Architectural Lighting Design

This course is a collaboration between the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. It offers a unique learning trajectory to master the art and science of lighting indoor and outdoor spaces. Students learn to combine daylight and electric lighting to achieve optimal visual performance, communicate architectural and branding expressions, and keep environmental footprint from lighting at a minimum. Through hands-on workshops, a group assignment rooted in the town of Delft and pitches to mentors from industry, students acquire new knowledge from first-hand experience that can be immediately applied in practice.

There will be two types of assignments: one group project assignment (lighting plan for a small existing space) carried out in groups of 4 students during studio sessions and self-study time (40% of the final grade) and a series of individual assignments collected in an individual portfolio which acts as a diary where to document the student’s journey during the course and reflections coming from it (60% of the final grade).

Group assignment (40% of final grade)

The group assignment will consist in choosing a space in the centre of Delft from a list of space types provided by us (e.g. small art galleries, cafes, hairdressers, small outdoor tunnels, parks), identifying criticalities with the current lighting design and present them to others, propose and execute a new lighting plan, build a model to showcase the plan (choice between scale model, 3D model, VR), evaluate the performance of the new plan, and communicate the final lighting plan to stakeholders.

Individual assignment (60% of final grade)

The individual assignments will be tightly linked to the lecture content of specific weeks. Students will need to complete their assignments by the following week, then the feedback will be provided and discussed during contact hours. Each student will collect the results of the assignments and their reflections on them in an individual portfolio, which will be evaluated at the end of the course. Some examples of individual assignments are: selection and discussion of lighting qualities seen in photographs made by the student, focusing on materiality and mood; research on a lighting design and/or designer that inspire the student; calculation of the operational energy demand of a lighting plan; visual comfort assessment of a given space; lighting plan and execution for a shoebox; visual representation of daylight dynamics (colors, shadows) during a day.

Students pass the course with a 6.0 or higher. With a lower grade, the course can be repaired to change the grade into a pass. The repair is unsupervised and needs to be completed within 2 weeks after the end of the course. When the repair is unsuccessful, the student needs to follow the entire course again, or possibly another Q5 elective in the third education period.