As a renowned architect and a dedicated patron of the city’s arts and design industry, Prof. Eric Yim, Honorary Chairman of the Hong Kong Furniture and Decoration Trade Association, is perfectly positioned to understand the importance of lighting and its multifaceted uses in transforming a space. In an exclusive video interview with Gafencu, the interior design virtuoso expounds the benefits of proper illumination in tempering the mood of a room, and the varieties of lighting that can help you enhance your own abode or office.
For Prof. Yim, the importance of lighting is intrinsically tied to the most important of the five senses – vision. “Light actually highlights the colour, rhythm, texture and form of a space,” he explains, “It is the medium that allows us to really see and appreciate a space.”
Through the three categories of illumination – ambient lighting, focal lighting and accent lighting – the design guru says, “you can manipulate the brightness, intensity, direction and even movement of light. In these layers of lighting, we can be more creative, more dynamic. This is why lighting can actually change the perception of a space and also awaken one’s curiosity.”
Prof. Yim also took the time to ask Mee Yee Fong, Design Engineer of RDD Environmental Care, Professional and Lighting for Dyson, the international technology company, about how the high-tech brand consistently delivers innovative designs, including lighting products like the versatile new Dyson Lightcycle Morph floor and desk lamp.
Yim: A lot of Dyson products are game-changers with simple but effective innovation. Are there any approach or methodology that the Dyson teams of designers and engineers have been adopting? What is it like and how to maintain the consistency?
Fong: At Dyson, we believe everything can be better and we constantly strive to find solutions to problems other people ignore. Our passion for problem solving across different disciplines runs throughout our business.
We recently announced a new £2.75 billion investment plan into new technologies and new products over the next five years. The investments will be focused in Singapore, the UK, and the Philippines, and are backed by plans to hire additional engineers and scientists in fields such as software, machine learning and robotics. We look to further invest into research in the fields of robotics, next generation motor technology, intelligent products, machine learning, connectivity, and material science. We stay ahead by always innovating, staying curious, and not being afraid of failure.
Yim: Not all R&D projects would turn into successful products. How would Dyson engineers decide to stop a project or continue with extra resources?
Fong: Dyson engineers always start with a real-life problem. Until a solution is found, we do not give up. If we take lighting as an example, Jake Dyson has been involved in hi-tech lighting for many years before he incorporated his inventions under the global Dyson brand in 2015. Since then, he’s been working with Dyson’s 2,000+ engineers to drive future portfolios of technology – in lighting and beyond. For the last few years, Jake and a team of 90 engineers and scientists have been dedicated to the development of Dyson Lightcycle™ lighting – our first mass market lighting selection. It takes years to develop, test, and enhance the technologies of a product before it is ready for the market and the Dyson Lightcycle Morph™ light is the latest addition to our lighting technology.
For more information on the Dyson Lightcycle Morph or other Dyson products, please visit www.dyson.com.