SPARC 2013 is the premier lighting event for thousands of stakeholders, manufacturers, suppliers and allied professionals. Participants can see, touch and experience the latest in lighting technology, attend educational seminars and social networking events, all in a venue that commands magnificent views of the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour – especially brilliant during Vivid, the world renowned festival of light, music and ideas, and SPARC’s event collaborator.

SPARC 2013 comprises three days of displays, a program of speakers and an evening program that includes drinks and a gala dinner at Sydney Town Hall. SPARC 2013 is presented by Australia and New Zealand’s lighting industry through Lighting Council Australia, and the Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia and New Zealand.

The event is for people who work in design, lighting design, industrial design, engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, building and project management, facility management, and major end users of architectural, retail and commercial lighting. See the full program here.

Carriageworks exterior. Architect: SPARC 2013 speaker Tim Greer of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects

International speakers include Rogier van der Heide, Vice President and Chief Design Officer of Philips Lighting, Motoko Ishii of Motoko Ishii Lighting Design Inc. (Tokyo), Emmanuel Clair of Light Cibles, a global lighting design consultancy with bases in Paris, Madrid, Singapore and Tianjin, and John Johnson, founder of Lightwaves, a specialist design consultancy firm in the UK.

Local speakers include Tim Greer, one of the directors of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects, and named by SMH Sydney Magazine one of Sydney’s 100 most influential people. His list of awards includes the Australia Award for Urban Design, the IDEA Overall Award for Interior Design Excellence, the AIA Lloyd Rees Urban Design Award, the Francis Greenway Award for Heritage, the Lachlan Macquarie Award for Public Architecture and the Blacket Regional Architecture Award for the Glasshouse.

Paddington Reservoir. Architect: SPARC 2013 speaker Tim Greer of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects

Greer is responsible for the buildings of Carriageworks at Eveleigh, Paddington Reservoir Gardens, Portico – the apartment conversion of Scots Church at Wynyard, and the Glasshouse Arts, Conference and Entertainment Centre. He’ll be exploring “the establishment and integration of lighting concepts for a series of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer buildings” in his presentation entitled ‘After Dark’.

For Greer, the relationship between architecture and lighting is seamless. “Early on in my career, I designed a series of lights. I never knew if they were miniature buildings masquerading as lights or lights masquerading as buildings,” he said. “I like the way light has the ability shape and distort form. As we are all drawn to light, lighting design rounds out the process for me. Lighting should be functional and ethereal, and everything in between.” See the full list of timetabled speakers here.

Carriageworks during the Underbelly Arts Festival. Architect: SPARC 2013 speaker Tim Greer of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects

SPARC 2013

sparcevent.org