OPENLIGHT

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Interactive Lighting Opens Cultural Dialogue in Beijing

Intelligent Lighting Institute (Eindhoven) presents light propositions with and for Beijing

China is urbanizing rapidly. It is no longer only the country in which innovative solutions are produced, but also the premier market for their implementation. China is in need of solutions that will enable it to sustain its insatiable desire for growth, while at the same time addressing the challenges of energy, sustainability and health. China is experiencing a revolution in lighting. “This very day, thousands of people are being liberated from darkness as urbanization connects them to the grid and provides them with light to see”, says Rombout Frieling, creative director and program head of ILI OPENLIGHT. “In Beijing, the Intelligent Lighting Institute (ILI) in Eindhoven is showing that new lighting technologies mean much more than just being able to see. We know how light can help us focus, reflect, regulate our biorhythms, improve safety or escape from hectic everyday life.”

The Intelligent Lighting Institute (ILI) in Eindhoven explores insights into the interaction between man and light in many application areas, buildings, the built environment, arts and health. This research institute, led by scientific director Professor Emile Aarts – also Vice President of Philips – is taking responsibility together with industry, government and end-users for innovation in lighting. Within the ILI, in which six departments of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) are collaborating, OPENLIGHT is the lab in which creative young designers and researchers from different disciplines are working together to explore and experience propositions to realize and open the scope of light.

OPENLIGHT, the creative lab of the Intelligent Lighting Institute, took up the challenge of exploring and demonstrating how lighting solutions can contribute to tackling some of Beijing’s urgent societal issues. OPENLIGHT initiated a three-week project to team up four of its staff and six postgraduate designers with six design students and three staff members of the renowned Tsinghua University in Beijing. Starting on 12 September, the team spent two days and nights with Beijing’s cleaners, bus drivers and the elderly, revealing some moving insights and social phenomena ranging from ‘裸婚 (‘naked marriage’) to偷得浮生半日闲 (to relax in a crowd). The team will address these issues in sustainable ways by proposing a series of lighting interventions which will be presented as three lighting installations inside the 751 Netherlands Design Pavilion at the Beijing Design Week (28 September – 2 October).

The three interactive lighting experiences developed by OPENLIGHT in Beijing will be presented from 28 September in the Dutch Pavilion at the Beijing Design Week in the city’s 751 district. These experiences will reveal some of the hidden dreams, desires and struggles of Beijing’s citizens, and show how lighting solutions could respond to their needs. Lighting manufacturers and technology partners, application partners from the hospitality, real estate, transportation and leisure industries, as well as architects and urban planners are warmly invited to enter into a discussion about possible further development of the concepts. Rombout Frieling, creative director and program head of OPENLIGHT, will give a presentation on 28 September at 13:30 hours (UTC+8, Beijing time).

The results will also be shown to members of the trade mission of the Dutch DFA (Dutch Design, Fashion and Architecture programme) in cooperation with BNO, CNA, BNI, Premsela, NAI, Design Cooperation Brainport and the city of Eindhoven. The aim of this mission is knowledge exchange, building partnerships and boosting business between the Netherlands (Eindhoven Brainport region) and China, in particular Chinese industry and application partners. The OPENLIGHT program takes these goals a step further by working for better understanding of the situation in China, and by giving young designers and students from both countries a great opportunity for a valuable learning experience and sustainable cooperation.

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For more information:

Mrs. Carina Weijma

Press Liaison for OPENLIGHT

carina.weijma@carwei.com

0086 159 10816043 (from 24 September onwards)

+31 6 44336799 (until 23 September)

The presentation of ILI OPENLIGHT in Beijing is a co-production of ILI and Design Cooperation Brainport. Design Cooperation Brainport is a broad collaboration between various design organizations in Brainport which aims to stimulate and connect creative initiatives that strengthen the region’s (inter)national reputation in the field of top technology and design.