Lighting Designers and Workshop Heads

Iris is a curious and enthusiastic lighting designer working for Helmet Experience Design in Stockholm, Sweden. She started as an interior designer and found her passion in lighting design.

Iris experiences in lighting design ranges from outdoor environments to indoor exhibitions. Besides working in design, she also has a background as a research engineer where she worked on projects related to light and health, luminous color as well as light and Nordic after-dark environments.

“The connecting power of light is something that I love the most about my profession. With light you can connect groups of people – for example during a workshop like Lights in Alingsås, but you can also connect within a project, where the work of the architect and interior architect comes together and gets highlighted by light”, says Iris.

At Iris current position at Helmet Experience Design, the team works with atmospheric qualities which awaken emotion and makes people awe, and wonder.

During the past years she has been invited as a guest lecture about lighting at the Jan des Bouvrie Academy in the Netherlands, a Bachelor in Interior Design.

She understood that lighting could spark and connect people and that was what she enjoyed the most during Lights in Alingsås workshops of 2018 and 2019.

“It would be such a beautiful story if I honestly could say that I always knew that I wanted to become a lighting designer but that’s really not the case. What I can tell you is that I’ve been raised not to take light (or darkness) for granted.

Maybe it all started from building snow lanterns, watching the northern lights, bright summer nights, seeing a lonely lamp post deep into the forest, experience the kind of darkness that makes the stars pop. So I guess it’s all thanks to my parents and Höga Kusten where I grew up, says Sara Altelind.

Since 2022 Sara has worked at PE Teknik & Arkitektur as a lighting designer.

Sara´s experience as a lighting designer contains mostly in a role as a consultant which have helped her to get a good experience working in both interior and exterior projects.

She loves how lighting can be such a game changer when it comes to how we perceive a space. Being a lighting designer pushes her to continuously keep on learning.

Being a student for the workshop in 2015 was a meaningful experience for Sara. She has always wanted to be a workshop head with someone who shares the same values of light and this year she will be in a team with Iris.

David has studied theatrical design, fine art, and architecture. During that time, he looked for a way to combine his interests and took an internship in architectural lighting. Candy Kling became his mentor. He fell in love with light and have never left that path. More than 24 years later David is running the same firm he interned with, the CM KLING + ASSOCIATES, as president.

He loves the constant creative process. “In Architectural Lighting you get to work on many diverse and interesting projects all at the same time. There is an energy to it”, says David.
His portfolio includes national and international projects in hospitality, corporate, residential, government, religious and convention centers.
He received the Lighting Design Awards in 2018 for the 2U Headquarters and American Greetings Headquarters.

David is a past IALD President (2018-2019) and served on the Board in numerous roles including President Elect, Treasurer, and Director-at-Large.

He is active with the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) on the Hospitality Committee.

“I am existing to be a workshop head. For many years I have been in awe of the photos and stories by my colleagues as they return from Alingsås. Working with students in a free and positive way to play with light is a joy. Being a part of creating a new story with new outcomes in a collaborative design process excites me. I look forward to being in a new place and spending time with everyone in the workshop”, says David.

Nick Dankers arbetar som ljusdesigner hos Living Projects i Breda, i Nederländerna. Så länge han kan minnas har han alltid varit intresserad av belysning. ”Vad som startade med en liten hemmagjord installation med LED-teknik, ledde sedan till att ljussätta landmärken och historiska byggnader i Nedländerna”, säger Nick.

Efter några år i teatervärlden började han specialisera sig på ljusdesign, kända landmärken, offentliga utrymmen och evenemang. Nu arbetar han med det han älskar mest, att försköna utrymmen med konst och ljussättning.

Nick är en återkommande gästföreläsare på The Lighting Design Academy och på Signify´s Lighting Application Center. Han föreläser gärna om vikten av bra belysning i samhället.

Nick deltog i Lights in Alingsås workshop som student 2019 och han visste direkt att han ville komma tillbaka till Alingsås som workshopledare. Hans vision är att dela med sig av sin kunskap inom belysning, prototyper, programmering och presentationer samt det viktigaste, en rolig vecka med många skratt och erfarenheter för livet.

Lina Färje has been working as a lighting designer in Sweden for the past 16 years, first at Ljusarkitektur and the last 8 years for Tyréns. Right now she is in the process of starting up a new lighting design business. She has a deep interest in sustainable planning and building and has been working on projects focusing on social justice, security, and recycling. Examples of these are Uppsala City Theatre (Guldstolen award 2023), The Floating bath and Blue Park in Gothenburg and Frizon project in Umeå. The past year she has also been part of the interdisciplinary research project Nordark, led by KTH, on how to design lighting with a low effect on animal and wildlife.

In addition to this Lina has been working with lighting for dance performances. She has run several workshops, in Denmark and Brazil, with students and young people and she very much enjoys the dynamics of a workshop situation in order to share her experience and knowledge.

What she looks forward the most with the workshop is to get her hands dirty in the field together with the students.

Linus began his career in the firm Lirio Lopez Electrical Design Consultants after earning his Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree in 1991. He has worked on a wide spectrum of projects from hospitals and Super Deluxe Hotels to Airport Hangars and Delhi Metro Stations, from large scale housing communities to individual residences and in a wide variety of commercial and entertainment projects. In 2000 the firm began offering architectural lighting design services and with a subsequent Master’s degree in Architectural Lighting and Design Management from Wismar, Linus has also successfully designed and commissioned over a hundred architectural lighting design projects.

Lirio Lopez Lighting Design Consultants is now among the leading Architectural Lighting Design firms in the country with several awarded projects.

Linus has presented his work and research at various professional international conferences and lighting design events.

Linus has anchored and moderated a 6-part video series called “Spread The Light” with STIR, available on YouTube.

Linus is a Professional Member of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and is on the Working Committee for the formation of the Lighting Designers Association of India (LiDAI).

“The reason I want to be a Workshop Head is because I love Light. In all its forms. And I am a forever-student of the power of Light! I have long followed the Lights in Alingsås workshops and have seen the dialogues for learning and interaction that it has generated”, says Linus.

Martina Frattura works as a lighting designer, independent researcher, and Light Artist. She graduated in Interior Design at the Politecnico di Milano and at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology with a Master´s in Architectural Lighting Design and Health. She carried out research at the Human-Technology Interaction Department of TU/e (The Eindhoven University of Technology) in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, on how to induce shared feelings through light.

While working in the UK and Portugal as an architectural lighting designer, she directed “A Beautiful Light”, itinerant research that has taken her to ten different countries, and which investigates the use of artificial lighting to sustain a good level of attention.

Martina is now head of the think-tank called “The Beauty Movement”, made of designers, scientists, artists, architects, and philosophers, who seek to extract the fundamental principles of the idea of beauty and, above all, of its impact to actively apply them to the various disciplines, raising their content and quality.

Martina was awarded three years ago during the 40 under forty awards. She is thrilled to be back in Alingsås, to lead a group of students this fall full of energy and desire to experiment with light, since she participated in the workshop on her own back in 2014 as a student.