Jonathan Speirs, who passed away this morning
Architect and lighting designer Jonathan Speirs has lost his long battle with cancer. The celebrated founding partner at Speirs + Major passed away at his home in Edinburgh this morning.
Speirs retired from his day-to-day duties at Speirs + Major after he was diagnosed with cancer in late 2010, but continued to work on an informal basis with the practice until the end of 2011.
Speirs co-founded Lighting Design Partnership in 1984 before leaving to form Jonathan Speirs and Associates in Edinburgh in 1992 and soon after joined forces with Mark Major to form Speirs + Major.
He was one of the most decorated and respected lighting designers in the international lighting community having won numerous national and international awards over the course of his career.
In 1997 he won the Lighting Dimensions International Architectural Lighting Designer of the Year Award and in 2008 he won an IALD radiance award for Barajas Airport in Madrid.?The airport was one of four Stirling prize-winning projects that he worked on. In March this year he was able to overcome his ill health to join Speirs + Major in accepting the Design Practice of the Decade Award at the Lighting Design Awards in London.
After his retirement in 2010 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and received an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater the University of Heriot Watt. He was also made an Honorary Member of the International Association of Lighting Designers and won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Lighting Designer's Association.
A statement from Speirs + Major said: "It is with great regret and deep personal sadness that we must announce that Jonathan Speirs lost his fight against cancer on 18 June 2012. Since his terminal diagnosis in late 2010 Jon showed characteristic strength and a steely determination to defy the life limiting constraints put upon him. He continued to work with us and travel widely until the end of 2011 finding energy and solace from the great loves of his life, his family and his work. Our thoughts are with Liz, Lucie, Erin, his sister, brothers and father. We will miss him dearly but will keep him with us, working to his and our primary objective: delivering great projects."
