January 15th, 2013: Tewa Srilaklang was interviewed by the US edition of China Daily where she shared her view on the development of lighting design industry in China, her design rationale and the promotion of lighting design culture. . She believes that her job is still unknown to the public since most of the projects invite architects, interior designers and landscape designers whereas lighting designers are seldom invited. Though lighting design is not the most important part of a real estate project, yet it brings life to the architectural, interior and landscape design. Her experience in designing lighting for Beijing Shangri-La Hotel and Beijing Raffles City were taken as examples to illustrate that professional lightingdesign is often neglected. She thinks the hotel lighting design is complicated, which is very similar to organizing a band, where different members should work harmoniously. Various lighting methods are used in hotel lighting design such as functional lighting, accent lighting, ambient lighting.... For the Beijing Shangri-La project, halogen lights are used in the lobby as they are close to both day light and the style of interior design; whereas fluorescent lights are used in restaurants and toilets. Dimming system is of great importance as it satisfies different needs of guests in different environment. She also mentioned the Beijing Raffles City project, where she met several challenges. The architecture has two layers of curtain walls overlapping each other: the outer glass which is unable to reflect light and the inner panels which requires a highly reflective surface. Therefore, the questions regarding materials were raised and we had discussions with the client. She also added that lighting design not only requires a brain full of artistic nature, but also logical thinking.

Apart from lighting design, Tewa positively engages in promoting the culture of lighting design. She has already successfully organized three international lighting festivals and several other related events. Not only does she design by herself, Tewa also invites well-known Chinese and foreign designers to join her promoting the culture of lighting.

Tewa believes a good lighting design should not only strive for perfect visual, but also it needs to be energy-efficient and environmental friendly.