Winter lighting for shopping streets, shopping centres and public spaces.

1. 01Survey

   Walking the street once in daylight with the drawings, then again after closing with a torch. Measuring fixing points, finding out what the facade is actually made of, and deciding where a bracket can go and where it cannot. Heights, access, power, and the parts of the street that must stay open for deliveries and for people walking through.

2. 02Production and adaptation

   Material is counted, powered up and checked on the floor before it goes out: every string lit, dead bulbs replaced, cable lengths matched to the measured runs, brackets made up for the facade they are going onto. Whatever does not fit is adapted in the workshop, not improvised halfway up a ladder.

3. 03Install

   Night shift, in the window the contractor sets. Runs are fixed along the facade, cable dressed and tensioned so it holds its line, connections made and sealed against the weather, and every loose end tied off so nothing hangs into the street or over a doorway.

4. 04Check every run

   Each section is switched on and walked, from the ground and from the lift: bulbs out, cable sagging, a fixing that pulled, a connector not seated, a run that is straight in the drawing and crooked on the wall. Faults are put right before the site is left, not written on a list for later.

5. 05Season

   The installation stays up for the season and has to keep working through wind, rain and frost. Reported faults — a dead section, a run pulled loose, damage after a storm — are attended on the contractor’s schedule, in the same night window as the installation.

6. 06Take down

   After the season the work runs in reverse: power off, runs removed from the top down, fixings taken out and holes made good, material counted back in and packed so the same strings can go up again next year. The street is handed back in the state it was found.

• DamrakAmsterdam
• BeurspleinAmsterdam
• RokinAmsterdam
• KoopgootRotterdam
• LijnbaanRotterdam
• WC ZuidpleinRotterdam
• StadshartAmstelveen
• Hoog CatharijneUtrecht
• The PassageDen Haag
• RosadaRoosendaal
• SchipholAirport

The work is carried out for a national main contractor. Brand names, retail tenants and client identities are not published here. The names above are public places; that is as specific as this page goes.

Working at height

Most of the installation is above head height: facades, cornices, canopy edges, the underside of an arcade roof. Access is by ladder, podium or lift, depending on the height and on what the site allows. Fall protection is used where the height and the equipment call for it, and the access plan is agreed before the first run goes up.

Own tools

Hand tools, cordless tools, cable, test gear and the small parts that keep a night moving — spare bulbs, connectors, tie wire, tape, gloves — travel with me. Material and heavy access equipment are ordered through the contractor against the schedule, so what arrives on site is what the drawing asked for.

Night work

The window is after closing and before opening, and it does not move because a run is not finished. That means starting when the street empties, working to the plan instead of the clock, and leaving the site clean enough that the first person in at six would not know a crew had been there.

Crew work, subcontracted

I work inside a crew under a main contractor, not as the main contractor. Their schedule, their safety plan, their permits, their sign-in and their instruction on the day. Invoiced per day per project, with VAT reverse-charged to the contractor (btw verlegd).