Pavlina is an Associate lighting designer who has worked on a diverse range of projects from the London 2012 Aquatics centre to designing the lighting for Paris Fashion Week.
In 2017, Pavlina was named as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering under 35 by the Telegraph, and in 2018 one of the 40 Under 40 Young Lighting Designers globally. She is also heavily involved in the ‘This is Engineering’ campaign, seeking to interest young people in a career in engineering.
2007 Joined Arup
The idea of engineering had always held an interest for me – my father was an engineer – but sport was important to me growing up. Growing up in Cyprus, I was part of the national tennis team, and one of my proudest achievements was winning a bronze medal in the Games of the Small States of Europe.
When I was looking for universities, I was keen to combine my tennis training with studying. I attended the University of Illinois where I played tennis and studied electrical engineering. Ultimately, I decided not to pursue a career in tennis and having subsequently torn both of my anterior cruciate ligaments I’m so glad that I had something strong to fall back on!
“Seeing my original concept work so well in practice, and to surpass the client’s expectations, was one of the most fulfilling moments of my career. ”
After graduating, I came back to Europe and made the decision to study for a Masters degree in lighting. I joined Arup as a Graduate Lighting Consultant in 2007 and I’ve been here ever since.
Not only do I get to work with some of the best engineers and designers in the world, but I love the fact that we place such a huge emphasis on delivering projects of the highest quality. This is the ethos that our founder Ove Arup set out, and I find that everyone really does embrace this – it’s not just a corporate motto. The result is that we get to work on some of the best and most varied projects available as our clients trust us to deliver the best work.
The variety of our projects is what I enjoy the most about working at Arup. I’m most proud of the system I developed for the Gagosian Gallery at Grosvenor Hill - simulating a naturally daylit space in the interior. The client wanted daylight to feature in the space, but we could not use skylights or windows. I developed an electric lighting solution to solve this challenge. LED strips of different colour temperatures are used to backlight a series of glazed laylights. An external light sensor records the brightness and colour temperature and based on the data, a computer calculates the mix of colour and dimming levels required from the LEDs. The LEDs then backlight the laylights, simulating the external lighting within the gallery. Seeing my original concept work so well in practice, and to surpass the client’s expectations, was one of the most fulfilling moments of my career.
My proudest working achievement was being recognised as the Telegraph’s Top 50 under 35 Women in Engineering Awards in 2017. I’ve also been recognised by the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards. Being in lighting, it can be difficult to receive recognition as an engineer, so I hope that by being represented I can help inspire younger generations.
