8|artículo La próxima edición de la PLDC (2015) será en Roma Impressions from Copenhagen’s Professional Lighting Design Convention 2013 edition i Candela magazine attended the past edition of the Professional Lighting Design Convention in Copenhagen as Official Printed Media Partner. This international meeting, organised by VIA-Events has evolved to be the most important date for the professional and “independent” lighting design, a great success in the numbers: 1.400 attendees from worldwide. Being a global event, it still has some kind of european “flavour” since its origin (Berlin, London, Madrid, Copenhagen... had hosted editions of the PLDC in the past). This orientation will remain as next edition was announced to be in Rome in 2015. One. What in the world is an architectural lighting designer? This question repeteadly appears in summits and conventions among the professionals of this discipline. Such a young profession, with an extremely wide field of appplication, tends to raise questions about its own identity. From the lighting technique needed to deliver visually healthy working and educational environments, to the creation of spaces meant for a harmoniously living, collaborating with architects and interior designers, to the “uplighting” of the architectural form, arranging the vibrant, nocturnal image of the city, the lightscape, affecting the conditions in which public, urban space is perceived. Two. The times, they are changing Yeah, true. Soon it will be that necessary to count on an specialist in the lighting field in an architectural project that his/her mere calm presence would turn to be mandatory. Lighting technology and its application have developed rapidly in the last few years, and we are seeing now how, inside the same professional practice, the “genres” appear, and focused specialists, with specific knowledge of concrete issues and fields of application, stablish themselves as key practitioners in the industry, consulting and collaborating from a project to another. Unfortunately, standards and regulations doesn’t have this pace of change, they don’t move so fast and efficiently, and it is a hard and unpleasant work trying to match the standards and the characteristics of the market, reality in a single word. Three. Looking for identity in a global world We have talked about lighting designers struggling to survive in the professional world of the built environment planning. About how relatively fast they have achieved a significant role in the team, when a project requires a plus of excellence or special attention to every detail. The lighting designer can bring its own point of view, a personal touch, to the programme, and would significantly help in the construction of identity and genuinity, to prevent the project to disappear in the mist of indifference. When, awakening in a hotel room, and looking through the window, do we really want to be completely unable to decide in which part of the holy world are we? I believe that it is the duty and the responsibility of the design professionals and planners: to prevent this situation to happen with all their enthusiasm and forces. Even when the market strives to push in the opposite direction desperately looking for benefit at any cost. Jaime Valenzuela (www.levostudio.com)