Birmingham is to host the UK’s first European Lighting Designers’ Association workshop. Running for a week from 6 February, the event is intended to showcase the power of light and educate students in lighting design.

According to ELDA, Birmingham was chosen because of its openness to developing a modern lighting attitude in public spaces. The workshop will be staged in the Eastside area of the city, formerly a part of Birmingham where light industry was based and which ties in with the workshop theme of urban heritage lighting and design sustainability.

“We should not forget that we can be proud of our town’s history and our industrial or cultural heritage,” says Martin Lupton, head of lighting at BDP and technical co-ordinator for the event. “lluminating key buildings and structures and encouraging citizens and visitors to enjoy urban views and spaces is a huge step towards enhancing urban life in general.”

Six sites have been pre-selected for the event and over the course of the week, the workshop heads will lead the students through the process of lighting design, from developing concepts to testing ideas and final installation. These will remain in place for up three weeks, with all the design and installation work carried out by the students.

A conference on urban lighting, which will involve collaboration with the Society of Light and Lighting and the Institute of Lighting Engineers, will accompany the workshop.

For more information on the event, which is called Eastside Story: Celebrating the Past and Sustaining the Future, visit: www.via-verlag.com/711.0.html?&L=1

Eastside sites

The six project sites are typical of Birmingham’s Eastside and incorporate early and mid-20th century architecture, historical structures, a canal area and a typical industrial street. The sites and designers are

1 The railway junction: Silvo Kaczar, Arcadia Lightwear (Croatia)

2 The Typhoo basin: Annukka Larsen (Finland)

3 River Street: Ralph Kensmann, ELDA, Start Media Projekte (Germany)

4 The viaduct: Koert Vermeulen, ACT Architecture (Belgium)

5 The Custard Factory: Enrique Peiniger, ELDA, Office for Visual Interaction (USA)

6 The Bullring Underpass: Tim Downey, Pinniger & Partners (UK).

Source

Building Sustainable Design