SKK Net

SKK Lighting was founded in 1979 by Managing Director Shiu-Kay Kan. Shiu-Kay was born in Hong-Kong, before moving to Edinburgh and studying at Telford College. After passing all his exams, he was recommended by his tutor to study in London.

He went to The Polytechnic of Central London, now the University of Westminster, in 1969 to study architecture and obtained his RIBA qualification in 1976. He then went to study garbage architecture at the Architectural Association, in Bedford Sq London, under Martin Pawley and subsequently won a scholarship to go to a seminar at the Tallahassee University in Florida. 

His Garbage architectural design of a conservatory built of secondary wastes of tin cans, cardboard and Watney beer crates, gained a lot of attention from the press and Shiu-Kay was asked to appear on Blue Peter, presented by John Nokes and Percy Thrower. 

In 1974 he wrote his thesis paper on building architecture out of waste. 

He spent his early career as an Architect working for Sir Norman Foster on Hong Kong HQ of HSBC and SAPA 

He also worked for Nick Grimshaw and Terry Farrell on public housing. He then went to Milan to pursue a career as a designer and had a brief stint as a 3D designer for fashion house FIORUCCI SPA. 

He became heavily influenced by the style of Milanese and developed a strong interest in the designer lighting company. 

He was denied a job for Flos so went back to London to start his own company at the right time right moment. After making a successful start as an architect, Shiu-Kay turned his attention to designing lights. His first design was the “Kite Light” which he designed whilst working with Mark Sutton Vane. This proved to be a very successful design and was sold to the Conran Shop, spurring Shiu-Kay on to take up lighting design full time. After his initial success, Shiu-Kay sold his design to some major clients, including House of Frasier, Habitat and Ikea. 

In 1982 he started his architectural lighting department, this proved to be equally as successful as his “soft option” products. His projects included the St Anne Shopping Centre, BT, AA, BA, NEXT and Oasis to name a few. In 1983 he won the Philips lighting award on PL lamps. Originally SKK was based in Belsize Village NW London, before moving to Islington and finally settling In Soho 18 years ago and setting up a shop/office/showroom under one roof.

Throughout the years SKK has been renowned in the Design world for creating innovative, eccentric and original products, whilst keeping one step ahead of the rest of the industry. In the current environment, SKK is committed to cutting the energy consumed by lighting. As a company we are designing energy efficient lighting which uses LED, and creating lighting schemes which also utilise the technology.

SERVICES