 Lighting Education
Conscientious daylighting and lighting design are paramount to successful "green" buildings. How does one keep up with rapid changes in product availability and research, particularly in lighting? Obviously, we cannot all attend every conference and seminar. At Light/Space/Design, we make education our standard. Not only do we keep abreast of the latest technology, we believe strongly in widening the availability of that knowledge to less specialized professional colleagues and clientele. Online Lighting Education through RedVector.com A new series of courses by architect/lighting designer and educator Donna Leban are now available on-line through RedVector.com, the leading provider of continuing education for licensed professionals. These courses are intended for design professionals who would like to learn about current lighting practice, technologies, and the science behind what you see. Courses are designed to be fun, as well as challenging the way you've thought about lighting and lighting design. They are suitable for a wide range of professionals, contractors, designers, and those just interested in being better informed about lighting issues. |
Light/Space/Design provides professional level seminars for many organizations. Some of those previously served include:
- American Institute of Architects
- American Planning Association
- Construction Specifications Institute
- Efficiency Vermont
- Green Mountain Power Corporation
- Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
- State of Vermont, Department of Public Service
Two Hour to Half Day Seminars
Seminars on lighting topics are arranged for professional organizations, or as internal continuing education for architectural and engineering firms. The best format for these courses is a combined group of architects and engineers, as the best discussion occurs in these instances. All courses, however, involve lively discourse and problem solving. Courses can be certified for continuing education credits through the American Institute of Architects. The content of the program is modified for the specific needs of the group.
- Daylighting - Designing a space for daylighting, integrating luminaires and lighting controls for optimum flexibility and energy savings, types of dimming and switching controls including dimming or step control ballasts.
- Lighting Design Process - integration with architectural and engineering design for optimal results. This course is especially useful for architects and engineers who have not worked with a lighting designer or sustainable design consultant, and who wish to learn more about LEED project certification requirements.
- Outdoor Lighting and Dark Sky Protection - a fascinating and complex issue that involves more than cut-off lighting. Explores the human response to light at night including adaptation, the perception of safety added with proper security lighting, best practices in decorative outdoor lighting for various environments, outdoor lighting ordinances, outdoor lighting studies and best practices.
- Outdoor Lighting Tours- custom designed tours of your communities which help local citizens, planning and zoning officials and boards, and local designers and contractors better understand quality issues in outdoor lighting. This is an excellent prerequisite for any town wanting to create a lighting ordinance. Sample lighting ordinance outlines and language can be provided, along with consulting on technical and market issues involving outdoor lighting.
- Lighting and Energy Codes - why designing to code is really not best practice, but establishes a baseline that can be readily improved upon with thoughtful design, modeling, use of control systems and other commonly available products. Provides a realistic, experienced level of discussion on how to improve existing practices. Explores the need for close coordination of lighting, electrical, and HVAC with architectural design- and why design/build electrical and mechanical systems frequently perform poorly.
- New lighting technologies and specialty applications including LED's and Fiber Optic Systems. Both technologies have current, highly effective uses. This seminar presents current uses as well as what we may expect in the near future.
- Lighting for Retail Merchandising - one of the great opportunities for improvement in energy efficiency and sustainability. How to improve comfort and energy efficiency without any loss of aesthetic and dramatic appeal. This is a great course for retail interior designers on best current lighting technologies and practices.
Lighting Industry Links
- www.iesna.org - Illuminating Engineering Society of North America
- www.lightforum.com - A resource center for the lighting industry
- www.lrc.rpi.edu - Lighting Research Center at Renssaellaer Polytechnic Institute
- www.eren.doc.gov/buildings - Department of Energy, Rebuild America Program
- www.nlb.org - National Lighting Bureau (a non-profit educational group for commercial/industrial/institutional decision makers on benefits of high quality lighting)
- www.lightingdesignlab.com - Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance lighting lab
- www.designlights.org - The DesignLights Consortium (a utility-based group aimed at informing the design and construction community about Quality Lighting
- www.darksky.org - International Dark Sky Association
- www.lightfair.com - Lightfair International - the largest annual lighting-related conference and trade fair in North America
- www.efficiencyvermont.org - Efficiency Vermont
- www.usgbc.org - United States Green Building Council
photo credit: djleban. project credit: baked beads, waitsfield, vt. project by light space design.