Philips
The company offers sleek new luminaire designs with color-changi…
Birgit Walter, lighting designer, BM Lighting Design, Barcelona Bio: Walter studied in Barcelona, Frankfurt, and New York and worked in several lighting design offices in the United States, including the Brandston Partnership prior to founding BM Lighting Design (BMLD) in Barcelona in 2001. BMLD is a multidisciplinary team involving architects, lighting designers, and industrial and graphic designers. The office’s current projects include the new W Hotel in Barcelona, the Harbour Bar and Wasabi Restaurant in Mumbai, and the new Le Méridien hotel in Oran. Walter is co-director of the newly created graduate lighting design program at the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya in Barcelona. She is a professional member of the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association (PLDA) as well as the Comité Español de Iluminación (CEI).
Impressions of Light+Building: As expected, LEDs have been the “winner” of this event. LED technology has moved beyond the color and lighting effects stage. Now it is entering into higher wattages and the modulation of interchangeable LEDs, such as the Fortimo LED module by Philips, for a wide variety of fixtures and applications. There is also the introduction of the RGB, dimmable LED downlight to give designers the desired color temperature through a pulsing switch, as seen in Regent Lighting’s prototype called Poco Pac.
As to the development of the energy efficient market, the introduction of Luxim’s Light Emitting Plasma and the incorporation of OLED technology into prefabricated modules by Panasonic give designers something to think about in terms of possible developments and directions for the lighting market. It’s all about less and less energy … though who is thinking about the quality of the light?
