The 1st Professional Lighting Design Convention will take place in London from 24 to 28 October 2007. The convention aims to be a decisive step towards the official recognition of the lighting designer’s profession, while also strengthening ties between specialist design practices and the wider technical and architectural community.
In Europe today there is a strong trend towards accepting the lighting designer as a recognised professional, while lighting design itself is increasingly regarded as an integral part of the architectural design process. The Professional Lighting Designers’ Association (PLDA) has taken on the organisation of a convention with global reach and visibility, which will feature talks by distinguished architects and lighting designers across four themes. One of these will address “lighting and health”, which, together with energy saving, will be a central focus of architectural lighting design in the near future. The convention will bring together 15 professional lighting designers’ associations, 12 universities, 20 of the leading lighting manufacturers and 1,000 lighting designers from around the world.
The Athens-based practice Th. Kontorigas and Associates, specialist consultants and architectural accent lighting designers, has been invited to take part in the convention with a presentation of its lighting design for the Les Lazaristes hotel in Thessaloniki. In this project, the lighting was designed to work in harmony with the architecture and interior décor of the luxury hotel as they change over the course of 24 hours. The main aim was to create a warm, welcoming space that gives guests a sense of comfort, relaxation, calm, pleasure and well-being, qualities regarded as vital to the character and identity of the hotel.
More information about the convention programme, the talks, the exhibitions and the other accompanying events is available at: www.pld-a.org
