We build the light a room is missing.
We make domes, skylights, sacred windows, art walls and screens for hotels, private clubs, public buildings and private houses. The work covers design, painting, firing, leading and installation.
- 71projects
- 25+cities and regions
- Tianjinkilns, leading benches, steelwork
- 455project photographs
Design and fabrication
The QI-LIGHT team designs the work and also makes and installs it. Our glass is in buildings in cities across China, and on a few projects abroad.
Yang Ruolan leads the design. She trained in mural painting at the China Academy of Art, and her research is on the formal language of painted glass. The workshop is in Tianjin, with kilns, leading benches, a steel shop and installation crews.
Five kinds of room, five ways of working
A dome over a ballroom and a single chapel window are two different kinds of project. Beyond the drawing itself, the fixings, the safety requirements and the programme all differ.
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01
Hotel work has to hit an opening date while the fit-out runs alongside it. We design to the ceiling that is actually being built, coordinate the grid with the fit-out contractor, and detail every panel so one can be swapped without taking the whole field down.
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02
A house usually means one client and one set of drawings, and the finished glass gets looked at closely, again and again. Lead widths, solder joints and the edge of a brushstroke are all plainly visible in daylight, which is why private work is the most demanding we take on.
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03
A public project sees heavy footfall every day, and upkeep falls to the building’s own team. So we put the panel joints where maintenance can reach them, choose materials for the long run, and hand over cleaning and panel-replacement notes.
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04
We make traditional painted and fired figure windows, using grisaille, silver stain, enamels and repeated firings, and we make contemporary abstract schemes as well. The imagery follows what the parish already has, and the sizes follow the openings already in the building. We have worked on old churches and on new ones.
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05
Retail runs the tightest programmes we take, so the drawing is frozen early and the panels are made to drop straight into the shopfitter’s frames without adjustment on site.
Recent and representative projects
These projects cover hospitality, public buildings, sacred spaces and private commissions.
From survey to installation, in six steps
A project usually passes through the six stages below, from measuring on site to the final fixing. The steel sub-frames that carry a dome are made within the same sequence.
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01
Brief & survey
We measure the opening, record the light at different hours, and agree what the glass actually has to do for the room.
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02
Concept & cartoon
Colour studies first, then the cartoon at full size. Nothing is cut until the 1:1 drawing is signed.
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03
Sample & approval
A fired sample panel in the real glasses, viewed in the real light. Changes are cheap here and expensive later.
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04
Painting & firing
Grisaille, silver stain and enamel, fired in several passes, so the colour is in the glass rather than on it.
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05
Leading & assembly
The glass is cut, joined in lead or copper foil, soldered on both faces and cemented. Domes also take a steel sub-frame.
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06
Delivery & installation
Numbered crates, installation on site, protection until handover, and a maintenance note for the building’s facilities team.
Project pictures: 455 photographs
Domes, skylights, sacred windows, screens, facades and art walls.
Tell us about your project
Let us know what the space is for, the approximate size of the opening and when it has to be finished, with a photograph of the site. That is enough for a first reply.
Start a project