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.

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The exciting time has come for the tenth annual Haute Lumière Light Competition – entries are now open and your design could take you all the way to Sweden.

THE BRIEF: Light in the Landscape

Design a luminaire that provides light in a landscape of your choice – be it a forest, rocky outcrop, desert, meadow, water landscape, garden or park. Think of the kind of light it emits and its relationship to the form of the object. Consider the purpose of light in the landscape and how the two meet. How does the light touch and interact with stone, leaves, grass, water and sand? The luminaire can be freestanding, mounted into the ground or suspended from trees.

Aspects to consider:

• Light pollution/dark sky
• Glare
• Light intensity and colour temperature
• Type of light source
• Waterproofing (IP rating)
• Power supply

SUBMISSION

Submit a set of drawings (plans, elevations, sections and perspective) with a scaled maquette and material samples that indicate scale with a written description, on the intent and philosophy. The presentation should not be larger than A3 format and on no more than three single sheets.

The entrant’s contact details must be enclosed in a sealed envelope, which bears a self-compiled seven digit code. The maquette, design drawings and description must be marked with the same code. To ensure anonymity the jury will only open the envelopes after selecting the five designs that will go forward into Stage Two. The authors of the five designs selected will be invited to a day workshop on light at Pamboukian Lightdesign in Johannesburg, before embarking on a larger investigation. They will be given the opportunity to re-look at and refine their concepts.

REGISTRATION AND EVALUATION

Registration is open from now until 6 July 2017 and the submission deadline is noon on 7 July 2017. Submissions are to be sent to: SA Fashion Week, Design District, Second Floor, Cnr. 7^th & Keyes Avenue, Rosebank, 2196, Johannesburg.

Entries will be evaluated on the basis of the exploration of light as a medium, not the refinement of a complete design. A panel of expert judges, including VISI’s own Assistant Editor Annemarie Meintjes, will evaluate both Stage One: the selection of five designs to be taken forward and constructed as prototypes and Stage 2: the selection of a winner.

Email bongisa@ppald.com for further information.

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