Professional Lighting Designers' Association: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:34, 20 January 2006

Latest revision as of 17:43, 30 June 2025

(75 intermediate revisions by 34 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{Multiple issues|

The '''European Lighting Designers' Association''' (ELDA+) is an international association of lighting designers whose work primarily involves them in [[architectural lighting design]]. Based in [[Gütersloh]], [[Germany]], the organisation was originally created as a European entity, a counterpart to the [[United States|North American]] [[International Association of Lighting Designers]]. However, since its founding in 1994, the organisation has expanded beyond the boundaries of Europe and has many members outside of Europe in Asia and North America.

{{Unreferenced|date=January 2021}}

{{Advert|date=January 2022}}

}}

The '''Professional Lighting Designers' Association''' ('''PLDA'''), formerly the '''European Lighting Designers' Association''' ('''ELDA+'''), is an international association of [[architectural lighting designer]]s headquartered in [[Gütersloh]], Germany. Initially established in 1994 as a European organization, PLDA has since expanded its reach beyond Europe, with a growing membership in Asia and North America. Despite experiencing a liquidation in 2014 due to insolvency, PLDA continues to serve as a voluntary federation of lighting designers and consultants on an international scale, aiming to enhance the profession's standing and promote its recognition.

==LiteratureFounding==

The Professional Lighting Designers' Association PLDA was founded as the European Lighting Designers' Association ELDA+ in 1994 in [[Frankfurt]], Germany, by a group of prominent individuals including:

Beyond a bi-monthly newsletter, ELDA's only official literature is its website - the official magazine of the organisation is [[Professional Lighting Design]], in which the newsletter is printed, and every member has a subscription to the magazine. [[VIA-Verlag]], the publisher of the magazine, retains very close ties with both ELDA+ and the IALD. ELDA+ shares its head office with VIA-Verlag.

* Georges Berne (France)

* Johannes Dinnebier (Germany)

* Erwin Döring (Germany)

* Francesco Iannone (Italy)

* Heinrich Kramer (Germany)

* Alison Ritter (United Kingdom)

* Joachim Ritter (Germany)

* Lucy Rittner (France)

* Serena Tellini (Italy)

==Membership==

Voting members are Fellow members, Professional members and Associate members. Fellow members are deemed to have excelled in contributing to the Architectural Lighting Design profession and PLDA. Professional members are those who own an independent practice or work in an independent practice, and have a certain number of years of experience in lighting design. The same applies to Associate members, except their years of experience are less.

Non-voting members are Design members (independent, but with little or no experience as an independent designer), Student members and Affiliate members.

==Member formation==

Affiliate members are those who are not full-time lighting designers, but are very interested in lighting design or need it for their profession.

The membership structure of ELDA+ is intended to encompass lighting designers of all levels, and membership fees are organised accordingly. Student members form by far the greatest majority of members. ''Design members'' are qualified lighting designers whose work largely focusses on architectural lighting design. ''Commercial affiliates'' are similar to ''design members'', but are considered to have a vested commercial interest. The category of ''professional'' is reserved for respected independent lighting designers whose work solely involves lighting in architecture. The final category, that of ''fellow'' is largely reserved for past presidents of ELDA+, although Director General [[Alison Ritter]] and treasurer [[Joachim Ritter]] also hold this title.

==Collaboration==

ELDA+ holds close ties with various [[universities]] in Germany holding diplomas relating to architectural lighting design, including the [[Wismar University of Technology, Business and Design]] and the [[Hildesheim University of Applied Sciences]] - a considerable number of the students of these courses and a number of the lecturers are members of ELDA+.

PLDA collaborates with other lighting associations, including CIE, IES and other groupings of lighting designers around the world.

With the Institution of Lighting Engineers, PLDA has a partnership agreement, in order to foster deeper understanding between the lighting profession and engineering practitioners.

The organization's official magazine is the Professional Lighting Design, published by the VIA-Verlag. Every member receives the magazine automatically. The VIA-Verlag maintains very close ties with PLDA by, for example, organizing many events for the association.

Indeed, the number of students from Wismar and Hildesheim mean that a sizeable portion of the members appear to come from Germany, although many of these are in fact from outside of Germany and study in the country.

==Education==

Professional and Fellow Members of the association are given permission to append the suffix "ELDA+" to their name.

The Professional Lighting Designers' Association believes that education is the key to establishing Lighting Design as a serious profession. The association thus dedicates a large portion of its time to the organisation and support of education programmes at university level. PLDA has an Educators' network. International educators meet on a regular basis. PLDA works closely with many universities around the world, for example at KTH in Stockholm/S, the Hochschule Wismar/D, Fachhochschule Hildesheim/D, Parson's New School of Design in NYC/USA and Bachelor and Masters programmes in many European countries.

The Workshop Programme with up to four major workshops a year gives students and young designers the opportunity to work in teams under the guidance of a professional lighting designer to develop and implement a lighting design concept on a real project. Some universities have these workshops in their curriculum.

The Professional Lighting Designers' Association stages the Light Focus conference once a year, usually in conjunction with a major lighting fair event, e.g. Light+Building in Frankfurt/D or Euroluce in Milan/I. The sessions cover topics of interest and relevance to all those involved in architectural lighting design and bring to light a variety of professional themes.

==Workshops==

ELDA+ hosts a number of "workshops", in which various lighting projects are carried out in areas of a selected town or city. All of these have to date been carried out within Europe, with the town of [[Alingsås]], [[Sweden]] the most regular partner. Others have been carried out in [[Jyväskylä]] in [[Finland]], [[Winterthur]] in [[Switzerland]]. In [[January 2006]] one is planned for [[Birmingham]], [[UK]] and in [[September 2005]] one for [[Lüdenscheid]], Germany.

The Professional Lighting Designers' Association stages the Vox Juventa conference for young designers once a year. The winning speaker receives a money prize.

==CouncilSee also==

* [[Illuminating Engineering Society]] – A similar organization for lighting engineers

Policy making for ELDA+ is done by the association's council, made up (current of 2005) of the following members:

* [[International Association of Lighting Designers]] (IALD) – A similar organization for lighting designers

==References==

*'''President''' - Prof. [[Jan Ejhed]]

{{Reflist}}

*'''Past President''' - [[Gad Giladi]]

*'''Director General''' - [[Alison Ritter]]

*'''Treasurer''' - [[Joachim Ritter]]

*'''Director of Education''' - Prof. [[Uwe Belzner]]

*'''Director of Membership''' - Paul Traynor

*'''Director for Standards of Professional Practice''' - Prof. Dr. [[Heinrich Kramer_(lighting_designer)|Heinrich Kramer]]

*'''Director of International Development''' - [[Kai Piippo]]

==External links==

* {{Official website}}

* [http://www.pldpluspld-m.com Professional Lighting Design Magazine]

* [http://www.pld-c.com The Professional Lighting Design Convention]

[[Category:Architectural lighting design]]

==Links==

[http://www.eldaplus.org ELDA+ Website]

[http://www.pldplus.com Professional Lighting Design]

[http://www.hs-wismar.de Hochschule Wismar]

[http://www.fh-hildesheim.de HAWK Hochschule Hildesheim]

[http://www.alingsas.se Town of Alingsås]

[[Category:Architecture]]

[[Category:Lighting]]