• Home
• The tour
• Blog
• Inspirations
• Entrants
• About

Published on: 3rd of August 2011
Current city: Lisbon

I’m Paula Rainha from Lisbon, Portugal. I’m a full trained architect but I did an MSc in Light & Lighting in London, where I’ve worked as a lighting designer for 5 years.

I entered this competition as I believe this a lifetime opportunity as an independent lighting designer to be able to do what I love the most: travelling, exploring light and learning. There are not many chances as a professional to be able to promote the importance of light in our environment as well as raising the profile of the lighting community in such an original and exceptional way as a light world tour. This combined with the possibility of meeting outstanding people in the field, learning new and interesting things, seeing in loco great examples of lighting installations, blogging and getting into photography again turn this into an unmissable competition that I felt I should participate.

My inspiration in lighting and in life in general comes from the things that surround us, be it nature, science, architecture, design, art, different cultures, performing arts and most important: people. People are definitely a great source of inspiration and learning from them is always inspiring. I feel that we can learn a lot just by observing other cultures, engaging with people of different backgrounds, playing or seeing children interacting with their environment.

On the other hand, architecture and lighting have the capacity of inspiring me not only because it is part of my daily job but because I feel that they can actually cross borders and be considered ‘universal languages’.

Nevertheless, I’m also inspired by other things: I love going to exhibitions and museums because I know I will always learn or see something new.

I love travelling; it always makes me think of how many different ways of living and experiencing the world there are, not to mention the different urban and natural landscapes.

I’m inspired by science.  When I became a lighting designer, I learned to think like a scientist: I try to understand how things work.  I love to experiment and am intrigued by new things.  I find that overcoming this challenge is always very inspirational and makes you try to go further and improve yourself not only as a professional but as an individual.

And finally, I’m inspired by creativity. I’m a local city organizer of an event called Pecha Kucha which is basically a platform for all types of creative people to share their work.  I’m constantly encouraged by these people and their projects to continue being a creative person.