Interviewer:  Yonglin Ke Mende：Are we talking about childhood play today? Ke：Yes.  I have a sister, two years younger than me, and we used to play together all the time when we were younger. Mende：Did you play house? Ke：Yes.  We also played…

Miyamae：In the past year telework has really taken off, which has really changed how we live and work.  Today I`d like to talk about living and working in this new era with Covid 19. Mende：Yes, I`d like to hear your thoughts, also. Miyamae：…

Interviewer: Reiko Kasai       (Mr. Mende’s Toilet Paper Theory at the beginning.) Mr, Mende has experienced an empty toilet paper holder twice since he established the LPA office and was extremely annoyed. ‘Who didn’t rep…

Interviewer: Junko Nagatomo Nagatomo：Today’s topic is the art of decluttering or living a minimalist lifestyle.  Decluttering is a thought process of yoga.  I didn’t know this, but in Japanese the three characters that make up t…

Interviewer: Xueying Piao Piao：Today I`d like to talk about patterns of a healthy lifestyle. Mende：Healthy life.  That is a heavy topic.  Why did you choose this topic? Piao：Health can be divided into two parts: mental and physica…

In the warm family picture painted by Yasujiro Ozu there are two types of natural light;  glaring, bright sunlight and the incandescent lamp, symbolic of a cozy family.  In the film, daytime scenes always seem very carefully calcu…

Interviewer: Satomi Yamaguchi Mende：So, today’s topic of conversation is “What is your favorite season of the year?” So… What is your favorite season of the year? Yamaguchi：Spring.  Especially early spring.  Plants a…

I ran across a manuscript from a series published in Housing Magazine 25 years ago.  There was no magazine title or published date, but for the series titled “From Screen/ I want to copy this interior design!”  I used to analyze…

Mende: Niken, do you like traveling? Niken: Yes, I do. I brought photos that I took from my trips, and we will talk about street lighting. I started to pay more attention to this since I did my thesis. During the time, I surveyed and compar…

I started writing this column about 22 years ago.  Detective Note number 000 was released on August 9th, 1998.   Since then there have been blank periods with no posts, but today I am writing number 80.   I have reread bits and pieces of th…

Interviewer: Jio Yeung Jio： I always wanted to become a video game designer, unfortunately I had to give up my dream.  I am just a beginner when it comes to design so I am looking forward to learning a lot from our talk today.&nbs…

Interviewer: Erina Hosono Hosono： This might be out of the blue, but the reason I wanted to become a lighting designer is because lighting helped get my chronic problems with sleeping under control. Whether it is narcolepsy or insomnia, I w…

Interviewer: Namiko Watanabe Watanabe：In terms of human interaction, I would like to talk about the generation gap between you and me, today. You and I have a lot in common and sometimes I even feel that our sense of value is similar. Mende…

Theme: Understanding Millennials Interviewer: Clement Lee Mende： This is a very interesting topic for me, because communicating with younger generations is a little headache to me. I have been teaching Lighting Design for 10 years in univer…

Theme:Self-Promotion as a Designer Interviewer: Yuichi Anzai Anzai：Today I`d like to talk about something that is troubling me as a designer with not a lot of experience. I`d like to talk about self-promotion, something that I am lacking in…

From Your Bed to Your Desk Brien Ng Mende: Today we’re sharing our daily routine. Brien, how long does it take from your bed to your desk? Brien: It takes almost 90 minutes. Mende: That’s quite long. What is the first thing you see in…

This column was written on June 3, 2017 and recently found while I cleaned my PC. Barcelona`s La Rambla basks in the spring sunshine. It has been awhile, but I am just wondering today with limited cash, a credit card, and iPhone in my pocke…

Theme: Into the Water Interviewer:Yusuke Hattori Hattori：Your first diving experience was five years ago near Malaysia`s Tioman Island, is that right. Was it really your first time? Mende：Yes really. I wanted to go diving and so I went. I g…

Environmentally Friendliness Interviewer: Sherri Goh Mende: So are we talking about environmentally friendly lighting design or environmental friendliness in lighting design…? Sherri: I’m not sure if I explained the topic clearly to you as …

Education between student and staff Interviewer:Zooey Li Mende：Hello Zooey, Education between student and staff is today’s topic, It’s quite interesting. Zooey：Yes, Mr. Mende, I thought you were a very good lighting design professor in a fa…