In the beginning of my practice, when we started doing lighting master plans in 2013,. There wasn't a full-on comprehensive Philippine lighting standard yet. So I looked to ESNA, I looked to BSEN and we applied all of those norms into our projects. But, you know, we thought it would be all okay. But when we completed the projects, our clients found it a bit too dim or dark, not too happy or lively as they would like it so we've had to tweak a bit.

We've had to combine what we learned from the international standards to what locally is accepted. You know the we had mock-ups of street lighting and they really do prefer the higher light levels. And it's just interesting to see right, Because there's no cookie cutter solution for everything.

Welcome back to the Virtual Lighting Design Community Podcast, a global platform that empowers, inspires, educates and connects the lighting design community. This podcast is brought to you by our premium supporters Aero Hospitality Lighting, creative Lighting Asia, erco, the Signify Lighting Academy and Philix Lighting. Here we bring you a captivating interview that follows a remarkable presentation by Jinky DeJesus, design principal of Lightplan Inc in the Philippines, recorded at the prestigious Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition in China, a Messe Frankfurt event. Jinky's insightful presentation focused on the crucial link between lighting, health and well-being. Delving into her experience of implementing international lighting standards in her home country, jinky shared compelling anecdotes on the challenges and outcomes of this harmonization process, making her presentation a must-listen for lighting enthusiasts.

Following this enlightening presentation, jinky engaged in a thought-provoking Q&A session with Martin Klassen, the co-founder of the virtual lighting design community. This episode encapsulates the essence of their conversation, offering invaluable insights into the nuances of lighting design, cultural adaptations and the significance of standards in shaping lighting projects. For anyone wanting a visual experience, please do check out our youtube channel, where you will find the video version of this episode, as well as many other great interviews and presentations by our industry thought leaders. Our YouTube handle is at VLDcommunity and, of course, it wouldn't be complete without mentioning our online platform, where the magic happens. Join us and your fellow lighting enthusiasts, where you can gain access to the complete array of presentations, interviews, stories, ongoing conversations, a host of resources and much more. So please do check that out and explore the community. Now on with the show. Enjoy.

My name is Martin Klaassen and welcome to the Virtual Lighting Design Community. We're currently on tour in Guangzhou, where we're attending the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition, and we just completed our event this morning. East Meets West on the topic of light for health and well-being. My guest is one of the speakers, Jinky de Jesus, Welcome.

Thank you, Martin.

Jinky, for those who don't know you, you've been around for a while, but maybe good to give a bit of background. So where are you from? What do you do in your daily life?

Yeah, absolutely so. I am Jinky De Jesus. I am from the Philippines, so I've been practicing lighting design for, I think, a total of 16 years now, but I built my own studio in the Philippines in 2010, which, which is light plan inc. And it's a fully philippine founded lighting design firm, so we work on a lot of projects in the philippines from airports to hotels, casinos, what have you name?

it, you name it, you do it yeah maybe a cemetery.

We haven't yet, but it's definitely on the list um so. So basically we do lighting design consultancy and very happy to be here in Guangzhou with you today.

So is this the first time you're in Guangzhou, I believe.

Well, in Guangzhou city itself. No, I've been here for business before but for the fair, it's my first time.

I believe you have been to Light and Build in Frankfurt, since our main theme was East meets West. Do you see any similarities or differences between the way the Frankfurt fair is being done and the way we see it here?

Well, I think the weather is different. That's for sure. That has nothing to do with the fair, but yes. But in terms of the organization, I think it's pretty much the same. It's my first time to be a speaker also, and I would say that this event was well organized. Scarlett told me that they had three months yeah, put together everything.

So I said crazy, wow yeah yeah so I think, with three months of preparation and the level of the how the conference was done this morning, um, so I think it's yeah, it's a good. It's very well organized and I'm still looking forward to exploring the fairgrounds after our talk.

Yeah, perfect. Now you did a presentation about the way things are being done in the Philippines. You talk about standards bright or not bright? Tell us a little about it. Oh yeah, yeah.

So in the beginning of my practice, when we started doing lighting master plans in 2013, there wasn't a full-on comprehensive Philippine lighting standard yet. So I looked to ESNA, I looked to DSEN and we applied all of those norms into our projects. But, you know, we thought it would be all okay. But when we completed the projects, our clients found it a bit too dim or dark, not too happy or lively as they would like it. So we've had to tweak a bit too dim or dark, not too happy or lively as they would like it. So we've had to tweak a bit. We've had to combine what we learned from the international standards to what locally is accepted. You know, we had mock-ups of street lighting and they really do prefer the higher light levels and it's just interesting to see. Right, because there's no cookie cutter solution for everything no, it's something.

It's interesting that you mentioned that, because I remember an early job I did, way back in pakistan yeah, a long time ago where they were, that you had the same issue yeah, it's like they were used to 50 lux in an office, right, really bad lighting levels. Yeah, literally hardly any light at all.

Okay okay, interesting.

And the international standards at that time were like 500 lux or something. So you design, you go at 500 lux. It's like whoa, what are you coming with Right? 200 would have been already a huge improvement. So sometimes it's that you need to maybe step it up a little bit and find that balance.

Yeah, yeah, understanding also, I think, a lot about the culture, yeah, the climate, the environment, uh, the security, or peace and order in the country yeah that's why, primarily in the philippines, we like bright public lighting. I think it's because of that the safety and security people don't feel threatened to go out and walk at night yeah, yeah, yeah.

Was there anything that stood out from all that? We had quite a number of speakers and a panel discussion. Was there any topic or subject that you said? Oh, that really rang a bell with me. There's something I would like to I don't know pick up or do myself.

Also yeah, actually a lot of. Well, most of the presentations, if not all all, had very interesting points for me to skim through it. Kevin had discussed about the melanopic locks and I think that's a topic that we still were just scratching the surface and it's something that we can really explore for our projects in the future. And with the well certification now it's also starting in the Philippines. It's a requirement for a lot of office buildings, so I want to look more into that. Um and then uh. Light pollution presentation, also by by fanny was was interesting to see that I could really relate to it because it happens.

I see it a lot courageous to share that sort of experience.

Exactly right she pointed out exactly what was bad about the whole thing, but I would see all these bad examples in Manila of bad glaring facade lighting. So that was interesting and of course, Yali's also presentation about biophilic lighting and how Singapore has really branded themselves as this garden city.

And to be a lighting designer in Singapore and light up those garden places and how Singapore? Has really branded themselves as this garden city and to be a lighting designer in Singapore and light up those garden places it's exciting.

So, yeah, those are the ones that I guess I remember for now.

Now I'm here on behalf of the virtual light design community. It's a very young global community in which we're trying to share knowledge from all over the world through our platform. We love to have feedback on what people think and how we can improve, so it would be great to have a bit of a feedback on what you think about what virtual lighting design community means for the community, for the lighting industry, and what we should be looking at moving forward.

Okay, yeah, I really like the platform because, first, you don't need any specific credentials or submissions heavy like crazy submissions to be part of the community, but you can see that the community has really credible professionals that are contributing teaching in VLDC. So I like the inclusiveness of the whole platform and I think it's great what you guys are doing, and then the content also that I've browsed so far. I'm looking forward to watching them. So I think it's something that can definitely be big. I'm not sure if bigger is the right word, but you have to think and develop how you can develop it further, because I like the idea that it's an open platform for everyone yeah but actually getting people to get invested and involved in it takes a lot of time you

have to give motivation or well, I think that's why we're also having this kind of event, because we were born out of the pandemic so it was really virtual for a couple of years.

Now we're starting to have events, so we're having this morning's event which is being recorded, we'll edit it and we'll put it on the on the website. Our interviews will be on the website, so by having live events like this, where we can meet face to face and create content at the same time because it's sometimes a pity that we have these beautiful presentations of experts in the field- yeah. And then after the event it's gone Right. So now we have an opportunity to record that and then to make it available for our community. People are not able to travel to Guangzhou and listen to these experts.

Yeah.

Right, so that's one of the things that we're exploring to doing this now.

I guess it's a good balance of because, of course, live presentations and events are still more exciting to attend to. You get dressed and ready for it, the people are in a conference, it's a very professional environment, but at least at the other side of it, you can also stream it at home at your own comfort. Like what you said, people who can't be here.

Now a question that I love asking everybody is what drives you out of bed in the morning?

What's the?

passion. That's funny.

I always have the same thing.

Deadlines no, not really, that's not. Ayali said the same thing no, not really, that's not really a passion.

No, no, tennis is. So tennis is one of my passions. I love playing and watching it. Roland Garros is happening.

So I think the ladies' final just got played already.

Yeah, there's a champ already for the ladies. Right and today it's Novak Djokovic and Kasper Rudd. All right, I used to play tennis, also competition even.

Oh wow, that was when I was like 18 years old, Okay okay, it's a beautiful sport. I love it. Yeah, yeah. It's nice, I don't play it more. Um, no, that's good to know. Um, if you would have a magic wand, is there anything that you would love to change in the things you know the lighting industry is is moving um things that maybe bother you or frustrate you, or things that you would love to see happening wow, I think if I had a magic wand I would.

A budget is one, because in the Philippines we really have to design smartly because the budget that's given to us is quite limited. We really have to stretch our creativity. So it would be great for wands to have some sort of good budget to play with and to really realize the concepts that we propose for. And maybe another thing is the mindset and educating people about what?

good lighting light for health and well-being can bring what the value can bring, because people are so concerned. What Dr Shelley said about the cost right, but I think if we educate them and they learn, they'll see the big picture.

The thing is, it's more difficult to design something simple than to design something sophisticated, in a way, because if budget is not an issue, you can go ahead and design, but if you have such a limited budget, you to be, in fact, more creative, and I find sometimes there's more sweat in trying to get something simple off the ground than something more public.

Yes, getting there right, yeah final question to you.

uh, jinky, the future, the way we look at it at the moment, is seeing smart lighting systems coming our way. We see the artificial intelligence becoming more prominent, now even ChatGPT, oh yeah. How do you see that impact on your business and maybe even your daily life?

ChatGPT. Yeah, I tried it. I tried it a couple of days ago because I caught my daughter using it for her research work and I said what are you doing? I'm just getting ideas, I'm not really copying it, I'm just getting the thought behind it. But you know it's good.

Technology is there, but lighting wise we have this talk about light for health and well-being, but I think it's really subjective. Each person has a different need for what's healthy for them, yes, what kind of sleep they need, what kind of light they prefer. So it's. I don't know how it will happen in the future, but if you can really go down to personalizing the light in accordance to what really each individual needs. Because we have these universal scientific parameters of light.

With machine learning. Yeah, right, but if it's really going down to what each person really requires and I'd like to see how that is- the danger is that potentially people don't think anymore Right, because they have somebody, but it's only thinking backwards, it's not really thinking forward.

Yeah Well, or we go back old school again right.

We'll see what the future brings. Jinky, thank you so much for this interview and thanks for your contribution to this program.

Thank you very much. Pleasure and it's a privilege to be here. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We hope you enjoyed this episode and you've gained some insight or inspiration that you can take away or perhaps apply. Thank you.