ABOUT US
We are Ström, a lighting design studio founded by Swedish/British partnership Anna Clara Sandgren and Emilio Hernandez. We’re based in Sweden, but the projects we collaborate on are far and wide.
THE FOUNDERS
ANNA CLARA SANDGREN
After returning to Sweden in 2020, Anna took the natural next step in her career and co-founded Ström with her partner, Emilio Hernandez. Drawing on her interior design background, expertise in lighting design, and innate sense of style, she brings a fresh and thoughtful perspective to the projects she collaborates on.
While living in the UK, Anna spent nine years at Nulty, joining the practice in its infancy and progressing to associate lighting designer. She worked on projects spanning Europe, the Middle East, Asia and America and led a number of award-winning schemes. She was also named one of the ’40 under 40’ emerging talents in the lighting industry.
Anna has an MSc in Light and Lighting from The Bartlett, UCL and a BA (Hons) in Interior and Spatial Design from University of the Arts London. She’s an advocate for sustainable design and a founding member of the GreenLight Alliance – a lighting community initiative promoting circular design.
From residential, retail and hospitality to commercial and masterplans, our core values remain the same: to create timeless, buildable, maintainable and sustainable lighting schemes.
We believe in restrained design intervention and strive to enhance spaces with light, not luminaires. We’re interested in understanding where lighting design sits within a project hierarchy and tailoring our scope to provide the best value. A clear design brief, along with a collaborative approach and an open dialogue, allows us to make well-informed decisions that benefit the client, the space and the user.
For over 18 years, we’ve worked with interior designers, architects, developers, project managers, end users and on-site contractors (among others) to make sure our lighting designs are realised. Yet our passion for sustainable and circular design also means that we have a continuous dialogue with other lighting designers, suppliers, manufacturers and associations – something that’s very important to us.
Want to know more about what we do? We would love to hear from you! Get in touch here.
EMILIO HERNANDEZ
Emilio’s extensive experience and technical know-how stem from a diverse portfolio of projects across multiple sectors, scales and countries. He’s well-versed in the design goals, working styles, and project approaches in different regions and knows exactly where the involvement of a lighting designer can benefit the design and construction process.
After studying Product Design at Nottingham Trent University, Emilio started out as a daylight designer before moving across to artificial lighting design. In 2020, he relocated to Sweden to co-found Ström with his partner, Anna Clara Sandgren. Before that, he worked for a number of leading lighting design practices in London – the last being Nulty, where he was a director.
Emilio is actively involved in the lighting community and often speaks at conferences, contributes to publications, and gives CPD seminars promoting sustainable lighting design. He’s also a founding member and the chair of the GreenLight Alliance
– a circular design initiative.