027
interview
EMOTION IN LIGHTS
A childhood spent in Africa left a lasting impression on Belgium lighting designer Barbara Hediger that influences her philosophy today. Robert Such investigates.
“I’m an objective artist, always trying to make light work for the place it’s installed in and for the many different objectives - marketing, well-being, architectural, temporary or permanent displays...”
Growing up in Africa, the emotional effect of light left a strong impression on Barbara Hediger. “My brother and I grew up in Afri- ca, and as you well know, the light in Africa is very special, at all times of the day,” says the Belgian lighting designer.
Also helping to nurture the young Hediger’s interest in light were her parents, both teachers, and keen photographers. The He- diger family travelled widely, and through photography her mother and father gave her, she recounts, a “very good schooling” in visual framing and the role of light in
photography.
In her mid-teens, Hediger returned to Belgium to attend high school, but also re- turned with strong memories of the African light and landscape. Now a long way from Rwanda, she works out of an office in Tamines, some fifty kilome- tres south of Brussels, the Belgian capital. Over the past thirteen years, Hediger has lit a lengthy list of buildings, both historic and contemporary, along with interiors and landscape design works.
Notable career highlights include the light-
ing of the Dexia Tower in Brussels, Saint Aubin’s Cathedral in Namur and the KBL European Private Bankers building in Luxem- bourg.
As far as getting into lighting design, it hadn’t been part of some long-term plan. The ambition developed over a number of years. What Hediger is sure about, however, is that she had acquired a sensitivity to light and its impact on people from her life in Africa.
Back on Belgian soil and fresh out of arts school, where she had studied interior
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