Understanding how light is gathered, focused and distributed in nature can help us solve complex design problems. This understanding coupled with the use of biological algorithms can aid the development of lighting solutions that use resources more efficiently and are more adaptable to future challenges.
TED speaker and Director at Exploration Architecture Limited, Michael Pawlyn is an expert on biomimicry, an approach to innovation that focuses on sustainable solutions to human challenges by mimicking nature’s proven patterns and strategies. The goal of biomimicry is to create products, processes and policies that are well-adapted to life on earth over a long period of time.
In Biomimicry: design inspired by nature, you will discover how light is gathered, focused and distributed in biology, how biological algorithms can help us solve complex design problems, and how this novel approach can help us move towards truly regenerative lighting designs. This webinar is AIA and RIBA approved.
Don’t miss out on this webinar scheduled for June 9th! Register here.
The Importance of Partnerships within the Concept of Smart Cities
Cities around the world are looking to innovate and adapt to the changing demands of an increasingly urbanized, globalized and digitalized world. Philips Lighting’s connected lighting solutions are one piece of the puzzle in trying to meet the needs of the evolving modern urban center. However, no single company can shepherd this complex transformation on its own. Andreas Knobloch of Philips Lighting explains why creating partnerships is the key to empowering cities while SAP’s Sean O’Brian and Vodafone’s Cyril Deschanel further elucidate how their companies are working to help cities better serve their citizens.
Founded in 2008, the Media Architecture Biennale (MAB), a large arts event held every two years, serves as a global platform for architects, designers, artists, and others to discuss creative ideas and learn about the future of media architecture. Guests have access to conferences, exhibitions, awards ceremonies, symposiums, and more.
This year, MAB is going down under in Sydney, Australia from June 1-4, 2016 with a theme of ‘digital place-making.’ The goal? To bring together industry experts to examine the role that technology and digital media play in turning urban environments into smart cities.
Skillfully versed in light and its relationship with public spaces, Susanne Seitinger, global sub-segment manager for open spaces and professional lighting systems at Philips Lighting, will be one of this year’s keynote speakers. Seitinger will focus her presentation around her publication, ‘Light for Public Spaces,’ which showcases hundreds of cities that are using light to become intelligent, connected, and future-proof. Susanne is joined by many other exceptional keynote speakers, including Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT who is conducting research partially funded by Philips.
In addition, MAB16 will be held in conjunction with Vivid Sydney, a 23-day festival of light, music, and ideas.
Interested in attending? Click here to register now!
The world’s population growth and ongoing climate change are just two of the challenges that will have a major impact on food production and horticulture in the 21st century. A new scientific understanding of the effects of light on plant growth and greenhouse management can be a key contributor to safeguarding a steady supply of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
In this Light Bite series Horticulture LED Lighting: Growth Like Never Before, you will discover how light forms an integral part of plant growth and how new technologies and insights are opening up innovative solutions to the challenges that horticulture will face in the future.
Visit this page to register for all three parts of the series.
The first video explores the connection between plants and lighting – how do plants “see” light and how do different aspects of a light recipe (color, light integrals, and intensity) help optimize plant growth?
The second in the series discusses lighting in greenhouses. The speakers will talk about the current status of LED lighting in greenhouses and how it not only helps promote plant growth in vegetables, fruits, and flowers, it also adds value for growers in business case calculations.
The final video in the series examines growing plants without daylight, which
will be available for viewing on June 15th. Experts will explain how implementing the perfect light conditions and controlling other climatic factors can take horticulture to the next level, where daylight is no longer required for optimal plant growth.
Human-centric Lighting: Bandwagon or Breakthrough?
Dr. Peter Boyce is a leading expert in the field of human-centric lighting and discusses how lighting affects the visual and non-visual aspects of human physiology and how it fits into a larger network of factors that can influence mood, motivation and behavior. How exactly does the intensity, quality and color of lighting impact our alertness, sleep quality, behavior, health and well-being? And how can we effectively evaluate the claims made for human-centric lighting?
Do you remember one of your first biology lessons as a child? At some point in elementary school, you were probably given a small Styrofoam cup, a handful of soil and a single seed that you were instructed to bury down into the dirt. And what were the crucial next steps? Keep it watered and place it in a sunny spot, of course. You checked your cup everyday waiting for that magical moment when you’d see a tiny green sprout reaching up towards the light and your teacher would explain that the sun was integral for a process called photosynthesis – the way the plant would convert sunlight into food.
But what happens if you remove one of those key ingredients from the mix? What if you take away sunlight and move your plants indoors? People have experimented with growing plants under lights for many years, but as we’ve discussed before, city farming is currently altering the agricultural landscape in new, exciting, and sustainable ways. Let’s take a deeper look into the concept and explain more about how LED lighting can take over the sun’s role to grow plants such as spinach, lettuce and tomatoes.
Traditionally, a range of bulb types have been used as grow lights, such as, fluorescent lights, high-intensity discharge lamps (HID), and light-emitting diodes (LED). And still today, the most widely used lights for professional use are HIDs and fluorescents. Although LEDs are far more energy efficient, HIDs have been a good, cost-effective solution. They offer a lot of light and a lot of heat – both necessary elements that growers could apply to cultivate their crops.
However, if a grower wanted more light, they’d also get increased amounts of heat. And that could burn their plants. That’s where LEDs can be useful for the growing process. With LEDs, farmers can disconnect the heat from the light. This offers a multitude of advantages including what’s called interlighting – a grower can put the lights right down into the rows of growing plants – and this technique can alter the plants in significant ways. For instance, farmers have found they can raise tastier and sturdier tomatoes by lighting the part of the plant that is shaded by the leaves above.
This light placement is part of what’s called a growth recipe. What mix of factors will yield the best crops? What soil – if any – is the best? What temperature is ideal? And, of course, to what range of the light spectrum will the plants best respond?
A light spectrum shows how much radiation is emitted at each wavelength. Light also can be described as particles, called photons. Each wavelength of light corresponds to a different energy per photon. Shorter wavelengths correspond to a higher energy per photon. For instance, blue photons have almost twice as much energy as deep red photons.
The highest energy containing light is at the blue end of the color light spectrum. Blue lights have short wavelengths and therefore contain a lot of energy. At the other end of the spectrum, you’ll find deep red light, which has long wavelengths and contains lower energy. Per joule, different colors of light help plants achieve different goals. Blue light, for example, can keep plants more compact when combined with deep red light. Far-red light, which is light at the extreme red end of the visible spectrum (between red and infra-red), can help plants to flower.
Farmers can tune the crops to the wishes of the population they’re growing for or steer the crop for desirable traits – for increasing vitamin C in tomatoes or boosting the crispiness of lettuce, for example. However, growing with LEDs is a relatively new field and that means that no one has it down to an exact science yet. Universities such as Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Colorado State University in the USA are continuing to research which growth recipes yield the best results for various crops.
“What kind of world do you want to build?” That’s the question driving real estate developer Owen Zachariasse of the Delta Development Group. As a third generation real estate developer – his grandfather helped create the famous suburban Levittowns after WWII – his company is striving to move away from mass-produced buildings by employing the cradle-to-cradle design philosophy. Watch this fascinating talk about how they’re working to create sustainable buildings of quality that will retain their value indefinitely.
What exactly is a smart building? What can it do and what impact does it have on efficiency and productivity? Imagine your workplace’s building advised you on the best place to sit based on your agenda. Or it indicated the best meeting room and guided you to the right spot. Philips Lighting's Onno Willemse and Cisco's Akshay Thakur discuss how connected lighting can create intelligent buildings that make for better, smarter, more sustainable offices for the future of working.
When you fly at night, there is something magical about the sight of the cities and road lights down below. Instinctively, we know: where there is human activity, there is light. And there is growing scientific evidence that lighting does much more than simply provide illumination. Human centric lighting can connect us, make us feel good, and be better at what we do.
Researchers have found that light meets both visual and non-visual needs – and understanding this interaction has opened up a new realm of applications. These insights help us develop commercial lighting solutions that are targeted at enhancing vision, well-being, and performance by applying an in-depth knowledge of science, customers and user needs.
In The Human Factor in Lighting Designs you will see how awareness and scientific evidence that people need light for their health and well-being plays an essential role in creating attractive LED-based value-to-customer propositions that go well beyond energy saving.
Join this webinar and discover how science-based lighting designs can benefit human physiology and psychology.
New Technology Trends and the Impact of LED Luminaires
In this future-focused presentation, Philips research fellow Marc de Samber and Dr. Robbert Karlicek of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discuss emerging LED trends and what those mean for the lighting systems of the future. Learn more about changes in the LED lighting supply chain, including the chip-to-luminaire transition, and how these alterations will enable more flexibility in how lighting designers employ LED chips.
How can connected lighting serve as an enabler and catalyst for transitioning to a new era of city technologies? That’s the question at the heart of this talk by Philips Lighting’s Susanne Seitinger and Nancy Clanton, President of Clanton & Associates Lighting Design and Engineering. Learn more about smart cities as they delve into the challenges our urban areas face today – from conserving energy to dealing with the many non-lighting issues that arise when cities switch to connected LEDs.
This is the first of nine video presentations featuring experts from all areas of the lighting world.
Last week, we took a look at the first 7 winners of the Philips/LUCI City.People.Light awards here. This week, we’ll look at the remaining 6 winners and the impact each project has had on its respective community. From Germany, to Spain, to France, City.People.Light unites countries across the globe over the utilization of light and how it can better our public spaces.
2010 – Lucerne, Switzerland
Known as the City of Lights, Lucerne needed proper public lighting to live up to its name. An authentic look was achieved with natural lighting that turns the city into a sophisticated experience for residents. Keeping in mind the need for nighttime darkness, this project also uses subtle lighting so that its residents can sleep peacefully.
2011 – Valladolid, Spain
The project, titled ‘Rivers of Light’ unites different parts of Valladolid, creating a new night vision of the city, which has had a big impact on citizens. Valladolid’s most important historic monuments and squares have been brought to life with light. The ‘Rivers of light’ concept was proposed by Rafael Gallego and Lara Elbaz, lighting designers at Aureolighting.
2012 – Lyon, France
“Le mur vegetalise de’ Annonciade,” the 2012 winning project, combined light, vegetation, and paintings to create a living-room like atmosphere outside on the city’s streets. The project’s goal was to bring out the intimate nature of the area, while letting residents and visitors view the paintings.
2013 – Rietberg, Germany
For the 10th anniversary of City.People.Light, Rietberg won 1st prize. Their winning was a testament to the masterplan light design that had specially selected lighting for children and disabled people, and made the town “a safer, comfortable, and inviting city center,” according to the City.People.Light jury president, Rafael Gallego.
2014 – Leipzig, Germany
The unique lighting atmosphere perfectly matches the city’s architecture with warm white light to illuminate buildings, sculptural fountains, and a skate park. The square is now a popular and inviting space where visitors and residents come to relax and play.
2015 – Avila, Spain
The lighting masterplan “New Nightscape” took home the first prize of last year’s City.People.Light award. Also known as the ‘Town of Stones and Saints’ due to its large number of Romanesque and Gothic churches, Avila received a complete upgrade to all existing street lighting. The new design takes into consideration four areas of lighting: functional, architectural, commercial, and festive.
Will your city be next on this list? Enter your urban lighting project now for the 2016 City.People.Light awards here.
The City.People.Light contest is back and looking for another city that has reinvigorated urban environments and united citizens with light. For more than 10 years, City.People.Light has encouraged lighting professionals around the globe to engage, innovate, and create a better life for citizens and visitors.
From major cities to small towns, a diverse number of countries has taken home the award over the past 13 years. Read below to learn about previous winners and the impact each project has had on its community.
2003 – Cergy, France
A new town in the north-western suburbs of Paris, Clergy’s need for a modern design presented a challenge. The lighting scheme not only beautifully accentuated the city’s architecture, but also created a safe and welcoming environment for citizens and tourists alike. The new lighting fit swimmingly with the town’s slogan: “Change the town and you change your life.”
2004 –Ghent, Belgium
After banning cars from the Saint Michael’s quarters to create a space solely for pedestrians, the city of Ghent strove to create an environment that was the ‘place to be’ for both young and old. The Ghent Lighting Strategy transformed the space into the showpiece of Ghent. The breathtaking site is not only enjoyed by citizens, tourists, and passersby, but has also increased a sense of security.
2005 – Cologne, Germany
Using low light intensity and various color temperatures, Cologne was able to accentuate its historic landmarks and highlight their importance to the city. This entry won over the jurors with a cohesive lighting plan that unites the city and its people. The east and west sides of the city are connected with stunning illumination of the bridges over the river.
2006 – Vienna, Austria
Vienna illuminated more than 200 of its public buildings – five of which were a recipe for a winner in the 2006 awards. The public structures of Karlsplatz Square, The Reichsbrücke Bridge, Weiner Ringstrasse, Schӧnbrunn Palace, and Schwarzenbergplatz were transformed with dynamic lighting that was both beautiful and functional.
2007 – Heinsberg, Germany
At the centre of Heinsberg lies an urban park and castle – two spaces that have been a part of this town since the 11th century. With a new lighting plan, the buildings were transformed with night-time appeal. Citizens are now encouraged to further explore and discover these unique buildings through the medium of light.
2008 – Seoul, South Korea
Darker parts of the city that had been forgotten and abandoned were given a lighting makeover, bringing life back to this urban environment. A combination of water, light, and shade create a magical atmosphere that improves the quality of life for residents.
2009 – Jyväskylä, Finland
This project utilized brilliant shades of white and blue light to highlight the city’s architectural gems as well as create optimal guidance for visitors and citizens. Subtle light and shade was used in more intimate parts of public spaces and parks where light is in direct contact with people.
Stay tuned for another article next week recapping the last 6 winners! Do you want to see your city on this list? Entries for the 2016 City.People.Light awards are now being accepted here.
Let’s Discuss the Future Role of the Lighting Designer...
Three advanced Lighting Designers, Paul Traynor, Neil Skinner and Tapio Rosenius, engage one another in a discussion about the future role of the Lighting Designer. Get a glimpse into their innovative projects and hear a snippet of what they have to say regarding the future of their profession in this teaser video. The full interview will be live at the beginning of May. Register now so you don’t miss out!
Good lighting is good for you. To those in the know – lighting designers, installers, architects, lighting researchers – this is a self-evident truth. But to the decision-makers and end users who commission lighting projects and experience them day-to-day, lighting may still seem to be a simple commodity feature. It’s time to re-evaluate our approach to the market.
In communicating the benefits of high-quality light, we always need to consider what every specific audience needs to hear. Lighting is such a broad field that a one-size-fits-all approach will never yield the best results. And the technical information “behind the scenes” is not enough to present a compelling case for a new lighting solution.
In the webinar Communicating the Value of Quality Light you will discover many new, surprising and inspiring ways to present and discuss your lighting plans. This will take into account the roles that visual and audial perception play in the process, and much more.
Join this webinar here hosted by Matthew Cobham, and see how you can maximize the impact of your lighting presentations in both conventional and some very unconventional ways.
Ask any environmentalist what keeps them up at night and more than likely you’ll hear the same answer from every one of them: overpopulation. There are now about 7.4 billion people on this green and blue ball and many of the dire issues already facing our species – problems such as dwindling natural resources, global warming, pollution and increased competition for food and water – derive from the simple fact that there are so many of us... and it’s only going to get worse. By 2050, the world’s population is estimated to expand another 2.5 billion.
Now consider these statistics: 80% of this population will live in cities and farmers will need to produce 70% more food to feed all of us. However, 80% of available arable land is already in use or has disappeared due to natural disasters, pollution, desertification and urbanization. Even if you set aside all other concerns connected to our snowballing global population, there’s one niggling question that must have already popped into your mind: who’s going to feed all of these people and how?
The answer might just be in a concept called city farming. Instead of raising foodstuffs on large, rural tracts of land, a city farm is a sustainable, reliable indoor vertical farming facility where crops are grown under LEDs tuned to special growing “recipes.” City farms offer many advantages over conventional growing methods. Indoor crops require far less water to grow, are pesticide-free, and don’t have to travel far from city farm to city dweller’s plate – which means transportation costs and fuel use are drastically reduced while vitamins are retained. In addition, these indoor city farms don’t have to worry about the weather. Take Green Sense farms for example. Just 40 miles outside of downtown Chicago, this vertical farming establishment grows greens 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for a yearly produce production of 1.5 million tons.
Logically, city farms are best suited to smaller plants such as leafy greens, herbs, strawberries and tomatoes. But raising fish such as trout can also be a part of the mix. Aquaponics is a method that combines fish and vegetable farming that requires no soil. A city farmer cultivates freshwater fish and plants in a recirculating water system that exchanges nutrients between the two. Wastewater from the fish is used as organic fertilizer for the plants, while the plants clean the water of fish feces and urine.
Want to know more about how Philips Lighting’s is helping grow nutritious, sustainable crops? Check out how we’re part of the city farming movement here.
