Jonathan Speirs Scholarship Fund

As we prepare to award the 2016/17 Jonathan Speirs Scholarship, we look back at our previous scholars to see what they have been up to over the past year.

Last year’s scholar, Charlotte Eley, graduated from the University of Sheffield shortly after receiving her award, and, after a short summer internship with Speirs + Major in London, she found a full-time position at Hawkins Brown Architects in Manchester. She has already organised a CPD talk about the physics and psychology of lighting, and is keen to continue her research into the social aspects of lighting which she focused on during university.

Cashel Brown was awarded the scholarship in 2014/15. He has recently taken up a position at Lighting Design International and is looking forward to the new projects and challenges he will come across there. Cashel will be speaking at PLDC in November where he will present his research into lighting festivals and events that commenced with his university dissertation.

Our first scholar, Alex Stewart, is still busy juggling work at Bernheimer Architecture in New York with being a part-time faculty member at his alma mater, Parsons The New School for Design. He continues to work with and be inspired by light in both personal and professional projects.

We have been very fortunate in the talent and potential of our three outstanding scholars so far, and look forward to getting to know future scholarship winners and supporting them in their passion for light.

We are pleased to announce the next batch of student applications for our 2016/17 award have been received. The Trustees are looking forward to reviewing these over the next few weeks, speaking to the shortlisted candidates and selecting a well-deserved winner. Stay tuned!

A massive thank you goes out to Suzanne and Gilbert Mathews of Lucifer Lighting who have just donated US$15,000! Their generosity and continued support is hugely appreciated. Thank you!

Huge thanks go to Knight Architects who have recently signed up as Sponsors of the Jonathan Speirs Scholarship Fund. All the support from our Friends is much appreciated and goes towards funding brilliant students of architecture to pursue their passion for lighting.

As we get closer to announcing the winner of the 2015/16 Scholarship, we take a look back at our two previous scholars and what they have been up to since they were awarded the Jonathan Speirs Scholarship.

Our first Scholar, Alex Stewart, has graduated with honours from Parsons School of Design and has begun working with the award-winning Brooklyn-based firm Bernheimer Architecture. At Bernheimer, he has assisted on the design and development of two affordable housing projects within the five boroughs of New York, and is currently overseeing the construction of a high-end residential building in the West Village district. This past fall he took a position as adjunct faculty at Parsons, teaching in the Masters of Architecture program, while in December, his studio project from the previous fall with his colleague, Kristen Garibaldi, was selected by the Architect’s Newspaper as the Student Project of the Year.

Alex comments: “Working with light is paramount to the designs I’m developing with Bernheimer, and in my own, personal projects. Though we are an architecture firm in practice, we consider light to be a free building material, one that through formal manipulation produces more intimate and democratic space, no matter the client and budget.”

Last year’s Scholar, Cashel Brown, graduated in October 2015 from Edinburgh Napier University last year after completing his dissertation on the topic of lighting festivals and their role in urban design. He has since moved to London and is now working as a lighting designer at Nulty+. Cashel is currently working on his submission for SLL’s Young Lighter of the Year and will be speaking at their annual Jonathan Speirs Memorial Lecture later in the year. He has also been included on Lighting Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list of emerging talent within the lighting design profession.

He comments: “Working with Nulty+ has been a steep learning curve, as I take what I learned during the course of the MA Lighting Design programme and apply it to real projects with real budgets. The diverse range of projects within the office has taught me a lot about the multi-faceted nature of the lighting design profession. Much of this is with thanks to the Scholarship, as it provided me with a platform to develop these skills, alongside creating conversation with those in the profession.”

Once again we would like to extend our gratitude to our accountants Haines Watts Creative who have helped us with preparing our annual return – many thanks for your continued support.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to Gilbert and Suzanne Mathews of Lucifer Lighting, who have just donated an additional $10,000 towards the Jonathan Speirs Scholarship Fund. This donation is on top of their already generous Benefactor contribution. Thank you very much!

We are very pleased to have raised £600 last night at the WIN Awards. Raffle tickets were sold at the event at Fenchurch Street’s Sky Garden by Trustees John Roake and Mark Major, with the draw to win the prize of a Foscarini Birdie Metal Lamp taking place later that evening. Thanks goes to all who supported us by buying a raffle ticket, to Foscarini for donating the fantastic prize and to the organisers of the WIN Awards, who continue to support the JSSF.