In this Circular Lighting Report short, Ray Molony talks with Jonathan Visser of the Dutch Institute of Lighting about a blind spot in our sustainability conversations: we’re so focused on metrics like EPDs and LCAs that we’re neglecting the design question of how projects actually evolve over time.
A few points from Jonathan:
🔹 The real question isn’t ‘can this product be renovated forever?’ — it’s whether a client will accept the same product when they refresh a space’s look
🔹 Standardised sizing can seem ‘a bit boring’, but it makes future adaptability far easier than highly integrated, one-off designs
🔹 Future-proofing isn’t just the luminaire — it’s the whole space being ready to reconfigure, from heat sinks to control protocols like DALI
🔹 We design for the handover — rarely for the second handover, when a space gets refurbished and reused
A candid, thought-provoking watch on closing the gap between architects, lighting designers, consultants and installers.
