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Vancouver’s Lighting Architecture Movement Project shines a light on the best in contemporary lighting
Laura Goldstein
Special to The Globe and Mail

This article was published more than 8 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Gweilo, a family of ghostly glowing screens, drapes light in a ribbon effect across the floor. The Boro Boro chandelier casts a crisp glow from a frosted crystallized structure. And the Woodhedron pendant hides its lightsource within an angular shell of maple veneer.

These are just three of the 30 finalists in Vancouver’s third annual Lighting Architecture Movement Project (a.k.a. LAMP) competition. Chosen from over 90 submissions from 21 countries, three winners in student, emerging and established designer categories will be announced Nov. 12, followed by a public exhibition of the top 10 pieces at Railtown’s Jan Kath Studio from Nov. 13 to 15.

The international shortlist for this year’s LAMP competition includes (clockwise from top left) Braques Colander by Suulin Architects, Toronto; Crystal Cluster by LynnRead, Portland, Ore.; Ribbon by Brad Turner, Vancouver; Boro Boro by Neal Aronowitz, Portland, Ore.; Woodhedron by Julie Morringello, Stonington, Conn.; Duality by HJC Design, U.K.; LightTrooper by Anki Gneib, Sweden; Gweilo by Alex Josephson, Toronto.  Photos by SUULIN-ARCHITECTS (Braques Colander), LynnRead (Crysta l cluster), Brad Turner (ribbon),

Each year, LAMP’s organizers challenge designers to approach their creations with a specific theme. Crystallize, in all its interpretations, is this year’s subject. A panel of international judges that includes Tom Dixon, Michael Anastassiades, Bocci’s Omer Arbel, Inform Interiors’s Nancy Bendtsen, architect John Patkau and teams from design studios Falken Reynolds and ANDLIGHT evaluated the entries based on aesthetics, marketability, innovation, social and environmental responsibility and the most unique translation of the theme.

“We really saw LAMP as a wonderful way to connect and promote local and national talent with a broad spectrum of international lighting designers, ” says Annika Hagen who founded the initiative with Nicole Fox. Hagen is a script supervisor in the film industry and Fox works in dance. The duo loves lighting and saw an opportunity for a competition in Canada to illuminarte international design. “Stepping out on a limb three years ago, Nicole and I combined all our contacts and the competition has just taken on a life of its own,” says Hagen.

Though the competition is still young, the founders have big plans for its future. “We hope at some point to be able to create a LAMP ‘brand’ with some of our finalists’s fixtures but, realistically, that’s not possible just yet,” says Fox.

The winner in the established category will receive $1,000 while the emerging category champ receives $500 from Inform Interiors. The winner of the student category will be awarded an internship with ANDLIGHT.

For more information, visit www.welovelamp.ca.