Lighting Hero & Villain of the month is now up!

14th Transnational Lighting Detectives Forum in Santiago, Chile 2018/10/17 Noriko Higashi Taken at the venue for talk event, National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago The 14th Annual Transnational Lighting Detective Forum was a 2-day event held on October 18th and 19th in Santiago, Chile. As the first forum to be held in South America, the event was well attended by the general public, with professional lighting designers and architects, instead of the usual student population, making up the central body. The forum kicked off with a relay-style talk session by the core members, focusing on the forum theme, “Hero and Villains of Light in your City,” at the Chile National Museum of Fine Arts. The forum wrapped up with proposals to improve the lighting environment of Santiago at the University of Chile. Day 1：Oct. 18th（THU） ■Relay Talk “Hero and Villain of My City”@ Museum of Contemporary Art Core members kicked off with a talk session focused on the forum theme, “Hero and Villains of Light in your City,” reporting on the state of New York City, Beijing, Hamburg, Stockholm, Belgrade, Singapore, and Bangkok. Each presenter had only seven minutes to describe the challenges and successes facing each city. ■Night Walk Participants were divided into groups and walked around the five distinctive areas in Santiago to look for heroes and villains of light. Each group experienced difficulty finding heroes of light. ◇Team A：SANTA LUCIA Our group’s staring point for the survey…

Small-group Night Walk Live Review2021.Nov.　　Naoko Oguchi + Narumi Mizuno + Shiho Ishizaki + Shinichi Sakaguchi + Sachiko Tsuji + Yuka Suzuki + Mutsuro Honma + Qin Tianyi Waiting for the state of emergency to lift, we carried out the night walk surveys. Although in small groups, we were able to conduct them across many areas. We paid careful attention to COVID-19 infection control measures and held review sessions. Each team’s review was deep and thorough, reflecting the advantages of having a small number of participants. ■ShibuyaThe Shibuya team investigated the third phase of the Shibuya Ward’s “THE TOKYO TOILET” project and Shibuya SKY. The public restroom at Yoyogi Hachiman, designed by Toyo Ito, uses indirect lighting that bounces softly off the ceiling, creating a gentle, warm light environment both inside and outside. Combined with its form, it created a cozy atmosphere and was thus considered a hero. Each restroom in the project has its own unique character, but considering ease of use for people, soft lighting seemed important.Shibuya SKY is a facility 229 meters above Shibuya, offering a 360-degree panoramic view of Tokyo’s nightscape. It eliminates glass barriers and minimizes unnecessary light from the facility itself, allowing visitors to enjoy the view without stress. The hammock area, where lighting is minimized to fully reveal the sky, was also praised as a hero. While carefully placed accent lights maintain brightness and create cool gradations of illumination, some areas like staircases felt…

Written by Kaoru Mende It has been 31 years since the start of the Lighting Detectives in August 1990.   We have also been connected to members around the world since the announcement of the Transnational Lighting Detectives 21 years ago.  It seems like just yesterday, but also such a long time ago.  It wasn’t our initial intention to grow membership, but the number of membership cards issued has reached 1400 with 250 members from overseas.  With this many members it is hard to remember everyone’s face, so I thought we needed something to create a sense of togetherness. On the Lighting Detectives website, there are two columns I contribute to regularly, “Mende`s Lighting Detective Note” and “Coffee Break.”   The Mende’s Detective Note is a collection of short essays about experiences with light and shadow from my point of view.   As I reread some of these essays, good and bad writing is very obvious and I find it very interesting.  Every so often, the point blank feelings and remarks in these essays are so very me.  On the other hand, “Coffee Break” is written as a casual interaction over lunch between a staff member and I, the principal of the lighting design office, LPA.   With a total of three offices in Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong, staff has grown to about 60 members.  Each individual is, of course, unique and many LPA staff members are very assertive and passionate.  I really…

Reiko KasaiLighting Design ProducerSingapore I am now cramped in a packed economy class flight from Bangkok back to Singapore with my laptop open. I am amazed at the number of people passing through the airport. The reason this scene feels like a dream is that I am still vividly remembering my flight from Japan only a year ago, when the airport was deserted, and I was the only passenger. On the return “private” flight from Haneda to Singapore, I enjoyed strolling around the cabin, chatting and playing cards with the five amiable cabin crew members who were working for just one passenger. The anxiety of the mandatory 21-day hotel stay that awaited me after landing had disappeared. Once again, I was the sole passenger on the bus that ferried me from the empty and lonely Changi Airport, where there were more staff in protective suits than passengers. I was nervous because I was not told where we were going, but we arrived at a high-rise 5-star hotel with a balcony in the center of the city. My prior fearful and pessimistic imaginings – 21 days isolation in the locked hotel room, boredom, stagnation, ill-health, and madness – were completely misled as I spent the next 21 days in peace, comfort, leading healthy regulated time schedule, and happiness. I can say with absolute certainty that what brought me happiness was the view from the room; windows that fully opened to the…

@Lighting Detectives Office2017.03.16　Yuka Tamano A salon was held to review the night walk survey conducted at Sumida Aquarium in February. The discussion focused on whether the aquarium successfully embodied its dual themes of “Enchanting Light” and “Functional Light”. Discussion while reviewing the presentation slides. The presentations were led by each team leader A few new faces joining the night walk survey and salon for the first time On March 16th, a review of the Sumida Aquarium night walk was held in a friendly atmosphere accompanied by a seasonal spring meal. For the Sumida Aquarium walk, we divided into four groups and conducted our survey with an emphasis on “Functional Light” (lighting to see) and “Enchanting Light” (lighting to charm). While the findings had been briefly presented at the postsurvey gathering, the salon allowed for a deeper analysis with each group’s opinions compiled into slides. During this salon, many heroes unique to entertainment facilities were identified, but there were also villain”—cases where participants felt, “It’s a shame this exists despite the other good lighting.”First, many felt the staircase from the entrance to the initial tank was a hero, as it creates a crucial first impression that draws visitors into the facility’s world. Shimmering lights reminiscent of being underwater were projected across the walls, leaving a positive impression. However, turning around on the stairs resulted in a direct hit from the projector’s glare. While concealing the equipment in that environment seemed difficult,…