The free document is Lighting for older people and people with visual impairment in buildings (CIE 227:2017). This report summarises lighting recommendations on lighting and the visual environment in interior spaces such as offices, public spaces, and residences for healthy older people (defined as people aged 50 years and older) with normal vision, and people with low vision, and implements guidelines described in CIE 196:2011 (CIE Guide to Increasing Accessibility in Light and Lighting) into practical solutions. The report provides illuminance recommendations, derived from simulations with existing visual models for older people. It also outlines state-of-the-art of studies on how light helps people with low vision see objects by reviewing recent literature. Finally, it sets out design guidelines for lighting practitioners on how to design appropriate visual environments for people with low vision.

UPCOMING CONFERENCE

The 2021 CIE Mid-Term Conference will be held online from 27 to 29 September, 2021. The broad theme of the three-day event is ‘Light for life – living with light’. More details can be found at the conference website: https://malaysia2021.cie. co.at/ UK-based members of ILP will be able to register for the discounted rate using the discount code available, again, from tracey@theilp.org.uk If you are not based in the UK but are a member of the CIE national committee in your country, you may be able to get a discount code from them. John O’Hagan is chair of CIE-UK

HOW TO ACCESS CIE PUBLICATIONS

UK-based members of the ILP are eligible for the CIE-UK members’ discount for CIE publications, which represents a two-thirds reduction on the list price. A discount is also available for some CIE events. Please email ILP Chief Executive Tracey White on tracey@theilp.org.uk for the discount code. Publications can be purchased via the relevant link on the CIE website, http://cie.co.at/

INTERESTED IN JOINING CIE-UK?

If anyone is interested in joining CIE-UK, please feel free to get in touch with Allan Howard (executive secretary of CIE-UK) at WSP, on Allan.Howard@wsp.com

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Maritime lighting The maritime industry is responsible for transporting around 90% of items around the world and is a key cog in the global economy. Yet many ports’ operators still have not ‘got it’ when it comes to understanding the benefits of modernising to LED. Ports can also present technical challenges for lighting around weather, wind and temperature

Yuli Grig

or many years now, LED lighting has been recognised as the world’s main source of lighting, superseding HPS and LPS in efficienc y and application. A long er lifespan, solid-state fast-switching, high CRI, superior energy efficiencies and lower maintenance requirements have all assured its popularity amongst street lighting engineers and councils. Yet, despite this, some of the world’s largest industries are still yet to realise the full potential of upgrading their lighting solutions to take advantage of these benefits and the relatively quick return on investment. The operators of large-scale, multifaceted operations like those in the maritime industry are one such industry, being still by and large in the early stages of investing in LED lighting. Equally, selecting the expertise necessary to ensure that luminaires perform as expected in demanding and often extreme environments is essential to a successful outcome.

MANAGING CHALLENGING CONDITIONS

The maritime industry is responsible for transporting around 90% of items around the world, underpinning the global economy. How critical it is to keeping the world’s economic cogs turning was brought into sharp relief earlier this year when the massive container ship the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March. We therefore depend on it being efficient, safe and cost-effective. However, many ports and terminals are still using lighting solutions that fail to achieve their full operational, economic and environmental potential. Another complicating factor is that ports can face extreme and varying weather conditions. For example, temperatures in Dubai’s Port of Jebel Ali can reach highs of 45 °C whereas CentrePort Wellington in New Zealand is notorious for its high winds. So, environmental factors must be considered when investing in LED lighting in this sector. In challenging environments, where lighting is fundamental to the continuation of operations, one solution does not fit all, and every single part of the product specification must be considered. At Midstream Lighting we very much advocate the importance of taking a holistic expert approach that factors in such challenges. Ports and terminals are typically wet and saline-heavy environments. Therefore, necessary precautions to mitigate potential damage and reduce maintenance caused by these harsh environmental factors are essential. For example, we would recommend to clients to consider as standard: • Powder-coated marine 316-grade stainless steel and marine-grade aluminium to resist corrosion • Vibration-resistance measurement of 100,000 cycles at 6G to inform durability and reliability • Reducing the fittings’ weight and susceptibility to wind loading • TM21-rated equipment to ensure longterm reliability and reduced downtime • Designed-in glare and light spill control • Long warranty With no one port layout the same, flexibility from a wide range of optics is also key. By using the optimum choice of optics tailored to a specific location, port and terminal owners and operators can simultaneously control lux and uniformity ratios whilst reducing glare.

HIGH-HEAT ENVIRONMENTS

Failing to factor unique environmental elements, such as temperature, into purchase decisions can result in costly

downtime, dangerous working conditions and a failure to comply with regulation later down the line. The cheapest option is not always the most cost-effective, considering the lifespan of a project. Considering the differing extremes in temperatures in ports around the world, lighting must be built with the appropriate features, like an extruded heatsink, to allow highly efficient heat dissipation, amongst other unique specifications. This keeps lumen degradation to a minimum, extending life and performance – without this specially designed heatsink LED lights can simply burn out and fail. Furthermore, with global temperatures set to rise due to the impact of climate change, this level of detail is vital to ensure port and terminal owners are making reliable long-term investments.

UNDERSTANDING ‘DIRTY’ POWER

Similarly, ‘dirty’ power, which can include low power, voltage variations, frequency variations and surges can cause significant disruption to maritime operations. This is partly due to the amount of energy required to power sprawling infrastructure and equipment at ports and terminals. A critical element in all ports and terminals, lighting must be protected from potential surges to avoid costly downtime. LED lighting should therefore contain elements, such as an integrated two-step surge protection feature, to safeguard the luminaire against potential power surges, and enable more reliability and longer performance. This type of construction is vital to ensure the structural integrity and guaranteed lifespan of the product and as well as to protect the commercial reputation of the port or terminal. As engineers and lighting professionals, we recognise that it is our role to help change perspectives. There is a necessary education role to support sectors such as the maritime industry to understand that purely commodity-based purchasing decisions to lighting are overlooking essential value-added benefits, such as improved durability, efficiency and sustainability.

PROVING THE BENEFITS

The energy-saving potential of LED lighting in ports and terminals is verified and tangible. Let’s illustrate this by looking in more detail at a number of recent projects that we have been involved in. Midstream recently contributed to a modelling exercise at the Port of Tyne, as well as a long-term analysis of its electricity network. This saw the port successfully reduce its energy use by 2.3 million kWh, eliminating more than 1,500 tonnes of CO2. As part of its clean strategy, we designed www.theilp.org.uk

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Maritime lighting and productivity and therefore required lighting to support its seamless operations. We were tasked with replacing the 1,400 high-mast 1,000W metal-halide lighting fixtures to cut energy, operational, and maintenance costs, while keeping the exact number of luminaires. It was this project that saw the creation of our versatile ‘Atlas’ series. These madefor-purpose 330W and 660W lighting fixtures were designed to be robust enough to cope with the hostile conditions and be highly efficient at the time. By combining them on a single pole, they were able to deliver the required illumination at the lowest possible energy consumption – around 500W. Once installed, the increase in colour of the light made the port a much safer place to work, as well as increasing energy savings by 60%.

SUMMARY

The Hupac Terminal in Italy. Outdated metal-halide lighting has been upgraded to LED, improving light quality, safety, energy use and employee wellbeing

and provided a unique high-mast lighting solution that turned only four of the floodlights on at dusk. The six remaining floodlights could be turned on with a push button on the mast, to provide the higher lux values when required. Our Titan 420 series of LED floodlights enabled not only huge energy savings but a 50% increase in light levels. In the same way, we secured a 65% energy saving for Hupac Terminal, Italy by upgrading the outdated metal-halide lighting systems on its cranes with 120 of our ‘Docker’ 350 and 150 luminaires. The Docker series was the most effective upgrade for the terminal’s 1,000kW and 400W floodlights, which were proving costly to maintain. This was mainly due to the moving parts in the metal-halide lamps being easily damaged by the vibrations of the moving cranes. The quality of lighting is also a key element of enabling safe and secure operations, whilst ensuring employee wellbeing. Another area we have been involved in is www.theilp.org.uk

intermodal terminals, or terminals that combine the movement of goods from rail to other forms of transport, such as street or highway. Like most intermodal terminals, the Intermodal Terminal of Trieste in Italy operates 24/7, which means lighting is critical to its operations and the wellbeing of its workers. Yet, at the time, it was using old-fashioned high-pressure sodium lighting systems. We replaced 1,000W sodium projectors with 455W LED technology, with the number of lighting units cut from 60 to 47. The result was 73% energy savings and high uniform light levels across the whole yard – without any light pollution for the neighbours. Likewise, a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ is not the most effective option for port and terminal owners and operators with unique requirements. Total Terminals International (TTI), Pier T at the Port of Long Beach, California, was designed for maximum efficiency

The maritime industry is currently navigating a period of unprecedented change and addressing major challenges, such as decarbonising operations, and exploring advanced technologies to revolutionise the terminals of tomorrow. Therefore, increasing the sophistication of lighting systems is unlikely to be at the top of the agenda for many busy operators. Yet, by taking a consultative approach, we have been steadily helping to build awareness in the industry that there are very real and accessible advantages in making incremental operational changes, such as upgrading lighting. These can be, broadly speaking, a highly transformative process and delivered quickly with minimal disruption. These types of initiative are not only creating significant cost-savings and improving health and safety they are also paving the way for performance gains in other areas of port operations. Investing in lighting, now, illuminates the pathway for other aspects of improvement and raises the bar for sustainability and performance tweaks in overlooked operational aspects of the maritime industry. Moreover, this is not unique to the maritime industry. This is why we believe it is important that, as a lighting industry leader, we remain passionate about highlighting the benefits of modernising lighting solutions and helping lighting systems to be viewed as a key strategic asset.

Yuli Grig is director & co-founder of Midstream Lighting

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

www.theilp.org.uk

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

A series of eye-catching sailing mast-style 19m-high wooden lighting columns are at the heart of the regeneration of Ostend’s old fishing harbour in Belgium

By Nic Paton

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Public realm lighting Lighting, naturally, has played a key part in this transformation, not least a series of 11 eye-catching bespoke, sailing mast-style 19m wooden columns, complete with 6m-8m aluminium bracket arms. The project has been led by architects Ateliers JEOL, with the columns supplied by Valmont and manufactured by Tehomet, a subsidiary of Valmont. ‘The original columns were outdated functional concrete and rusty steel columns; the new poles have created a massive change,’ explains Anish Samani, EMEA decorative structures and marketing manager at Valmont Structures (UK), the UK arm of the company, to Lighting Journal. ‘The project really proves how it is possible to create something that acts as a feature within an urban environment, a placemaker for the city,’ agrees Brecht Warlop, Benelux sales manager for Valmont. ‘Ostend is one of the nicest Belgium seacoast port cities; it is a beautiful project. It has been very much about combining the architectural with the functional.’

STRUCTURALLY CHALLENGING

he port city of Ostend is Belgium’s largest coastal outpost and a beautiful example of Flemish architecture. For the past few years, the city’s previously rundown old fishing harbour has been undergoing regeneration, with the creation of a new residential and retail district called Baelskaai as part of what is known as the Oosteroever masterplan.

The project began in 2015 and the new columns were installed on site in 2018. This is the first phase of the project, with a further ten smaller wooden columns to be installed within the surrounding streets from this summer onwards. Versions of the column are also to be installed at the city’s railway station. Because of the height and the length of the bracket arms, structurally the columns posed a challenge. ‘For me, in my 15 years at Valmont, I have never experienced Valmont produce a product of this scale with that length of arm, in steel, never mind in wood,’ highlights Anish. ‘I have people asking, for example, “does the column have a steel core?’, that is a very common question, with the answer, no, this is an engineered product and is also constructed with a hole in the middle.’ ‘Standard lengths of poles are 12-13m, however these are 19m; it was necessary to design a method to connect them together from two pieces. Usually there would be a visible steel joint in the middle. In this case, we could conceal it inside the pole and so we constructed it into the arm connection, so the join could be concealed behind the connection plates; nobody can see there is any kind of joint in the pole,’ adds Sami Hämäläinen, sales manager at Tehomet.

CROSS-COUNTRY COLLABORATION

The complex engineering process involved a lot of cross-country collaboration and co-ordination, with the

aluminium bracket arms being constructed by Valmont France and the rest of the column in Finland, as Joonas Innanen, product development and engineering manager at Tehomet, explains. ‘With the arms, they were quite challenging. Valmont France produced the aluminium arms and the wooden shaft and the column was designed and manufactured in our factories in Finland. It was very much a Valmont team effort. The biggest challenge was to combine these things together to meet all the requirements from the lighting design and architectural point of views. So, it needed very close co-operation between our sites and the architects,’ he says. ‘Structurally, the length of the bracket arms was the biggest challenge. Valmont France carried out extensive calculations to ensure the steel wires were of the strength required, so that we could be sure they could handle the loads from the length of the arm. After that we made a combined calculation model to take into account all the variables, including the exposed location, strong winds across the harbour and squalls and storms of course. ‘Everything was calculated, we also tested it extensively physically of course, especially the most stressed connection, the arm and the wooden section. Considering the columns were being produced in different parts of Europe and then assembled, we all had to work together closely with quite precise models and share those between the different sites so that all the dimensional details came together precisely,’ Joonas adds. ‘It is a great example of what, technically, can be achieved, how it is possible to push the limits of engineering,’ agrees Anish. ‘The scale of it, when you are standing in front of it, is amazing.’ ‘Sometimes with this type of project it is difficult to rhyme the technical with the architectural, but I do feel this is a great example where the two have come together really well,’ adds Brecht.

FIND OUT MORE

For those who are interested, a video of the test installation (carried out on a snowy day in Finland) is available to watch on YouTube, at www.youtube. com/watch?v=th_gOR8Lfp4

CREDITS

Architect: Ateliers JEOL Contractor: Claesen Outdoor Lighting (Valmont Belgium) Column manufacturer: Tehomet (a Valmont company) www.theilp.org.uk

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

RIPPLING RAINBOWS AND TWINKLING TRUNKS By Jo Shore and Andy Hart

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Public realm lighting Once rundown and neglected, a mix of new lighting and public art has put the heart back into the Coventry’s Hertford Street retail quarter, all as part of the city’s UK City of Culture 2021 regeneration programme

he shopping and retail quarter at Hertford Street in Coventry is one of the key arrival points into the city, especially for visitors walking up to the city centre from Coventry train station. Despite this, and despite having some lovely and quite grand early-twentieth-century architecture within it, it had become a rather unloved area, unwelcoming and all a bit tired. That’s all now changed as part of the city’s wider transformation for Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture, as Lighting Journal has been covering this year. There have been architectural changes, in that a previously rather ugly and imposing archway into Hertford Street has been removed, so opening up the space and creating a much more airy feel.

MULTICORE LED WRAP

The big change from a lighting perspective has been the three ‘wrapped’ trees that now dot Hertford Street. When you think of tree lighting you often imagine strings of Christmas-style lights badly wrapped around the trunks or strung a bit miserably across pedestrian areas. That was most definitely not what we wanted! We drew inspiration instead from the city of Miami in Florida, where the municipal authorities have got rid of the street lighting along a whole boulevard and replaced it with tree lighting, where the trunks themselves light the street. There is, of course, still lighting in Hertford Street; it is still a walkway with functional lighting and totally usable at night. But, after extensive investigation into how to do it properly – including working closely with our arboreal team to understand how not to choke the trunks of the trees – we’ve wrapped them with a multicore LED wrap. It’s very industrial, cabled, powerful LED lighting. There is a flexibility to it too, so it does give. The trees are fitted with a plastic conduit, we then wrapped the cables around and tied them to the conduit; so nothing is pinned to the trees. The effect is amazing and playful, with the trunks twinkling and sparkling in the night. Crucially, the lighting can be maintained without damaging the trees and vice versa; we can allow the trees to bloom without affecting the lighting.

INTERPLAY OF ART AND LIGHT

The second big change has been the dramatic art installation that has been put in place by artist Morag Myerscough (as shown right). While, of course, this is not technically lighting, Morag’s art plays with light and shade in the way it creates rainbow and ripple effects and in how it uses sunlight. Morag was inspired on a visit to the city by the famous stained glass created by artist John Piper in Coventry Cathedral after the war, and she has used that inspiration in her rainbow-effect canopy installation at Hertford Street. It is a bold and colourful installation, complemented by plantings and, when the sunlight streams through it, it is absolutely phenomenal. It is unbelievable how the different colours catch the beams of light, on the walls and the canopy itself but also on the ground as you walk through the area. On a sunny day you can see it from as far as 300m away as you’re approaching! More seriously, for us it is illustrative of the real blend you can get between artist and lighting professional, how one can complement the other. It has made the space an experiential, fun environment. For us, Hertford Street has become another symbol of the new Coventry, along with Bull Yard (which Lighting Journal looked at in May), Greyfriars Green (which we intend to revisit in September) and our iconic three spires: Holy Trinity, Christchurch and St Michael’s (and look out for an article on these in November). With our year as UK City of Culture now well underway, there is a buzz, a real energy, in the city. The public realm installations are being tremendously well-received; there has been a lot of positive feedback. So it is all going really well. We are excited to see how things will play out, even though it is difficult to make concrete plans because of the uncertainty still around Covid. It is great to see everything begin to come together. And, as we have seen in Hertford Street, integrating artists into our public realm regeneration programme has absolutely been a refreshing and innovative way of working.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR

As Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture continues, this month Terry Hall, lead singer of iconic Coventry ska band The Specials, will curate ‘Home Sessions’, a weekend of music and arts, writes Nic Paton. In August, there will be a threeday arts and activism festival and then from 7-16 October, there will be the city’s first Arts and Homelessness Festival, a week-long celebration of arts and homelessness projects in Coventry made by people who are, or have been, homeless. In November, a four-day festival, ‘Random string: the canal networked’, will combine light, art and technology to celebrate Coventry’s history waterway and Canal Basin. The night-time waterside festival will bring light, music, installations and projections to the canal as well as performances, workshops and online experiments, all realised with the support of lighting and projection designer Arnim Freiss. For more information on all that is happening during Coventry’s year go to https://coventry2021.co.uk/

Jo Shore is head of public realm and Andy Hart is consultant project manager working for Coventry City Council

www.theilp.org.uk

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

efore we jump into explaining the circular economy, perhaps we should start with what we mean by the ‘uncircular’ or linear economy. Over the last 100 years or so a large part of our current industrial model – for everything not just lighting – has been a linear model of ‘take, make, waste’. Or: • • •

We take raw materials from the Earth through mining all kinds of natural resources. We make those materials into things, refining them into all sorts of products. We then waste this all once it reaches the end of its life, with materials often getting sent to landfill.

Thankfully, however, things are changing. Since the turn of the millennium, industry and consumers have been becoming evermore aware of the finite resource of the Earth and its fragility. We are beginning to waste less and recycle more; we have begun to make sure that we consider the end of a product’s life before it has even begun. The circular economy seeks to mimic the cycles of the natural world. Organic materials grow, they provide a source of food for other organisms, they eventually reach the end of their life, they then break down and nutrients return to the soil, so to feed the growth of new organic materials. There is no waste in this process; there is no waste in nature.

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Light, Seen from the ILP

By James Coton

To translate this approach into manufacturing and, from there, the manufacturing of lighting products and solutions, is a big task and lots of good work is going on. To cite just some examples, at OrangeTek we are working with RISE, the Research Institutes of Sweden (www.ri.se/en), on its circular economy project, looking at how to measure the circularity of a product and what would be the key performance indicators to look for. The Cradle to Cradle Institute (www.c2ccertified.org/) is another organisation offering approvals and a rating system for the circulatory of products. Lighting Europe (www.lightingeurope. org/) is working on a ‘Sustainable Product

Initiative’ (SPI) through which it is aiming to form legislation and guidance on all the various aspects of circularity. There is a lot happening, too, on the legislative side of this. Right-to-repair legislation comes into force this summer, and will give consumers more transparency over how repairable a product is, so repairability within design [1]. Then there is the European Union’s Ecodesign Directive, which will be adopted in the UK, and which takes into consideration the environmental impacts of product, seeking to minimise waste materials whilst maximising CO2 and energy savings [2]. The Lighting Industry Association and ILP are also working towards clearer defini-

tions for what makes a circular product. The circular approach will take collaboration from many industries to reach its full potential. However, as plans solidify, what are we doing right now? How can we simplify the methodology that can be introduced right from the beginning of product design?

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

For me, answering these questions comes down to three very simple points: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reducing materials, so asking ‘is it necessary?’. Each component must be considered, and a balance of form over function needs to be struck. www.theilp.org.uk

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Light, Seen from the ILP Reusing and repurposing materials where possible. Can an existing part from a previous generation be carried over to the new? And, finally, recycle. Can everything be recovered once it has reached the end of its useful life? However, while simple to explain and all good in theory, how about practical applications that make financial sense for both manufacturers and local authorities? To try to answer this, I would like to delve into one part of our ‘circularity diagram’ that we are working on right now. That is the process and thinking behind refurbishing our existing lanterns, specifically the AriaLED. To give a bit of background on the AriaLED for those who are not familiar with it, it began production in 2012 and was produced until 2018 when its replacement the IGNIS family was introduced. It was somewhat ahead of its time in that it had a completely modular light engine that could expand to accommodate more LEDs. It was built for longevity and future-proofing abilities. Each module is IP66 rated, the idea at the time was to allow the LEDs to be upgraded as technology progressed. In fact, much of the lantern was built with servicing in mind and contains almost exclusively serviceable parts.

CURRENT CASE STUDY – LEICESTER CITY COUNCIL

All of which brings us onto Leicester city and a practical example of this approach in action, where those modular features sitting dormant for all those years can be put to use. One of the first recipients of the AriaLED was Leicester City Council. In 2012, while many councils were looking to make savings by switching off their lanterns, Leicester instead committed to long-term improvements by investing in what was at the time still relatively new technology. It replaced all of its conventional street lighting with LED and, in process, dramatically reduced its energy use and ensured the city’s road network stayed well-lit around the clock for years to come. The initial three-year project was 33,000 units, with city-wide coverage. A typical scenario for Leicester was the replacement of 100-watt SON lamps. Their total power consumption was around 140 watts when including the ballast usage. These could be replaced using a 60 LED AriaLED with a total power consumption of 66 watts. This gave them a 50% reduction in energy at the time; on top of this the council adopted a Telensa CMS that allowed further savings from dimming. If we look into these gains in context of Leicester city, it was a multi-year project with a number of efficacy upgrades over its install period. It started around 100 Lm/w www.theilp.org.uk

improving to 135 Lm/w by the end of the installation, with a total average in the region of 110 Lm/w. The latest generation of LEDs can output efficacies up to 200 lumens per watt. So, even over this short period of time, there is now the opportunity to, again, halve the energy consumption. Over the same period of time, our ability to control light has also improved so we can offer new optics to boost uniformity. Although later switching to 4000K, a large part of the project was originally 5000K, which is now considered a little too cool or even blue for modern standards. Therefore, we have the opportunity to bring the colour temperature down to a more neutral white and still realise a huge reduction in energy. This is where a circular economy business case comes together. Rather than just scrapping and replacing, by using a circular approach to upgrade the light source the cost can be kept low by reusing the heatsink (which still has a further 20 years-plus of lifetime left) and reworking the LED boards to implant the latest generation of chips. From a practical point of view, we would work on a rolling stock basis. A buffer stock can be created to initiate the rollout of upgraded modules. The idea would be to swap out the old for new, with the old modules returned to the workshop where we can do the delicate upgrade work in safe conditions. The old modules can be broken down and harvested for components that still have a useful life; anything unrecoverable at this stage can be recycled. Then, the modules can be rebuilt back up using new LEDs and optics. They go through IP and a burn-in test to ensure the workmanship is sound. These completed modules then ship out to continue the rollout of swapping old for new. This, therefore, is a very hands-on example of how our first generation of LED lanterns is being given a new life and can continue to deliver energy savings and further improved performance for years to come.

FUTURE CIRCULARITY

In recent years we have seen a shift in the market and modular products are no longer considered affordable. This has coincided with growing confidence of LED lifetimes and so, from a specifier view, modular is no longer needed. The body of a lantern is the part that is most resource-intensive, is most likely to have travelled the longest distance as a raw material and has the highest carbon footprint. Aluminium, while highly recyclable, has more value in the form of a lantern body than scrap. A residential lantern for example averages

5kg, current scrap value price is 70p per kilo making its scrap value only £3.50! From a circular economy point of view, it is an important part to retain and there is reason to do so: the fact, as we have seen, that the body can outlast the LEDs. Yes, the LED lifetime is very long, in excess of 200,000 hours in modern chips, but the rate of efficacy increase is making older technologies obsolete, much like in the computer processing market. So, how about an after-market for LED lantern components? Let’s take a look at the car market for comparison. Buying parts for cars is easy and convenient and the car aftermarket is huge; there is a lot of choice. If something breaks or wears out, you don’t scrap the car and get a new one, you get it fixed. If you or your garage want an air filter for your car, you can go back to the original manufacturer. Likewise, you need to fix a household item like a tap, you can go to an appropriate DIY or appliances’ shop and get the replacement part you need because the industry is standardised. So why can’t street lighting have its own aftermarket infrastructure? Well, it can and it does. Off-the-shelf products are available from many different venders in the form of prebuilt modules and lens arrays. But standardisation is essential and collaboration key to making it work. How would this work? There are three main elements to think about: the driver, the LEDs and the optic. Let’s consider each . • Drivers. Drivers are now more versatile and user friendly than ever; you have the capability to reprogram drivers wirelessly via a mobile phone apps. • LEDs. For the LEDs we can use standards set out in Zhaga Book 15 [3]. Zhaga, for those who don’t already know, is a global consortium of companies in the lighting industry which set out to standardise essential LED lantern components and publish these standards in what are know as ‘the Zhaga Books’. • Optics. Optical design houses already offer a wide range of ‘off the shelf’ lenses to suit most LEDs on the market to fit street lighting needs. Further developments from Zhaga are due to be released this summer in the form of Book 19, which will cover not only LED boards but also lens plates with IP protection up to IP67, so this will offer a complete light engine solution. In essence, to see the benefits of a circular economy we will need to be more flexible and accommodating as an industry. This is part of the steps we have taken at OrangeTek for a more circular and collaborative future for our products.

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www.theilp.org.uk Product Shown: Kirium Pro Vision 2 with Static CCTV camera option

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Light, Seen from the ILP

A street in Leicester showing the transformation (left) from old 100-watt SON lamps to (right) OrangeTek’s AriaLED solution

For example, we have built into our IGNIS range support for Zhaga book components and continue to open up to more collaborations to increase compatibility and choices for the market. We continue to support a growing library of lighting optics and at the same time are adopting new technologies and emerging standards. We are working with other lighting manufacturers to offer our light engines and optics in new regions and markets where we wouldn’t necessarily have had the opportunity before. Collaboration is the key and being mindful about what we do as an industry and how we influence standards is important.

SUMMARY

To return to our earlier mantra: reduce, reuse, recycle. We need, as an industry, to be and become more aware of the potential impact our decisions can have. We need, too, to encourage discussion of how we can be mindful about the impacts such choices have and how we can all make more balanced decisions about the tech-

nologies we adopt. It is more important than ever to be wise about the choices we make. The strain is beginning to show in the supply of semi-conductors vital to all electronics industries, for example. There are a number of reasons behind the ‘perfect storm’ of circumstances that have come together, causing lead times to reach over 50 weeks for some components, but it is a crisis that has already been termed ‘chipageddon’ in some parts of the media [4]. Shortages, long lead times and spiralling prices will slow important infrastructure projects, making a circular approach even more important from an operational/ business continuity perspective as well as for environmental/sustainability reasons. This is not a change that is going to happen overnight; it is a huge topic and there’s a lot of other work going on across the industry. Yet, for our sustainability as an industry and, more importantly of course, the longterm sustainability and health of the

planet, we do need to accelerate our efforts to become more environmentally aware and carbon neutral. Truly embracing a circular economy approach is one step we should all be taking.

James Coton is product manager at OrangeTek

FIND OUT MORE

This article is based on a Light, Seen interactive showcase presentation James Coton and principal Nigel Parry gave for the ILP in April. You can listen to a full recording of it at https://theilp.org.uk/project/ light-seen/

[1] ‘All You Need to Know About the Right to Repair Electronics in 2021’, https://www.hqts.com/right-to-repair-electronics/ [2] Sustainable product policy & ecod [1] ‘All You Need to Know About the Right to Repair Electronics in 2021’, https://www.hqts.com/right-to-repair-electronics/ [2] Sustainable product policy & ecodesign, European Commission, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/sustainability/product-policy-and-ecodesign_en [3] Zhaga Book 15: Rectangular LED modules for use with lens arrays, https://www.zhagastandard.org/books/overview/rectangular-led-modules-for-use-with-lens-arrays-15.html; Book 19: Rectangular modules and lens plates with IP protection, https://www.zhagastandard.org/books/overview/rectangular-modules-and-lens-plates-with-ip-protection-19.html [4] ‘How will “chipageddon” affect you?’, BBC News, February 2021, https://www.bbc. co.uk/news/technology-55936011 www.theilp.org.uk

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Inside the ILP

SAFE ROADS In recent times we have all gained a new appreciation for green spaces which has helped us stay grounded during this difficult period, the same can be said for the night sky too, the beauty of the stars is something to behold and must be protected.

Guided by the International Dark Skies Association we have engineered luminaries that can minimise light pollution with no upwards light and warm colour temperatures down to 2200K. Our Ignis Range will protect our skies for generations to enjoy for many years to come. The same LED lenses and photometric control can be found across our range including the outstanding CitiSun and Emilio lanterns. For more information on our IDA approved luminaires and advice on designing for dark skies areas please get in touch.

www.orangetek.co.uk www.theilp.org.uk

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Tunnels and tunnel lighting

A NEW TUNNEL VISION If the lighting industry is serious about doing its bit to tackle climate change, it needs to stop thinking that switching to LED is enough by itself. Genuinely embracing a circular economy approach can be challenging but, as this road tunnel lighting case study shows, is perfectly doable By Ross Evans

s we all continue to battle against, and be impacted by, coronavirus, we must nevertheless not divert our focus from other, increasingly pressing, issues that have surrounded us for far longer than the pandemic. www.theilp.org.uk

The world we live in, the air we breathe, and ultimately the way we live our lives cannot continue along its current path if we are to not only enjoy today, but also provide a sustainable future for the younger generations that will follow us.

The natural resources of our planet that are consumed and embodied in almost everything we do, see, make, and appreciate will not be here forever, especially without a significant step change to what is deemed ‘current practice’.

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JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Tunnels and tunnel lighting The ‘green education generation’ amongst us are playing a significant role in the mammoth task that lies ahead. Taking just our lighting industry sector into consideration, there could be, should be, and certainly is far more that we can do to reduce the impact that our activities, products and systems have on the wider world. The core principles of the circular economy concept – as explained very clearly in the previous article – underpin this necessity for us to move, quite expediently, away from the current ‘take, make, waste’ culture of single-use products. Since the advent of the LED for performance lighting, there has been an illusion of being environmentally friendly through the promotion of the available energy savings, cascading product costs and their associated return on investment for the purchaser or end user. If, however, we take the blinkers off for a moment and look at the bigger and more long-term picture, this model just does not work in a sustainable manner. Designing out waste and pollution from the offset, keeping products and materials in use for longer through reuse and repurpose methods, plus harnessing the regeneration of natural systems is paramount if we are to even make a dent in the global problem that we face. Recycling, contrary to the decades of promotion, then comes after all of this has been considered.

TUNNEL LIGHTING AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Road tunnel lighting is no exception to this whole philosophy. However, in practice, just how practical are some of the points above when considering this particular application and the associated rigorous product requirements? The principal aim of road tunnel lighting, after all, is to provide an illuminated section of covered road irrespective of the time of day or night and allowing the safe passage of vehicular traffic. Of course, as with everything in life, if you focus hard enough and have a burning desire to make a difference then anything is possible. Employing the basis of the circular economy principles into a road tunnel environment is no different, a little more complex in some regards maybe, but certainly not impossible. To illustrate this approach in action, let’s look at a recent project at Heathrow Airport as an example.

HEATHROW AIRPORT – PROJECT OVERVIEW Pre-pandemic, Heathrow Airport was experiencing up to 250,000 passengers per day passing through the various terminals www.theilp.org.uk

whilst also catering for an annual throughput of over two million metric tonnes of freight, quite a logistical challenge in its own right. Unbeknownst to many, a significant amount of the operational logistics of the airport happens underground in one of seven air-side traffic tunnels beneath the entire complex. This network of vehicle tunnels provides unfettered access for fuelling trucks, baggage handling vehicles and general airport staff circulation. It spans between terminals, ultimately minimising the traffic on and around the aircraft taxiing areas and aprons. All the tunnels are subject to the same road tunnel lighting standards as any highway or motorway tunnel. The fact these tunnels, if placed end to end, would be in excess of 6km long, illustrates that the environmental impact alone of over 4,500 lighting points is quite significant.

HEATHROW AIRPORT – PROJECT SOLUTION

Having originally provided the lighting for these tunnels in 2005, we at TRT Lighting had a vast knowledge of the network and, of course, what we could offer as a replacement to a lighting installation that was now more than 16 years old. As it happens, our circular economy ‘hats’ were already being worn back in the noughties, as we had the vision back then that our luminaire housings would be fit for purpose for a minimum 30 years of service life. The same cannot be said, however, for the conventional gear and lamp within each enclosure. Having operated continuously for over 130,000hrs, the existing technology, whilst being pioneering at the time using DALI dimmable discharge lamps and gear, had reached its end of life. With easily removable gear trays, lamp holders and reflector assemblies already designed and incorporated into the product some 16 years ago, the ability to retain the existing luminaire carcasses and upgrade the integral light engines and control devices was a fraction of the cost compared with a complete refit of all tunnels. Of course, going hand in hand with this significant cost-saving for the client, is the reuse and repurpose philosophy that forms the basis of the circular economy approach to our products. Knowing the tunnel network inside out, in conjunction with our control system partners P Ducker Systems (PDS), we were able to develop a new retrofit LED solution that not only brought a new lease of life to the tunnels but also delivered significant energy savings to the airport.

With every lighting point having a specific set of DALI parameters and addresses, each retrofit light engine was manufactured and labelled with exactly the same settings, allowing a seamless integration into the existing PDS control system. With a phased installation programme in place and limited access time to each tunnel, the speed and ease of the retrofit process was paramount. Equally important was the fact that, irrespective of where the installation had reached at the end of the shift each night, we were able to completely open and operate all tunnels in automatic mode, albeit with a temporary mixture of LED and discharge light sources. With a swap-out time of less than ten minutes per lighting point, any disruption was also kept to a minimum from the outset.

HEATHROW AIRPORT – PROJECT SUMMARY

Predominantly, factors such as energy saving and a reduction in maintenance costs were the driving forces from the client’s perspective. With a significant reduction in maintenance activities already being achieved, plus a minimum 45% energy saving across the seven tunnels, the ultimate goal was most certainly achieved, especially considering the return on the investment will be realised in year three. From a TRT Lighting perspective, our forward-thinking design principles almost two decades ago came to the fore on this project and allowed a very detailed, yet simple, site-wide upgrade programme to be developed and met with minimal impact on the operation of the airport. More importantly, this was all achieved with a ‘maintain, prolong and share’ philosophy in mind. Thus, we were able to keep original manufactured products and materials in use by prolonging their useful life with no detriment to the application. The benefits of this will be shared amongst both the users and asset owners for years to come. Who knows what these luminaires will look and operate like in another 16 years and what lighting technology will be available then? All we know is that by maintaining our core principles of reuse and repurpose, we may well be retrofitting yet more advanced technology in these original luminaires for a second time over a 30-plus-year timeframe. Ross Evans is managing director of TRT Lighting

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Industry awards

Covid-19 turned last year’s lighting awards’ calendar upside down. But that hasn’t stopped great and innovative work being celebrated. Here we review some of the winners, including ILP members, recognised in last year’s [d]arc awards and Lighting Design Awards, plus look forward to changes coming into play later this year

By Nic Paton

he Covid-19 pandemic, as we all know, has turned a multitude of things on its head, plus has had a wide and ongoing impact on lighting and lighting design. One effect has been on lighting awards, with this year’s Lighting Design Awards having to be cancelled because of the pandemic but also a new set of awards, the Build Back Better Awards, being launched. Where awards have been announced, by necessity they’ve had to become virtual events, such as the 2020 Lighting Design Awards, the winners for which were finally announcedin the spring (and we’ll look at these in more detail overleaf ) and the 2020 [d]arc awards, which were revealed in April. As we highlighted in last month’s Lighting Journal, the late Liz Peck’s scheme for the Iron Bridge in Telford was celebrated by the [d]arc awards in the Best Exterior Lighting Scheme ‘Structures – low budget’ category. However, probably the biggest winner of the 2020 awards was a structure that has caught humanity’s passion, imagination and creativity for centuries – the Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens.

TRIPLE WINNER

The Acropolis and monuments, or more specifically its new lighting scheme by Eleftheria Deko & Associates Lighting Design (pictured left, with photograph by Stelios Tzetzias), was awarded the coveted [d]arc awards ‘Best of the Best’ for 2020 as well as winning in the Best Exterior Lighting Scheme ‘Structures – High Budget’ category. This Best of the Best award is given to the project that received the most amount of votes out of all the project category winners. The judges said of the scheme: ‘The design approach was to distinguish for the first time the sacred rock from the walls and the monuments through lighting, by the use of different colour temperature and intensity differentiations. ‘Moreover, the team wanted to accentuate the three-dimensionality of the sculptures and columns to highlight all the details of the monuments and create depth of field to make the different volumes distinct from far away. Each bears the symbolism of its time and purpose and that inspired the designers to create those lighting layers.’

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Industry awards It was in fact a triple win for Eleftheria Deko & Associates, as its audiovisual launch event for the new lighting scheme also won in the ‘Event’ category. Its music and light show saw 51 synchronised beams of light being shone up from each column of the Parthenon. Other [d]arc awards winners included the new lighting scheme for Norwich Cathedral by Speirs Major, which won in the ‘Places – high budget’ category. Regular readers of Lighting Journal will recall this scheme was profiled back in February 2020 (‘Vaulting ambition’, vol 85, no 2). The ‘Copenhagen Panorama’ installation and model of the Danish capital, by fortheloveof-

‘Search of the Glow’, Taiwan by Ling-Li, Serendipity Studio, winning of the [d]arc award ‘Art – Low’ category

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light, won the ‘Places – low budget’ category. The ‘Spaces’ awards were split between the ‘Magical Shores’ outdoor interactive projection and lighting installation at Siloso in Singapore, by Lighting Panners Associates, (high budget) and the Santa Marina Hotel welcoming tunnel (low budget) by ASlight. This project, on Mykonos in Greece, is designed to connect the outdoor area of the hotel to the main reception, and is based on a 3D spiral. There were also, as we show over the following pages, a range of ‘art’ and ‘kit’ awards, with all the winning and shortlisted entrants able to be viewed at https://darcawards.com/#

LIGHTING DESIGN AWARDS

Despite having confidently promoted an in-person ceremony in May for the 2021 Lighting Design Awards, the ongoing uncertainties of the pandemic have meant this year’s awards have been unable to go ahead, although whether this is a terminal blow remains to be seen. Nevertheless, winners for 2020 were announced in April, with ILP members well-represented among them. Light Bureau, where principal director Paul Traynor is an active ILP member, was named Lighting Design Practice of the Year. Paul said of the award: ‘We are really honoured to achieve this recognition and it’s

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Industry awards

The Copenhagen Panorama, Denmark, by fortheloveoflight, winner in the [d]arc awards ‘Places – Low Budget’ category. Photograph by Adam Mork

BUILD BACK BETTER AWARDS

Carousel of Light, Italy by Preciosa Lighting. Winner in the [d]arc awards ‘Art – Bespoke’ category

thanks in no small part to the creative and dedicated people we have in Light Bureau. It goes without saying that we have been given these great opportunities to work on exceptional projects by our clients and those with whom we collaborate. We push hard for recognition of our profession and we’d like to think this had an influence on the jury choosing us.’ He cited recent projects including the Norwegian under-water restaurant Under and The Twist at the Kistefos Museum in Norway. The practice’s The Musicon Path in Denmark was also highly commended in the awards’ Public Realm and Landscape category. ILP corporate member Michael Grubb Studio was another recognised in the awards, being shortlisted in the Integration Project of the Year category for its

Hi-Tech & Digital Skills Centre at South Devon College in Paignton. Arup, which has ILP members scattered across its lighting teams, was a winner in the Retail Project of the Year category for its work with Foster + Partners – which also includes ILP members – and OVI on the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York. The project also won in the Integration Project of the Year category. Radiant Architectural Lighting, where sales executive Caroline Woodward is an ILP member, won in the Architectural Luminaire Exterior category for its 3D LED Flex 200 IP66. Finally, ILP member Claire Hope of Buro Happold Lighting in Edinburgh was named as one of the ‘40under40’ up-and-coming ‘Class of 2020’ to watch out for.

While the Lighting Design Awards have, for now at least, become another casualty of the pandemic, a new industry award has been launched for 2021, the Build Back Better Awards. These are designed to champion innovation in buildings and have been launched by, among others, Lux magazine founders Ray Molony and Gordon Routledge. The first two awards’ categories were launched in the spring: lighting and electrical. Others are expected to follow later in the year. As the organisers say: ‘We are excited to learn about developments in the office, retail, commercial, leisure, healthcare, education, transport, outdoor and residential sectors that are part of the new paradigm and welcome content in the form of case studies, thought pieces, white papers, product developments and relevant press releases.’ The entry fee is £250 and to submit content, or find out more, you can simply email hello@buildbackbetterawards.com It is, however, as yet a little unclear when any winners will be announced and what sort of format that will take when it does happen. The organisers have said: ‘At time of writing there is currently no plans for a live and in-person presentations ceremony. This eliminates the requirement on entrants to be present at an event fixed in the calendar as well as its significant attendant costs and environmental impact.’

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‘GOOD’ DESIGN, BAD MANNERS? By 1943, with the tide of war firmly turning in the Allies’ favour, discussion increasingly began to be focused on what ‘good’ post-war lantern design might look like. The debate, however, also became increasingly heated By Simon Cornwell

To cite from Dr English’s presentation: ‘On the left, are small and undistinguished fittings hung on arms of aimless strapwork which somehow hang on to the top of a lofty but spidery pole. On the right, is a pole of equal height which achieves dignity with its integrated cross-arm and pair of bowl fittings.’ However, what Dr English neglected to mention was that the preferred design on the right came straight out of the Holophane catalogue, an example of ‘Business Street Lighting’

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Light on the past

he Association of Public Lighting Engineers (APLE) held a brief London conference in September 1943. The theme of the conference appeared to be the immediate postwar future, as the papers addressed new lighting ideas, bringing unused installations back to life and the design of new columns and fittings. The latter was addressed by two papers. The first was delivered by H C Bradshaw CBE, MArch, FRIBA, secretary of the Royal Fine Arts Commission (RFAC). The second was given by Dr S English DSc, FIC, FInstP, technical director of Holophane Limited. Bradshaw’s measured speech addressed general design ideas but also touched on a pre-war meeting with manufacturers that had resulted in a list of approved column designs – a list that had remained rather elusive. The following paper by Dr English was extraordinary. Not only did he insult the artistic community in general, he managed to source a copy of the secretive approved designs and used them to illustrate his talk. Claim and counterclaim were bandied around in the post-talk discussions and the idea of ‘cool’ new designs suddenly became rather hot.

FUTURE LANTERN DESIGN

To set things in context and to outline how we arrived at the 1943 conference, the invitation to the RFAC to give a paper had not been a formal nicety by the APLE but a matter of manufacturing necessity. Ever since the Ministry of Transport (MOT) had agreed to part-finance the lighting of trunk roads (The Trunk Roads Act 1936) and had formed a departmental committee to determine the technical standards by which such roads be lit (the MOT Report 1937), there was still the pressing matter of what made a good aesthetic design. The MOT decreed in 1938 that any funding would only be forthcoming for equipment approved by the RFAC. The APLE acted as a go-between, arranging a meeting between the MOT, RFAC and relevant manufacturers in 1939. It was a remarkably open forum where the RFAC discussed what made a good street lighting column, the manufacturers waived all copyright considerations, and 30 to 40 designs were anonymously submitted for consideration. These were filed with Mr Davis, the conference secretary, for safekeeping as deliberations were to turn to lanterns and fittings in future meetings. This work was interrupted by the war and the approved designs were temporarily forgotten. The issue surfaced briefly in 1941, prompted by the news that the RFAC would

be arbiter of new public buildings, and its contribution to the 1939 conference was remembered: ‘The suggestions they put forward and the modifications made by the designers resulted in a set of extremely satisfactory designs being approved and made available.’ But the RFAC designs had not been made available in the pages of Public Lighting, which would’ve been the first publication to feature them. Although paper restrictions had limited the size of the publication, the approved column designs would have been of extreme interest and hope for the future – rather than the occasional heart-wrenching scenes of pre-war schemes that the journal occasionally published and lamented. So, the approved designs remained a mystery, and nothing more was said on the subject – until the 1943 conference.

AESTHETICS OF STREET LIGHTING

Bradshaw was first to speak. His paper The Design Of Lamp Columns And Fittings In Relation To Post-War Town Planning And Reconstruction dealt with the aesthetics of street lighting with particular reference to its surroundings. He asked lighting engineers to consider the character of the street and its environment. ‘In too many places nowadays a variety of authorities have dumped equipment on to the pavement of our streets without reference to what is already there or to its suitability to the locality.’ He was also critical of the MOT Report, particularly its specification of a 25’ mounting height with an overhanging lamp for Group A roads. Attempts to produce designs to these dimensions by manufacturers alone had been disappointing, and he spoke in passing about the 1939 meeting, which had yielded good results. Bradshaw did not elaborate further, nor produce copies of the approved designs, and instead signed off with: ‘In bringing light to the streets after the war, I hope you will not be content to use patterns which have been recogniszed as unsuitable and unbecoming.’

JIBES AGAINST ARTISTIC COMMUNITY

Dr English then took the stand. His paper, Street Lighting Lantern Design In Relation To Town Planning was a solid piece of work and started the ball rolling with considerations of lantern design. This was to complement the work already done with columns, but Dr English could not resist throwing an occasional insult towards the artistic community. The dry summarising by the APLE in the journal covering the conference did not note the tone of his paper, it just solemnly reported the jibes he made. Was it in jest or more serious?

Dr English started by outlining the difficulty of objectively judging ‘good design’, which he felt was a set of universally accepted characteristics that could act as guides. He also noted that these characteristics changed over time. ‘We now look for simple lines and correct form – instead of ornamentation; we look for perfect proportions and balance – instead of emphasis on any one ornamental feature; and above all we expect practicability from the manufacturing, installation and maintenance points of view. No matter how attractive a lantern may be from the aesthetic point of view, it is a failure and is useless if it fails in the practicability test.’ However, after stepping through the design of an idealised lantern and describing the potential pitfalls, he then delivered this salvo: ‘You will notice that I used the words “good design” and not “artistic design”. I have done this deliberately, since when one talks of “artists” and “artistic” one is liable to picture an individual with long, shaggy hair, deliberately untidy clothes and a general unkempt appearance, expressing himself in works that are so confused as to be beyond the comprehension of the man with a well-ordered mind. We do not want that kind of exotic expression in our post-war street lighting – it is not “good design”.’ Bradshaw’s immediate reaction to this statement was not recorded. Dr English then stepped back slightly and clarified his thoughts. ‘I have listened to lectures on the general subject of the design of glassware but have almost always been disappointed. In general, the language used has very little meaning when robbed of its frills and almost meaningless phrases such as “the beauty of pure form” and “fitness of purpose”. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that the authors were trained in art only and were not technicians. To be a good practical designer in any particular material, it is essential to be both a creative artist and a good technician.’ He then mused on this idea, offering two alternatives. Either the engineers had to develop an aesthetic sense and an appreciation of good form – which he considered as difficult as trying to develop a practical sense in artistically trained people. Or the engineer and artist had to come together in a committee; and he noted how well the design of lamp columns had progressed with the RFAC and various manufacturers in 1939.

HEATED DISCUSSION

Now moving on to columns, Dr English dropped his second bombshell. ‘I have been fortunate enough, by the courtesy of our secretary, to see prints of the various columns referred to by Mr Bradshaw and have www.theilp.org.uk

JULY/AUGUST 2021 LIGHTING JOURNAL

Light on the past

Some of the disputed approved designs as exhibited by Dr English but contested by Bradshaw. They were idealised concepts, clearly drawn from pre-war ideas and heavily influenced by Art Deco. Only the more austere lines of the third and fourth designs succeeded in the post-war landscape

There was a marked sense of optimism by late 1943. Not only was the conference held in London but long absent manufacturers started advertising again (as shown above), and the pages of Public Lighting started to swell with new ideas and discussion. Holophane, for example, ran a sequence of adverts based on uplifting spirits, noting the firm’s longevity, scientific developments and looking forward to the end of black out

selected one which I think suits this lantern.’ Not content with publicly revealing one of the designs, he continued to publish further examples, sketching on imaginary lantern that matched the proportions and profiles of the columns. He was keen to stress that these columns were the ones approved by the RFAC. Having produced his own small portfolio of future column and lantern combinations, he concluded his lecture. Bradshaw joined in briefly with the posttalk discussion. He pointed out to Dr English that ‘an artist was not necessarily a man with a bow tie’, although the tone of this reply was not recorded. And he refuted the www.theilp.org.uk

diagrams English had published: ‘It was not correct to say all the designs shown by Dr English had been approved by The Royal Fine Arts Commission – some might have been modified for his lecture.’ With doubt sown on Dr English’s designs, and another observation on the inappropriate use of the 25’ mounting height in some circumstances, Bradshaw concluded his remarks. Dr English’s final remark was telling: ‘The drawing of columns were accurate reproductions of “approved” columns.’ Was Dr English spurred on by the idea that an organisation like the RFAC was given such power over manufacturers? His paper was sound, and a good summary of how lantern design could be improved. After all, prewar GEC lanterns were already starting to be simplified in the ways he was describing. His pronouncements on ornamentation and embellishment were prophetic, predicting the ‘austere’ movements that would come to dominate street lighting design in the future. Yet he also used this paper to denounce artists in general, and to leak the ‘approved’ designs which were seemingly kept under lock and key by Bradshaw and Davis.

ARTISTIC FORM VERSUS ‘GOOD’ DESIGN

The APLE conferences were always meant to be good natured, and any differences, such as those between the electric and gas proponents for example, were always meant to be put aside for the common good. Therefore, this paper stood out, particularly with Dr English’s thoughts on artists, his claimed publication of the ‘approved designs’ and Bradshaw’s denial that these were the designs in question. Was it simply the venting of pent-up war frustrations? Or a deeper worry that sound engineering principles, such as good column design, could be waved aside by ‘an individual with long, shaggy hair’? Either way, it was interesting that the biggest disagreement during this wartime conference was on artistic form and ‘good’ design.

Simon Cornwell BSc (Hons) is an R&D development senior manager at Dassault Systems

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Letters to the editor Paris at night (pre Covid). France has already taken steps to limit light pollution and blue light

‘I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE UK GOVERNMENT

SET LIMITS ON BLUE LIGHT’ T

he levels of competence in LED specification really do concern me, they are quite alarming in fact. Quite by chance, I recently came across a public lighting scheme that is off the scale in its blue light component but it was also delivered with significant flicker. I have absolutely no doubt that public health, safety for pedestrians and motorists alike are being compromised in our dash to carbon reduction in the name of saving the planet. It’s not all doom and gloom. There are some great initiatives out there with very low light levels or, indeed, even switch-off regimes in place and those should be highly commended. But, make no mistake, high-blue content LED impacts fauna considerably and there is increasing evidence of concerns for human wellbeing too at light levels that are present in street/urban lighting. If you care to look in the right places, the fauna disruption an hour after dusk is plain for all to see. A move to 2700K sources effectively reduces the amount of blue light component by over 50% over a 4000K choice and should, in my opinion, be considered standard good practice. It is my belief that we have failed, and continue to fail, the public with LED installs that

become increasingly questionable both in lighting performance, glare uniformity and wet weather, not to mention its suitability for an ageing populace and other unwanted impacts.

‘LACKLUSTRE’ ATTITUDE

Just the other day yet another local authority faced a barrage of criticism. I spoke with it at length pre-tender and forwarded all the performance and impact research at its request. It didn’t even bother to download it. Now surprise, surprise, the public is calling foul yet again. We also need to recognise we have an even bigger elephant in the room as we start the dash to full-spectrum light for interiors. Without auto blinds function, occupancy and curfew control we risk further catastrophic devastation of the natural world. One has to be concerned about the lacklustre attitude of Public Health England (now of course being replaced anyway), local authorities and other specifying bodies such as Highways England and, indeed, industry bodies and supply chain. France and a number of other countries have already taken steps to limit abuse of this new technology. If you care to read the French Standards Anses (the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety) report, it clearly sets out

why the French pushed through legislation promptly [1]. To recap, that legislation, the ‘Decree of 27 December 2018 on the prevention, reduction and limitation of light pollution’, which came into effect at the beginning of 2019, sets out outdoor lighting curfews, limits on allowed emissions of light directly into the night sky, reduced glare requirements, restriction on blue light emissions, and allowable illumination levels [2]. It was also interesting to read recently of a successful legal challenge in the US to a bridge lighting scheme, where a judge ordered the lighting to be replaced with 2700K to reduce the impact on wildlife. Although it is very much my own opinion, I feel it is time for UK government to do the same and be equally proactive, to push back against self-interest and ensure that ‘good’ lighting remains the priority. I would like to see the UK government set limits on blue light, much as the French government has done, and beef up planning regulations, again much in line with the action plan recently proposed by All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies [3]. Brian Healy MSLL is owner of Bright Design Carbon Solutions

[1] ‘LEDs & blue light: health effects of lighting systems using light-emitting diodes (LEDs)’, Anses, September 2020, https://www.anses.fr/en/content/leds-blue-light [2] ‘France Adopts National Light Pollution Policy Among Most Progressive In The World’, International Dark-Sky Association, January 2019, https://www.darksky.org/france-light-pollution-law-2018/; ‘Arrêté du 27 décembre 2018 relatif à la prévention, à la réduction et à la limitation des nuisances lumineuses’, https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000037864346?r=uYgvaZU0Hm [3] ‘Ten Dark Sky policies for the government’, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies, December 2020, https://appgdarkskies.co.uk/ www.theilp.org.uk

Lighting

Lighting Jounal July/August

Articles inside

HIGH-FIBRE DIET

BALANCING PEOPLE, PLACE AND PLANET

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

LANGUAGE OF LIGHT

SHIP SHAPE