Prioritizing the starting point and sequencing of each element is necessary and interrelated. For example, daylighting is important, but students may not be able to fully grasp essential aspects if there are not some basic introductory issues addressed first. In the end, educators, practitioners, and students agree that understanding lighting quality and developing a sense of light and space are the most important lighting fundamentals, and this has become a starting point. It ultimately will be up to each program director to sequence and prioritize the information to work with their curriculum and determine the duration spent on each area of study to accommodate the variances in their respective programs. Some academic institutions have limited resources or credit hours devoted to a lighting program, while others have full-time faculty and up to two years of study. The ALF acknowledges that individual institutional structures may have differing curricular focus, such as science, engineering, research, or design, which enhances each school’s unique offering to students wishing to study lighting design. The special emphasis of these programs would remain, but the ALF would provide better consistency of fundamental lighting design knowledge for students graduating and receiving a degree in lighting design. The ALF is intended to unify a core benchmark of lighting knowledge, without forcing programs to teach to an identical template.
Next Steps Some educators would like the ALF to be developed into an actual curriculum, while others see it as a foundation to build on for additional studies. In either case, the ALF areas of study represent minimums and provide graduates with a broad knowledge base and wide range of skills required as professionals in the lighting industry. The ALF is not mandatory or required, but it is a start to having lighting programs worldwide reach some common ground, and helps students bridge their academic study with professional work experience. The aim is to complete the structuring of the ALF by the end of 2008, but it will take time for universities to start implementing the ALF areas of study.
Working to reach some consensus on the subject of a core curriculum, educators and practitioners have met over the past two years at Light+Building in Frankfurt, the Professional Lighting Design Convention in London, and the Education Forum at Lightfair in Las Vegas earlier this year. In addition, student surveys and research into architectural and interior design foundation programs have provided valuable insight into current lighting design programs and areas for improvement. Many architectural and interior design programs are more detailed outlining credit hours, learning outcomes, and requirements for a degree. However, at this time, the international core curriculum workgroup has determined the ALF can be most successful if it is kept simple, addresses basic needs, and maintains flexibility for existing programs’ unique curricular focus.
Past Attempts There have been past approaches for establishing lighting fundamentals, such as the lighting educators conference held at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1994. These ideas were not fully implemented, perhaps because of a lack of agreement, formalization, or endorsement by a lighting organization. However, it remains a useful and often quoted reference when referring to lighting fundamentals and has since provided a springboard to other successful programs, such as Ryerson Polytechnic University in Canada. Ryerson offers a certificate in lighting design as part of a continuing education program, rather than a lighting program specifically under the umbrella of architecture or interior design. The university has had excellent results, with more than 90 students presently enrolled in the lighting courses offered.
In fact, there are many examples of universities successfully implementing a lighting program and already covering the topics proposed in the ALF. Now is the time to look at these success stories and formalize the framework, with the endorsement and support of our lighting organizations such as the IALD, IES, and PLDA. As a relatively new field of study and expertise, lighting designers have looked to established and adjacent trades/fields of study including architecture, interior design, theater, and electrical engineering. Many of these programs have accreditation or performance exams, which can measure the abilities of new graduates determining their readiness for professional employment as well as setting a standard of professionalism. Within our own specialty of lighting design, a self-imposed benchmark of quality, such as the ALF, is an essential step in making the profession of lighting design professional.
The lighting industry is continually evolving, but the basic understanding and fundamental principles of light remain. The ALF outline suggests a core of minimum basics, and as such they will serve the profession well into the future. Over time, establishing the ALF will improve the quality of lighting practice and contribute to the advancement of the lighting industry.
Jean Sundin, IESNA, IALD, PLDA, is a founder and principal of New York City–based lighting design firm Office for Visual Interaction. She has lectured worldwide on the firm’s work, as well as on specification integrity and cost-tracking methods, and is the chairwoman for the Architectural Lighting Fundamentals committee for the PLDA.