LUCI Cities & Lighting Summit
London
Plenary Sessions
Fatiha El Moudni, Mayor of Rabat and LUCI President
Born in Rabat in 1981 and originally from Tafraout, Fatiha El Moudni has been involved in political and civic life from an early age. She was appointed Mayor of Rabat on March 25, 2024, after holding various positions in local and international organizations.
She previously served as Secretary of the Rabat City Council and was a substitute at the UCLG World Council. Over the years, she has chaired commissions and participated in multiple forums focused on urban governance.
El Moudni has held leadership roles in international networks, including Co-Chair of the Strong Cities Network, President of Metropolis, and is currently the acting LUCI President.
She also serves as Treasurer of UCLG and is a member of the LRG Advisory Group to the UN Secretary-General. Her international experience includes engagements in England, Turkey, Ireland, the UAE, Germany, and South Korea.
Beyond politics, she has been active in civil society, founding the African League for Leadership and serving as vice president of the Association of Youth People for Social Development in Souissi.
She has received recognition for her work, including the “New Leader for the Future” award in 2015 and the “African Young Leader” award in 2019. She continues to advocate for sustainable development, social inclusion, and gender equality in Rabat and beyond.
Ian Hughes, City Operations Director for the City of London Corporation
As the City Operations Director, Ian Hughes has strategic responsibility for all the operational activities on the City’s streets, including the key front line services of street cleansing, highway maintenance, street lighting, domestic waste collection and parking enforcement.
Ian also has overarching responsibility for road safety, transportation and public realm schemes maintaining the Square Mile’s tress and green spaces and supporting the City’s major on-street parking events such as the Lord Mayor’s Show.
With over 25 years in the industry, Ian uses his experience to develop a long term sustainable approach to managing the Square Mile for future generations.
Sarah Gaventa, Trustee and former Director of the Illuminated River Foundation
Sarah Gaventa MA (Royal College of Art) is a public space expert and public art champion and is currently the Creative Director of the London Borough of Ealing. She was previously the government’s advisor on public space as Director of CABE Space at the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment, advising on creating well designed, inclusive and sustainable public spaces.
As the former Director (now a Trustee) of the Illuminated River Foundation she led a pan London capital project on public sector structures, with multiple stakeholders, working with over 50 community groups and developing a programme of public events and projects.
She has chaired both the Elephant and Castle Community Forum and the Elephant Park Advisory Group for many years during the development of Elephant & Castle.
Sarah curated Historic England’s first major exhibition “Out There: Our Post War Public Art” at Somerset House. She is an Honorary Fellow of both the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Landscape Institute and a Freeman of the City of London.
Ari Alatossava, Mayor of Oulu
Ari Alatossava has been serving as the Mayor of Oulu City (Finland) since April 2024. He transitioned to this role from his position as the Director of Finance, Strategy and Corporate Governance division, which he has held since February 2022.
Mr. Alatossava has over twenty years of leadership experience. Prior to his current role, he served as the Mayor of Municipality of Ii for seven years, and before that, he held the position of CEO for 15 years, working in various capacities related to business development, technology centers, and regional development. He holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Oulu.
Mark Major, Director of Speirs Major Light Architecture
Mark Major trained and practised as an architect before choosing to focus on the relationship between light and architecture. He formed Speirs Major Light Architecture with Keith Bradshaw in 2010. Today the firm is recognised as being one of the world’s leading independent lighting design practices.
Mark has led a wide range of award-winning lighting projects including the Millennium Dome, 30 St. Mary Axe, and the re-lighting of the interiors of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. Recent award-winning projects include The Macallan Distillery, and Battersea Power Station.
He is a specialist in the field of urban lighting and acted as the Lighting Design Advisor to the Olympic Delivery Authority for London 2012. Projects include the Lighting Masterplan for the King’s Cross Redevelopment and the Lighting Strategy for the City of London.
Mark was honoured as a Royal Designer for Industry in 2012 and is a corporate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Fellow of the International Association of Lighting Designers and a Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.
Benz Roos, Senior Lighting Designer at Speirs Major Light Architecture
Benz Roos studied Architectural Design at the Royal Art Academy, The Hague in The Netherlands. During this time he developed a passion for lighting design and consequently went on to study for a Masters in Architectural Lighting Design at the University of Wismar in Germany.
He joined Speirs Major Light Architecture in 2008, and in 2020 he was made Associate Partner. His ambition is to bring more imagination into the experience of a space – if applied to fantastic architecture and public realm, light can make the experience for people even better.
Benz has worked on a number of projects including the multi-award winning Gasholders London in the King’s Cross development, the City of London Lighting Strategy, and the innovative Lights over Kruunuvuorenranta in Helsinki, Finland. He was also integral to the design for ‘In Lumine Tuo’, an animated light installation in Utrecht, The Netherlands, which won the top prize in lighting design, the IALD Radiance Award, in 2014.
Benz has a keen interest in research and development, helping to design the award-winning street lighting luminaire Aeroblades which was developed with Cree Inc. He was a key member of the design team for the Third Age of Light research project and led the design for the ground-breaking “Our Time on Earth” climate exhibition at The Barbican Centre.
LUCI Talks
Andreina Seijas, Researcher and Founder of Night Tank
Dr. Andreina Seijas J. is a Venezuelan researcher and international consultant with more than 15 years of experience in urban development and policy in Latin America, Europe and the United States.
Through her doctoral studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (2017-2020) she specialized in night-time governance and planning and launched Night Tank, an international consultancy that focuses on this novel field of research and practice. Through her company and as an independent consultant, Andreina works in projects at the intersection of research and practice and is based in Barcelona, Spain.
Previously, Andreina worked for international organizations focused on urban strategy and international development such as Gehl, IdenCity, the Housing and Urban Development Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Americas Society/ Council of the Americas. Before leaving Venezuela, she also worked as Information Manager for the municipality of Chacao in Caracas. From an academic perspective, Andreina has taught urban planning and night-time governance courses at Harvard College and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Cambridge), the Urban School at Sciences Po (Paris), and IAAC—the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (Barcelona).
Andreina has a Communications degree from Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, an MSc in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics, a Master in Public Administration and Non-Profit management from New York University, and a Doctor of Design (DDes) degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is also the recipient of several awards, including the Chevening and Fulbright Scholarships, the P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship and the Lawrence H. and Marla G. Curtis Fellowship Fund.
Lars Ocklund, Head of City Lighting, Urban Environment Administration at City of Gothenburg
Lars Ocklund has extensive experience working with lighting and illumination in the urban landscape, from the early stages as Master Plans to lighting tests and all the way down to “nuts and bolts level”. Always in a fine balance between function and aesthetics with a focus on the people who will use the space.
Lars has a Master in Fine Arts in Interior Architecture, from HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design, University of Gothenburg.
Christina Vildinge, Research & Innovation Manager, Urban Environment Administration at City of Gothenburg
Sara Castagné, Lighting designer and CEO of Concepto
Lighting designer since 1996 and CEO of Concepto studio, Sara Castagné holds a master’s degree in visual arts and Space Design (museography option).
She has been running Concepto since 2018, an agency in which she learned the trade at the beginning of her career alongside Roger Narboni. She received the AWARDS Lighting Days 2019 in the Lighting Design category and the Excellence Award and Peer Award at the international LuxFuturum competition in 2024.
She drives nocturnal strategy, and dark infrastructure studies and develops research on lighting eco-design, bringing together reflections on consultation, the circular economy and inclusive light. The lighting design project for the public spaces of the Olympic Village was the starting point for the agency’s global reflection on sustainable light and led to the publication of Concepto’s manifesto for dark infrastructure conducive to living.
Maelle Tertrais, Lighting designer at Concepto
Maelle Tertrais is a lighting designer and architect. She has been working with Concepto studio since 2021.
Parallel Sessions
Harriet Bell, Access Advisor for the City of London
Dr. Harriet Bell is the City’s Access Advisor based in the Design and Heritage team, in Planning. She works alongside Morgan Wild in advising how to remove and reduce barriers and make new development more accessible and inclusive.
Her work extends across a range of City of London Corporation functions including planning, highways, urban design, City Corporation property, events, and awareness-raising and training.
Before moving into inclusive design Harriet worked for over 30 years in the built heritage sector at the Georgian Group and a number of local authorities. Her doctoral research was into expressions of value in the conservation of post-war heritage.
Harriet is a wheelchair user and fiercely committed to drawing on the lived experience of disabled and neurodivergent people to shape design that is inclusive of the greatest range of people.
Harriet is co-Chair of the City Corporation’s staff Disability and Wellness Network. She is a lay assessor for Architects Accredited in Building Conservation (AABC) and a full member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC). She has published on performed value in conservation practice and the role of imagination, in travel, as a disabled person.
Johan Hugues, co-CEO at Blachere Illumination
Johan Hugues is the co-CEO of Blachere Illumination SAS, a family group based in Provence (South of France) for the past 52 years. The company specialises in festive lighting, creating, manufacturing, and supplying cities, municipalities, shopping malls and events all over the world, through its 28 branches worldwide.
Johan joined his uncle Jean-Paul Blachere, founder of the company, 32 years ago as an industrial designer.
Over the years, he oversaw AD and Innovation and then developed the international network. Together with his cousin, they’re managing the group in tandem for 10 years (consolidated turnover over 100M€, more than 600 employees).
Johan is still designing and creating every day: “Innovation is in our DNA and sustainability is a total part of it”.
LEDs, smart control systems, giant 3D printers with recycled plastic, Blachere Illumination has patented numbers of inventions which are revolutionizing the festive lights industry.
Recyprint® (recycled PET bottles), Bioprint® (biodegradable bioplastic), Flexiprint® (soft and flexible made of recycled plastics) are perfect examples of a sustainable global circular economy.
Morgan Wild, Design and Access Officer at City of London Corporation
Morgan Wild is a Design and Access Officer at the City of London Corporation, where she is part of the Design and Heritage team in the Planning Department. Joining the City two years ago, Morgan has since broadened her expertise in accessible and inclusive design, collaborating closely with Harriet Bell.
She offers guidance on making spaces more inclusive, such as reducing physical barriers in listed buildings, advising on the design of new public spaces with a focus on neurodiversity, and ensuring the safety and accessibility of existing and proposed alleyways.
Before her role at the City, Morgan worked as an architect, primarily focusing on large-scale residential projects across the UK.
Throughout her architectural career, she has worked with local communities to help facilitates meaningful community engagement and co-design.
Moderators
Patricia Brown MBE, Director at Central
Patricia Brown is Director of Central, a niche consultancy largely centred on the dynamics of cities and the process of achieving change.
Patricia’s strategic advisory and non-executive work spans disciplines, sectors and geographies. The common thread is connecting: ideas and possibilities, places and people, opportunities and ambition, as well as building the partnerships needed to shape better cities and experience.
Her work has been a significant catalyst in urban change, beginning in 1990’s London where she leveraged private sector interest, especially real estate partners, in active stewardship in the improvement of the built environment. This led to game-changing initiatives, including landing BIDs into the UK, and championing tangible action on public realm, critical to liveability and quality of life, and fundamental to London’s economic competitiveness.
She sits on a range of profit and not-for-profit boards and is a strategic adviser to a range of land owners, developers, local authorities and infrastructure bodies as well as chairing a variety of partnership boards. While much of her work is strategic, Patricia believes that attention to detail is paramount to our experience of place and that light can play a transformative part.
Don Slater, Associate Professor at London School of Economics and Political Science & co-founder of Configuring Light
Don Slater is a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and co-founder of the Configuring Light/Staging the Social research group.
Configuring Light promotes collaborations between social research and lighting design, particularly in public realm lighting, developing new methodologies, research projects and training programmes to improve the social knowledge base for urban lighting and planning.
Elettra Bordonaro, Founder and creative director at Light Follows Behaviour
Elettra Bordonaro is founder and creative director at Light Follows Behaviour, a lighting design studio with the aim to design with people and for people. In addition to being awarded a PhD in 2006 from the University of Architecture in Turin, Elettra also has a background as an architect.
She has focused her attention on light and has worked as a lighting designer and consultant on masterplans, exterior and public realm lighting projects in the UK and internationally.
She has led courses at the University of Rome, Milan and Turin and was visiting professor at Rhode Island School of Art and Design (RISD), Providence, USA.
She has a Senior Policy Fellow at the London School of Economics, Sociology Department, as a team member of the Configuring Light Research group.
Leni Schwendinger, Creative Director at Leni Schwendinger Light Projects
Leni Schwendinger is a published, award-winning, authority on city lighting issues, with more than 20 years of experience, creating worldwide illuminated environments.
This work is shared through Leni’s public speaking and envisioning engagements, including “NightSeeing™, Navigate Your Luminous City” international program.
In practice, her projects focus on infrastructure and public art at sites such as subways and large-scale bridges, among others.