After spending 40 years (yikes!) in the lighting industry I’ve come to realise that there’s only one thing that I’m really interested in, and that is Good Lighting; what it is and where it comes from. The UK can boast some of the most creative lighting design in the world, both in product and architectural design – and you don’t need to be a Brexit fanatic to make that claim. The truth is obvious and it’s out there.
But not all is healthy in the UK lighting garden. I’ve been lucky to spend the past three years talking to the cream of the UK lighting industry and there’s been a definite backbeat to those conversations – and that beat is Compliance and what happens when it’s ignored. We all know that the advent of the LED has brought with it a scavenger mentality that has driven down prices and taken product quality with it. Those who are trying to hold the line and produce fixtures that won’t fall apart after a few months are under extreme pressure to stay in business.
So what’s to be done?
The Light Review (TLR) will be all about Good Lighting – that’s the simple part. Its what we do next that makes it more exciting. I don’t believe that any client wants poor lighting; that doesn’t make any sense. So how do so many projects end up being butchered by Value Engineering? Who are these people who think its acceptable to take a decent lighting scheme and replace equipment with clones and inferior lookalikes? And who is taking responsibility when it all goes wrong?
And so – here’s the TLR manifesto. The website will talk lighting to lighting people; to the designer, to the engineering specifier and to the manufacturer. That’s the easy bit. But then we’ll get out and about and start the conversations in the broader construction industry; because those conversations need to happen before mind-sets frozen into a perverted ‘equal and approved’ knee-jerk response can be changed.
The Light Review will run on supporting subscriptions from manufacturers, not on advertising. Every subscribing manufacturer will be required to provide a downloadable Statement of Compliance, confirming that their products are produced according to established manufacturing standards and that their testing procedure involves oversight from independent test houses. The intention is to put clear space between those who do the job properly and those who are happy to trouser the cash and make a run for it. It’s not something that can happen overnight (unless it does!) but I believe that we can build a force for Good Lighting – and if a company ain’t featured on The Light Review maybe a few more questions will need to be asked before they’re trusted with a specification.