learn2light
learn2light.com has an overview of the schools that offer programs in architectural lighting design, engineering or science.
For now, we are defining an architectural lighting design program as having at least 5 courses in lighting design and at least one instructor or professor who devotes the majority of their teaching time to lighting design. Programs should offer a degree or certificate, bachelors or masters, or at least a major or minor in architectural lighting.
This is a general guide, to identify a place where the information is available, a place to start and a sense of what each program offers.
Watch a video from students of Parsons The New School for Design.
IALD Education Trust
Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
London, UK
The MSc/Graduate Diploma Light and Lighting aims to provide an holistic approach to lighting design considering the human response to light and lighting, the science and technology of the subject, together with the design of lighting as an integrated part of architecture.
HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Hildersheim, Germany
In Europe, Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen is the only institution that has developed and installed “Lighting-Design” as a full-time undergraduate degree course. It is an interdisciplinary course which integrates and uses the competence of other existing faculties, such as Interior Design, Architecture, Product-Design and Economics or Art.
Hochschule Wismar
Wismar, Germany
The aim of the course in Architectural Lighting Design is to train the students in the application of daylight in architecture as well as in artificial lighting. Light is considered to be essential in the perception of architecture. By working on independent projects and practical experiments the students can deepen their knowledge achieved in theoretical lectures.
KTH, Royal Institute of Technology
Handen, Sweden
Our approach to light and lighting design is a combination of visual, physical and biologically knowledge applied to design, technology and health. The aim is to provide the student with the knowledge and understanding that is required for interior and exterior lighting design projects with electrical and daylight solutions.
Parsons The New School for Design
New York, NY USA
Located in the heart of New York City, the MFA Lighting program at Parsons offers a strong foundation in the intellectual, aesthetic, historical and technical considerations in lighting design. The interdisciplinary studio based design curriculum reflects the concern that human experience is central to all projects, with socially responsible engagement in the built and natural environments.
Penn State University
Pennsylvania, PA USA
Penn State offers a 5-year undergraduate Architectural Engineering degree with an option in Lighting and Electrical Systems that focuses on lighting design. The graduate program in lighting admits students from backgrounds in Architecture, Engineering or Science. Graduates are employed by top lighting design and A/E firms, lighting product manufacturers and academic institutions.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY USA
The graduate programs in lighting at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are housed with the Lighting Research Center, the world’s premier university-based research center devoted to lighting. Rensselaer’s graduate programs in lighting include course work in the physics of light, lighting technology, lighting design and application, human factors, and light and health.
Ryerson University
Toronto, ON Canada
This multidisciplinary certificate is designed to provide students with the broad knowledge base and wide range of skills required as professionals in the lighting industry. Graduates of this program are working to design buildings which are environmentally responsible and ergonomically sound, and with enhanced vision for health and safety.
Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, TX USA
Begun with a Nuckolls Fund for Lighting Education grant in 1996, lighting design at TCU blossomed into an interdisciplinary lighting minor with a dedicated, well equipped educational lighting lab in two years. The Lighting Designer in Residence program has attracted a veritable who’s who of lighting design including Paul Gregory, Chip Israel and Jonathan Spiers.
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO USA
Students following the lighting and electrical option in the Architectural Engineering undergraduate curriculum take a minimum of 5 lighting courses that help them acquire the knowledge for the lighting industry. The lecture work helps students learn the theory of light, vision, and computations. The design studio course work helps students learn design principles, apply theory, and solve lighting design problems.
University of Nebraska
Omaha, NE USA
Architectural Engineering is the engineering design of buildings. Students specialize in either the design of building structural, mechanical and acoustical systems, or building lighting and electrical systems. The intent is to develop both breadth and depth. At the graduate level, the program of studies is customized to a particular student’s area of specialization.