WORDS Annemarie Meintjes
As the annual Haute Lumière Light Competition approaches its tenth year, we take a look at some of the previous winners and their designs.
Haute Lumière, of which VISI is a proud media partner, is an initiative of Paul Pamboukian of Pamboukian Lightdesign. The aim is to grow awareness of the importance of lighting as a design tool and to rethink artificial light as a primary aspect of design. The competition is open to anyone living, studying or working in South Africa. Each year, the winner gets to attend the lighting workshop Lights in Alingsås, which is hosted by leading European lighting designers in the town of Alingsås in Sweden.
Previous winners and their designs:
2008: The inaugural competition took place.
WINNERS: Anja Zajaczkowska and Carson Smuts won with a standing wall lamp called The Peacock. “The experience gave us some insight into how people operate in a ‘design build’ environment. One gains a deeper understanding of both the realities of design and the thought process required. It is about learning how to explore the space of a problem as opposed to trying to solve it. “The experience encouraged us to explore other aspects of design and led to lecturing digital design at Columbia University, lighting installations for the American Institute of Architects and, most recently, augmented projection systems and hardware design at MIT’s Media Lab.”
2009: Four hybrid designs took the honours this year.
WINNERS: From first to last are Sulet Jansen’s Oli Light, which won her a visit to the Philips factory in Eindhoven; the Comp Light by Dokter and Misses, the judges’ ultimate must-own item; Hester Klaassen’s Shadow Light, which earned her a Professional Lighting Designers’ Association workshop session; and August de Wet’s Control One design, which took him to the Lights in Alingsås workshop.
2010: The competition was all about recycling.
WINNERS: Michael Frost’s Replay (pictured first) won, followed by Stiaan Bester’s gutter-downpipe-inspired wall-mounted light.
2011: The design concept was Let’s Play.
WINNERS: Eduard Claassens’ Photon Snake (pictured first) won, followed by August de Wet’s science-project-inspired light with three light sources and a switch, that, when pressed, selected one of the light sources at random, mimicking the game rock-paper-scissors.
2012: The brief was to use timber to create a self-supporting light fitting of any description.
WINNERS: Mandi Botha’s Joint Exposure (pictured first) won her the first prize and attendance at the workshop in Alingsås. Peter Crotty’s Buddha Lamp deserves a mention.
2013: This year the designers set about defining space with light.
WINNERS: Amy Phillips won with her Invigorate installation (pictured first) and Chaya Michels’ magical Night Space is worthy of a mention.
2014: Contestants were challenged to transform a shipping container into a space of wonder by way of imaginative use of light.
WINNER: Claudine Park took top honours with her design The Vortex.
2015: The brief was to create any original light object that has an impact on a self-defined interior space.
WINNER: Braam de Villiers of Earthworld Architects won with his Moonlight luminaire, inspired by the night sky.
2016: Participants were tasked with designing a work lamp for themselves.
WINNER: Biance Barnard’s Articulate light will take her to Alingsås in 2017.
Fancy yourself a lighting designer? The call for entries for the Haute Lumière Light Competition 2017 are now open. Details here.
