dpa Lighting Consultants are one of the longest running lighting design practices in the world and have lead the way in groundbreaking schemes for over half a century. Here, we take a look at the history of the practice together with some of their favourite projects...

dpa lighting consultants was established in the 1950's by architect Derek Phillips. Phillips qualified at Liverpool and, with inspiration from meetings with Frank Lloyd Wright and Corbusier, decided to dedicate his career to professional lighting design in combination with general architectural work.

The practice thrived from its outset operating as both architects and lighting consultants. Early lighting design commissions included Westminster Abbey in 1963 and the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. Phillips was always at the forefront of promoting the importance of the lit environment and with his architectural background gave equal emphasis to natural light. The practice today still maintains many of the philosophies and ethics that Phillips set in the early years.

Below is an extract of Phillips' book, titled 'Lighting' published in 1966 and costing 7/6 (37.5p in today's currency). The extract shows details that were cutting edge at the time with a variety of floating planes using concealed fluorescent sources. Extraordinarily with all the technological advances these details are very much in use today.

Throughout the '60s and '70s the practice won a variety of notable commissions, the lighting design work was always run in conjunction with the architectural practice. This is in no way a negative but has provided the practice with the immensely solid foundations it continues to grow from. In the '80s the property boom and a broader acknowledgement of the importance of lighting meant that the lighting consultancy work started to dominate the architectural practice. This instigated the separation of the two businesses although still operating from the same office in Hertfordshire.

Nick Hoggett joined the practice in 1979 and soon focused on the lighting design side of the business activities. Many important commissions were gained including the Durbar Court at the Foreign Office in Whitehall, projects in the Far East and a variety of other UK and International schemes. The work in the Far East instigated the establishment of an office in Hong Kong which dealt with work in South-East Asia.

Throughout the '80s the lighting design practice grew and established itself as one of the world leaders in the discipline. The principals avidly believed in supporting institutional activities to further promote the need for clients to recognise the importance of procuring professional lighting design advice as well as the huge benefits that well designed and implemented lighting can provide.

dpa now has a team of 30 people based in four offices - London, Dubai, Oxfordshire and Edinburgh. The team is the strength of the business with many designers having huge and diverse experience in the subject. The design team has deliberately been recruited from a variety of backgrounds including architecture, interior design, product design, electrical engineering, theatrical lighting and urban design as well as those who have only worked in the lighting industry. This skill base provides the practice with an unrivalled breadth of knowledge thus enabling the practice to carry out successfully a huge diversity of work.

Most people think of lighting designers as people who conceive artificial lighting solutions. At dpa the work involves natural lighting studies, master-planning for cities, towns or major developments such as the Dubai International Financial Centre. They even work as expert witnesses including a murder case which related to the identification of someone's hair colour under low pressure sodium lighting. In the UK, the environmental impact of lighting has become widely recognised as significant and the practice contributes to environmental impact reports more and more regularly now.