An Inspired Chat with Claudia Kappl-Joy of Barrio Viejo

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Claudia Kappl-Joy. Check out our conversation below.

Claudia , really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
This past week the International Association of Lighting Design (IALD) had hosted is annual lighting conference, here in Tucson. I could bring most of my team to this ‘Enlighten Americas 2025’ conference, which was a joy.
What took me by surprise and made me proud, was a moment during the Welcome address of the three day conference, when Amy Oliver, Director of the Science Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory ended her Keynote with a slide of good examples in lighting design. This slide referenced two of my projects; both early works, 1) a street lighting application in the Barrio Viejo, and 2) a residential lighting project at the edge of the Tucson Mountains. It was surprising and exciting to receive this shoutout, with respected colleges in the audience and my team at my side.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an Austrian Transplant, now calling the Sonoran Desert home. I have lived and worked in and out of Tucson for the past eighteen years. For the past 13, I have led ‘CLL . Concept Lighting Lab’, a Boutique Lighting and Interior Design Studio of currently seven. Our projects range from small civic to large scale hospitality projects. Works include High End Residential and Commercial scopes. Our studio practices in Tucson and we are engaged across the larger region – including California to Texas, all the way to the East Coast, Latin America and Europe.

This also is my 8th year of consecutive teaching at the University of Arizona (UofA), where I share my passion for light & lighting, and design with students at the Colleges of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Planning (CAPLA) and Engineering.

On a more personal note; I am drawn to authenticity – in material, product, conversation and in people.

I love where I live and what I get to do. I live for memorable experiences, enjoy travel with exposure to different cultures and places. I crave for genuine exchange and conversation, can be captivated by straight talk, or poetic words alike; will be moved by rhythm, the tune of music, and appreciate art. I will seek out the calm, the pause, and the shadow, not just the light; and am fascinated by the human condition, natures beauty and lights phenomena.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
At age 21, I had been in a major car accident that shook my family and my world, and world view.

I attest my gusto for life, my impatience, my urge to act, my developed voice and unapologetic dare to speak my truth – less filtered than etiquette suggests; my drive to reach resolve in matters and relationships, my believe that everything is part of everything, that opportunities are to be seized, and that we are responsible for our actions/or in-actions, as a result or resonance to this event. Aware and appreciative of my privilege, I do believe in life is, what we make of it.

When did you last change your mind about something important?
Years ago, I had the opportunity to attend ‘Ghost 13’, the final of the architectural builder summer workshops, hosted by Brian MacKay Lyons at his coastal property in Nova Scotia/Canada. During the closing session – a memorable exchange between Glenn Murcutt, Juhani Pallasmaa and Kenneth Frampton, Glenn Murcutt shared a guiding insight: ‘to not ever compromise’.

At that time, still early in my career in design, still testing the grounds and picking up on the tensions and project challenges – from teams to clients, from market realities to inter-personal relationships and design itself. I had thought that compromise was an essential part of making the process work and to derive at an outcome.

It would take me a while to interpret this statement with more nuance; when ‘not compromising’ evolved into ‘not jeopardizing the integrity of the work, while serving the client’s needs’.

This has since been a mantra. and regularly keeps us working hard to meet both.

With more experience and running my studio in an again changing world – with technology, market, politics and human interactions, I do wonder about this very advice again; where we are no longer in control over processes, entangled with technology – something I am also excited about, yet also cautious of.
Where the medium becomes the message, the content seems to get lost in convenience and methods shaping our work and process. At what point do we know if intelligence has been compromised, buy the sharing of data in lieu of analysis and efficiency?

I have not changed my mind about this topic, but it seems to again be expanding on the thought of what it means to ‘not compromise’.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) widely accepted as the ‘only’ light source these days, is relatively young and took several instances to create a plane-field for it to happen in the first place.
It took banning the formerly far-reaching light-bulb (a glass bulb with heating and glimming filament that emitted light, and the favorite light source of lighting designers and interior decorators), parallelled by extensive marketing campaigns and political support, thru codes and regulations, to push the market toward LEDs.
This encouraged the manufacturing industry to invest and advance the development of the light source and its
output, performance, quality, efficacy and versatility of this light source, which now leads the market.
Often I hear, how sustainable LEDs are; most sustainable, due to reduced energy consumption (-75%), extended lifetime/lamp-life (+decades). However, if taking the whole lifecycle into account – from material sourcing, R&D, lamp and fixture make and cost, needed controls, eventually the disposal and waste from a phosphor coated diode, an LED cannot come close to a formerly loved light-source, the light bulb.
The twenty + years in a market ready advancement has allowed the source to be finetuned to highest performance and the form-factors and opportunities with integration, have though changed the design thinking and opportunities in space-making.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
If I had ten years left, rather than stopping doing something, I would probably assess more closely, what and whom I give energy, thought, time and care to. With the goal of simplifying, I would actively attempt to make time to follow my yet unlived dreams – places and experiences from my wish-list and not delay. I would attend to unfinished business – clean up and close out. I would reflect on my impact – what would I leave behind, and my presence – who could I pass on my gained knowledge, and whom would my lived experience benefit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cll-conceptlightinglab.com
• Instagram: studio_cll
• Linkedin: claudia kappl-joy

Image Credits
Portrait: Claudia during an impromptu interior design workshop at the UofA, Photo by: Itzae Cardena
All Other Images, Vignette from Studio, CLL team at our studio, Studio Rick Joy and Convent Studios Office and Alley Lighting Project, documented by: Logan Havens, 2025