As students return to Oxford and autumn evenings draw in, I’ve been reflecting on one of our most memorable projects The Levine Building, Trinity College, Oxford.
A few years ago, we had the privilege of designing the lighting for a series of new buildings added to the College’s historic heart. The brief was both exciting and daunting: how do you create a contemporary scheme that feels at home among centuries of architectural tradition?
The answer, we discovered, lay in listening — to the architecture, to the rhythms of academic life, and to the people who would use the spaces every day. Our role was not to dominate, but to integrate to design lighting that quietly supports study, teaching, and community, while enhancing textures and guiding movement with subtlety.
For me, this project was also a reminder that lighting design is never static. Just as the academic year begins anew, we are always learning — from our collaborators, from the spaces we work within, and from the lived experience of those who inhabit them. Every project teaches us something new about balance, atmosphere, and the emotional power of light.
As I look back, Trinity continues to reinforce one of my own personal learnings: that the most successful designs are those that respect the past, serve the present, and quietly prepare us for the future.
You can explore more of the Trinity College project here