ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING DESIGN 

An advanced design seminar that treats light as a spatial and conceptual design tool. Students examine the material, perceptual and psychological dimensions of light in theory and in practice, focusing on how light shapes form, sets atmosphere and gives a space its identity.

The course covers lighting concepts from historical developments to current strategies: the evolution of daylight architecture, the shift to artificial light, the physiology and psychology of vision, and architecture-oriented approaches such as luminance-based design. Richard Kelly's distinction between ambient luminescence, focal glow and play of brilliance provides a basis for human-centred lighting. Daylight is treated as the primary source: orientation, aperture, room depth and surface reflectance are read as design decisions, together with the non-visual effects of light on rhythm and well-being, and questions of glare, energy use and light pollution at night.

Students study and reinterpret architectural and artistic projects in which light plays a central role, in order to understand its effect on form, structure and spatial experience.

In hands-on tasks students develop conceptual prototypes on the interaction of light and space, supported by lighting simulation software and by physical and digital model making as core methods of spatial experimentation. Site visits to planners, artists and built projects show how concepts become realised design.

Assessment: hands-on lighting experiments and small-scale models in which lighting situations are tested, short presentations on selected topics, and a final summary of the findings.