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DETAILS
Left The Uniqlo flagship store in Shanghai. Fong relished the prospect of working on a project half a world away from her base. Right Fong specialises in healthcare lighting design and sustainability and contributed to the interior lighting of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Payallup, Washington.
Denise Fong admits to falling into lighting design. Figuratively. Fong’s degree in interior design from Washington State University was a circuitous pathway to a career in lighting. “I realised when I was in college that I didn’t know enough about lighting to be a good interior designer,” says Fong. “Selecting finishes or planning open office layouts wasn’t what I was cut out to do.”
Her personal view of interior design as a profession encompassed the entire environ- ment, including lighting. “I was intrigued by the combination of art and science that lighting design offered.”
She decided to redirect her design talents to lighting. “Lighting to me was a fourth dimension. It’s not stone or fabric that you could touch, but it has a critical influence on a building’s interior space.” At that time, however, neither her training nor experi- ence provided Fong with enough lighting education to offer the kind of integrated
design services she felt was needed in her region’s marketplace. Through IALD’s internship program, Fong spent a three months with a lighting design studio. Her plan was to bring her new- ly-minted lighting expertise to an interior design firm. “I was a bit naïve,” Fong admits. “Lighting, I discovered, was a big subject with lots to learn. Fortunately, the company that I interned with offered me a full-time job, which I accepted. Even then, I thought I’d work in the lighting field for up to three years and then return to interiors. But it just never happened. Lighting cap- tured my imagination and interest and I’ve been here ever since,” she explains. “Everything I know about lighting I learned on the job, through mentors, professional education events, asking questions, and studying on my own. The knowledge gained with every finished project is applied to succeeding assignments,” she emphasises. Fong joined Candela 18 years ago, and is
now a principal and lighting design practice leader. Candela is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sparling, a 65-year-old multi-professional design organisation based in Lynnewood, Washington, near Seattle. Up until the early 1990s, there was no separate lighting design group in the organisation. Lighting design services were undertaken by the firm’s electrical engineers. Sparling established Candela as a separate brand rather than a sub-division of the existing brand. Now, Candela works together with Sparling on its projects, which comprise about 50 percent of Candela’s commissions. The balance comes from architects, including those who retain Sparling for engineering and other technical services.
Her involvement in planning and manage- ment is across the board for lighting design projects, including office buildings, edu- cation, and retail. Fong’s specialties have evolved in the areas of healthcare lighting design and sustainability. She has written
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