LightLinks
The Glasgow (UK) and East London (South Africa) co-operation wins the Thorn LUCI LightLinks project 2009
Richard Hall, Marketing Director of Thorn and Alexandre Colombani, General Manager of LUCI, announced the winners of LightLinks 2009 at an awards ceremony at the LumiVille trade fair in Lyon on 27th May 2009.
The City of Glasgow will be assisting the City of East London in Eastern Cape Province which is represented by the Amathole District Municipality with a project focusing on a historical site and the waterfront Boardwalk.
Bailie Allan Stewart, Deputy Lord Provost of Glasgow, who was present at the event, highlighted that winning the competition will enable the two cities to further develop the strong links established by the Memorandum of Understanding, signed in 2007.
Other co-operations proposing projects for the competition included: Hue (Vietnam) and Blois (France), Adis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Leipzig (Germany), Turin (Italy) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).
The LightLinks 2009 judges consisted of representatives from: Thorn, LUCI, Concepteurs Lumière Sans Frontières (CLSF), and lighting experts from cities that have been involved in decentralised lighting co-operation.
The competition, sponsored by Thorn, promotes economic and social development in disadvantaged communities through sustainable urban lighting. It encourages cities from low and high income countries to create partnerships by offering a prize of up to € 20,000 of equipment. Additional support is being provided by The Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme and independent lighting consultants.
The jury was convinced that by building on the established ADM Tourism Plan, the LightLinks project will make a real difference to those in the East London community, in addition to improving the night-time economy and appearance of the city.
Christophe Richon comments: ‘We at Thorn are convinced that the way forward is in reinforced cooperation, not isolation. Indeed LightLinks aims at building bridges between cities across the world, through lighting.’
The LightLinks program
As the gap remains wide in lighting resources between rich and poor cities across the globe, LUCI Association, in partnership with sponsor Thorn Lighting, opened new perspectives by launching the LightLinks programme.
This project encourages cities from low-income and high-income countries to partner together to prepare an urban lighting project within one of the low-income country’s metropolis.
Commenting on the development, Christophe Richon describes the scheme as “the most exciting and ambitious sponsorship project Thorn had yet undertaken. If we want to improve the lighting conditions of developing cities, we must provide them with the necessary expertise, equipment and training. I’m sure LightLinks will inspire and excite activism.”
The first beneficiary of the initiative is the Palestinian West Bank City of Jericho, which has received assistance from the City of Lyon (France).
Following the signing of a co-operation convention between Lyon and Jericho in December 2008, representatives of Lyon’s Public Lighting Department, Antoine Bouchet and Frédéric Durand, and the lighting designer Philippe Hutinet, went to Jericho from 19th to 23rd March 2008 for a second mission in the frame of the LightLinks co-operation project.
The program of the stay included: meetings with the Mayor of Jericho, engineers in the city, archaeologists and architects, trial sessions with the definitive material, validation of chosen installations, estimation of the cost of the works, consideration of the development of two selected sites (the Hisham Palace, Zacchaeus’ tree) and the drawing up of an agenda for the coming months.
‘Illuminating certain important architectural and natural patrimonial elements isn’t something we have done on a whim, even in these difficult times. Rather, it is an essential act in favour of peace and the economical development of our region, like a sort of ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, affirmed Mrs Noha Rashmawi, project manager of the Palestinian delegation in France, who was involved in this mission.
Find further information about the LightLinks project here
Contact LUCI: Alexandre Colombani, 00 33 (0)4 72 10 56 18 - alexandre.colombani@luciassociation.org
Contact Thorn: Sophie Caclin, 00 33 (0)2 32 21 48 57 - sophie.caclin@thornlighting.com