Sustainable urban light strategies - economic and social

Kongsberg - Part time

Course content

Light and lighting systems consume between 15 – 19 percent of the global electrical power, and accounts for five per cent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. 
55 percent of the world’s population or 4,2 billion people live in cities, and the trend is increasing. Municipalities and other stakeholders want more vibrant cities, with more activities and more social interaction even after dark. Recent, awareness on light pollution and the benefits of reducing unwanted lighting has grown, even to public demands on reduction in energy consumption and negative effects of light and lighting. In what might be considered unsolvable paradoxes new ways of approaching light and lighting design must appear, and more complex lighting design contexts calls for new knowledge, new skills, and competences to deal with future light and lighting challenges. The students are introduced to new scientific models and research that might help them in their work. The aim is partly to broaden the scope of the term sustainable lighting, and to search for intelligent and communicative effective light and lighting solutions in light strategies. The students are encouraged to put aside established regulations and guidelines on specifics in lighting and look at the sum of needs, objectives, functions, and desires to recalibrate our public spaces and places in terms of light and lighting design. Rather than fixing rigid lighting plans the students are asked to work on visions and missions to generate sustainable light strategies.

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Learning activities

Students are to be present at resource lectures either at campus or at external company and take part in individual or group work supervised by lecturer. Students will conduct large scale urban light analysis on paper and PC/Mac. Site visits in urban areas. They will individually and in groups precent compulsory work on screen. 

Coursework requirements 

One compulsory hand in must be passed prior to the final exam. 

Compulsory activity and compulsory attendance

Students must be present in at least 80% of the common activities

Forms of assessment 

Lecturers will give feedback on hand ins and compulsory hand in, and sensor will grade the exam. 
This course has one compulsory hand in that must be passed prior to the final exam. The exam is an oral examination with presentation on screen. The compulsory work is graded passed/not passed and the final exam is assessed according to letter grades A-E (F)