Last but not least, Speakers: Participation and Interaction in Urban Lighting

Last but not least, the final part of the symposium is devoted to citizen’s involvement and interaction with urban lighting.

Moderator: Vasileios Ntovros, Architect, Member of BEFORELIGHT group

Ntovros Vasileios is architect, graduated from Aristotle University, with a master degree from IAAC-Barcelona, founding member of the lighting group beforelight and coordination member of the ImagineTheCity. His studies have participated, awarded and published in national and international competitions, exhibitions, conferences and journals while during the period 2007-2009 he is working with F451arquitectura-Barcelona. In 2009 he is founding its own architecture firm in Chalkis, while he cooperates for particular project with other creative studios in Athens, spending his time between Chalkis and Athens. His interest focuses on the theory and practice of sustainable design using digital tools and the construction of energy-autonomous buildings.

Speakers:

Elettra Bordonaro, Architect, Urban Lighting Designer and Consultant, Representative of “Social Light Movement” Collective

Elettra is independent consultant on exterior and public realm lighting.  Formally trained as architect, in 2006 Elettra was awarded a PhD at the University of Architecture in Turin, her thesis: Technology and Innovation for Architecture and Industrial Design concentrated on urban lighting. Elettra has worked as lighting designer for major lighting design studios such as Light Cibles, Paris, Speirs and Major, Edinburgh and London, Metis Lighting, Milan and Light Bureau, London. Elettra has taught at the University of Rome, Milan and Turin and was in charge of the cultural and educational programs of Lighting Academy, Fondazione Targetti until 2010. In 2010 she co-founded the Social Light Movement (SLM) with Olsson, Linder, Stammers, Lupton and Corten, the SLM aim to bring lighting to less affluent communities, starting with many Swedish suburbs. She is collaborating with Ebano Collective, non-profit art organisation based in Lisbon, for community projects and art installations in public space. She is a professional member of the Professional Lighting Designers Association (PLDA), the Italian Architectural Association and the Concepteurs Lumière sans Frontières.

In the framework of the Urban Lightscapes Symposium, she will talk about the social approach to light and cities. In 2010, six lighting designers from Italy, Belgium, Sweden and the UK (Elettra Bordonaro, Isabelle Corten, Joran Linder, Martin Lupton, Erik Olsson and Sharon Stammers) decided to co-found the Social Light Movement with the common idea that “light is a right, not a privilege”. The Social Light Movement is a philanthropic movement and has been founded in order to create a network for lighting designers and other interested parties to collaborate on the issue of improving lighting for people: particularly those who are unlikely to have access to good quality illumination within their environment. The SLM has used a workshop format to communicate these ideas to students, professionals designers and city administrations. The first workshop was held in Belgium in 2011 and the second one in Stockholm in 2012 and both were organised in collaboration with the local community and the city. The involvement of the city in the process is crucial, because administrations need to realize how light can influence the neglected urban environment and need to start focusing their attention on non-central areas. The SLM exists to force administration to think in a different way. The ideas and proposals from the workshop group demonstrate the creative possibilities on inhabitants own urban doorsteps. The SLM aim to start a new era dedicated to socially responsible lighting design for a city.

Cristina Ampatzidou – BEFORELIGHT, Light Art Group, Urban Lightscapes’ Leading Partner

Cristina Ampatzidou is an independent researcher based in Rotterdam, currently affiliated with the University of Amsterdam. She has worked for several architecture offices in the Netherlands, including MAKS, OMA and the Powerhouse Company and has been a collaborator of Play the City! Foundation and the Architecture Film Festival of Rotterdam. Her personal research evolves around the changing authorities in city planning, the emergence of collectivities on a local level, the influence of new media and how architects, designers and urban planners have to redefine their role to recreate a socially responsible architecture. Cristina has been a guest teacher at TU Delft and is a regular contributor to various architecture related magazines. She is also a founding member of Beforelight, an artists’ collective working exclusively on lighting design and installations.

Areti Markopoulou – IAAC, Institute of Advance Architecture of Catalonia, Urban Lightscapes’ Partner

Areti Markopoulou is an Architect and Educator graduated from the Department of Architectural Engineering of Xanthi, DUTH (2005) in Greece. She holds a Masters in Advanced Architecture from IAAC (2006) with a related thesis in the field of ¨Prototypes of Urbanity: from Bits to Geography¨. She has also studied at the AA,Architectural Association in London (Dlab 2009) and holds a Fab Academy diploma on Digital Fabrication (2011) offered by the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. Co-founder of the myCity.me non profit organization, her research explores how Energy, Information and Fabrication could lead to [technology + user]-based optimum future city models, which could adapt to behavioral changes over time. She has participated in research and development projects such as ¨Hyperhabitat¨ at the XI Venice Biennale (2008),¨Fab Lab House¨ at the Solar Decathlon Europe (2010), ¨Fabrication Laboratory¨ at the Design Museum of Barcelona, DHUB (2010), “My Very Own City” with The World Bank (2012) and “City Protocol” with the CP Society (2012). She is permanent faculty at IAAC and has published articles internationally. Her practice includes collaborations with offices such as R+B architects, BOPBAA, MMA Architects, Azymuth, Barcelona Regional Agency and more. She is currently the Director of the Masters in Advanced Architecture at IAAC in Barcelona and initiator of Fab Lab Athens.

Benoit Vanraes – SoAP, Social Art Production Company, Urban Lightscapes’ Partner

His creative genes and deep rooted social skills didn’t stop Benoît from studying Business and Marketing at Ghent University College (BE). This commercial base found it’s cultural counterpart in a Master in Arts and Heritage at Maastricht University (NL), where Benoît specialised in policy, management and education. The fundamental idea’s on cultural entrepreneurship he developed at theatre production company Huis van Bourgondië in Maastricht, where he was surrounded with young, energetic theatre makers and performers. Benoît learned to put the artist on a central spot, surrounded by a creative and practical framework and a profound business way of thinking. In 2012 Benoît founded SoAP, a Social and Artisitic Platform for young theatre makers. An innovative crossover approach, a strong social engagement and a commercial decisiveness are SoAP’s key elements. The project Rooftoptigerrr works in different areas of the city combining social benefits with high performative quality.