Philips Lighting announced the winner of the 2011 Light World Tour, an initiative designed to share visual inspiration in the professional lighting design community. The 10 finalists were determined by user votes over a 2 month period using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. An international panel of experts reviewed the finalists’ entries and selected the winner, Paula Rainha, a lighting designer and trained architect from Lisbon.

Rainha will embark September 6 on a 3 month world tour to visit the most compelling lighting sights, installations, and events. She will also have the opportunity to conduct interviews with leading designers, architects, technology experts, and artists in the field. Rainha will share the journey through daily blogging, photo and video uploads, and tweets, developing a social media following of fellow lighting design professionals and enthusiasts.

Rainha’s entire journey will be funded and supported by Philips to help her realize her vision.

In her entry, Rainha emphasized her focus on the emotional, physiological, and psychological effects of handling light: “I’m very keen on understanding how light is interpreted and experienced by people all over the world, and I truly believe this could be a great source of inspiration and my own personal contribution to the lighting community.”

Martin Lupton, co-founder of Light Collective and member of the Philips Light World Tour expert panel, commented, “After a lot of discussion with the other judges, Paula finally emerged as the winner – it was her desire to connect with people as well as looking at inspirational lighting that finally set Paula apart from the other entrants. I look forward to seeing and reading the results of her travels, especially those relating to how light can cross borders and if it can be a universal language.”

The expert panel of judges included Lupton as well as Rogier van der Heide, vice president and chief design officer of Philips Lighting, and Tai Lee Siang, group managing director of Ong & Ong.

Tai noted, “The Light World Tour is an exciting event because it is the first time that the lighting community and the media world meet. It is encouraging to see the world connected on a topic like lighting and to see great response even from the voters.”

More than 60 entrants from every continent described what lighting inspires them most, from natural wonders to professional installations and artworks to events. They and lighting enthusiasts the world over have submitted their favorite lighting sights to the Light World Tour site. The website is expected to become a permanent, shared online “sketchbook” of stimulating views and ideas for the global lighting professionals community.

“I was truly impressed by the quality of all the submissions and the candidates. We look forward to supporting and sharing Paula Rainha’s travel adventures with Philips’ lighting community online,” said van der Heide.

Rianha’s blog can be found at www.lightworldtour.com.