Lighting Designer and Lecturer

How did you hear about the LIT Lifetime Achievement Award, the greatest honour for a lighting designer?

In fact, I did not know about this Award. I knew about the LIT lighting design and lighting products Awards only. But I understood after receiving it that you don’t apply for it. A jury of lighting designers and manufacturers, from all over the world, selects and then nominates a winner each year. It is why I was so proud to receive it.

What have been your most spectacular commissions in the 35 years with your Paris office CONCEPTO? 

It is hard to select some. I would say that inventing light urbanism in 1987 and then studying so many Lighting Master Plans worldwide and more recently imagining dark infrastructures studies were very rewarding. Creating also very large nightscapes in France and in China was also quite an achievement for my former studio. But realizing so many public spaces’ lightings for everyday night uses for citizens was also of great pride.

What work would you still like to do?

In fact, I am now more interested by imagining innovative lighting strategies for cities in the world instead of realizing lighting projects. And I am very fond of science fiction, so I am also very interested to think about the future of our city’s nights. Teaching, and transmitting my knowledge is also something that I really like to do.

You have been part of the team of lecturers on the WINGS Lighting Design distance learning program for several years. What is special about this course?

The diversity of the students that are coming from almost all parts of the world with different cultures, different knowledges and diverse dreams about lighting and lighting design. The collaboration with all other teachers and lecturers is also very important for me.

How does the course work, how are the necessary skills for a lighting designer taught?

The course works with the necessity for the students to learn about how to analyze a site at daytime and nighttime, and then how to imagine a lighting master plan for an urban site, taking in account the night uses, the environment, the biodiversity and the needs to master the light pollution. And, how to design in detail a lighting project, as well as how to understand the stakeholders needs and wills.

What would you like to pass on to the students on the program? What are the most important competences for prospective lighting designers?

I hope that the students will be always passionate about light and lighting. They will need to take in account the new challenges for our profession in term of climate change, society’s mutations, urban’s developments and environmental goals. 

In the future, the lighting designers will need to understand better the biodiversity and the impact of artificial lightings on all living creatures to be able to design dark infrastructures in balance with Lighting Master Plans. They will gradually become biolighting designers, I think. They will need also to learn more about sociology, how to encourage the participation of the citizens and how to promote the co-creation of the lighting projects with the night users.