Interview Jonathan Speirs
L
ighting is embarking upon untested territory You have to go and buy a new upgraded type. Of course,
Jonathan Speirs, facing page,
with the advent of LEDs (light-emitting diodes), you can take out the old PCB board, you don’t have to
says lighters will face a host
of unknown scenarios.
says Jonathan Speirs. A director at architectural buy the casing or the disk drive. But if that happens
firm Speirs and Major Associates, he believes with a light fixture, you’ve got to buy the whole thing.
the arrival of LEDs as a light source has completely ‘With the best will in the world, there are going to
changed the business model of specification and be some very strange situations happening and a lot of
procurement, with question marks hanging over their dissatisfaction by clients who’ve invested hundreds and
true durability and reliability. hundreds of thousands of pounds in projects where,
‘In the good old days you’d buy a light fixture and go potentially, they could end up with a bit of a problem.’
across to the other shop and you’d buy a lamp. Now you Not only are lighters going to be faced with these
buy the fixture with the LED in it. With the exception unknown scenarios, they have to contend with the
of probably Philips, there’s no one around who’s ever recession, which Speirs believes will have implications
had experience of both lamp and luminaire at the same for designers: ‘The sad aspect of it is that, with business
time. not going so well, lamp manufacturers will not be
‘All manufacturers are now selling lamps as part of investing so much in research and development to
an LED system. The implication of that in terms of develop new products, and that will be a shame.’
The profession
warranty and reliability and durability, I think, is an Speirs, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,
isn’t ready in
untested situation, and it’s going to get tested in the Honorary Fellow of the Society of Light and Lighting
next few years for sure.’ and winner of international lighting awards, fears
terms of the
But that’s not where the uncertainty ends. According that the lighting industry may actually take an
amount of
to Speirs, the speed of technological change also unintentional step backwards in the development of
work clients
presents potentially dire implications for businesses lamps that produce better colour rendering sources
with large-scale projects. For example, it could cost a or more guaranteed longevity, for example, because of
are expecting
business with a large facade up to £400,000 to create this lack of investment. ‘We’re totally beholden to lamp
creatively and
an energy efficient LED-lit exterior that’s designed to manufacturers to get their act together,’ he adds.
in terms of
last for years. However, should any damage occur, even The 51-year-old father of two originally trained as an
to just one fifth of the facade’s light fixtures before the architect in Scotland, but blames his love of theatre
experience
end of their natural life, it would give the building a for his step into the lighting spotlight. He was only
‘massive missing tooth’, says Speirs, who has been 12 when he discovered how lighting can transform
involved in a number of iconic projects around the the character of a space – a passion which stuck, even
world, including the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, during his architecture training when light was boiled
UAE. To make the facade whole again, the entire LED down to mathematical gymnastics.
system could have to be replaced because the original He says he is so passionate about light that he sets
fixtures may no longer be manufactured. his two daughters projects while on holiday, one of
‘It’s a bit like, if you bought a computer, and after a which saw them fill balloons with helium to float
year something happened catastrophically with it, you candles above a lake.
wouldn’t be able to go and buy an exact replacement For Speirs, the key to lighting design is avoiding
microprocessor because they don’t make it anymore. the engineering approach wherever possible: ‘It is an >
January 2010 CIBSE Journal 39
Cibsejan10 pp38-40-interview-speirs.indd 39 17/12/09 16:06:08
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