Filling in the blanks

1 April 2011 | By Dominic Meyrick

Architectural lighting education is in a bit of disarray and has been for years, writes Dominic Meyrick

In the early days of lighting with electricity, the “who does the artificial lighting?” question was answered with “electricians”, then “electrical engineers” (who still do it) and finally the all pervasive “lighting professional”. But ask how, where and by whom the modern lighting person is trained and answers are still elusive.

There seem to be two main ways people enter the lighting profession. I say “main” because there are all sorts of people from all backgrounds in lighting in the UK.

Some come from an engineering background, learning the numbers and the “kit” of lighting and then, if it is their passion, find a course or someone to take them on and teach them “on the job”.

The second main route is from a design background. This encompasses everything from product design to full blown architecture and, again, if it is their passion… do the same as above. Once “in” the convergence comes and equality rules.

Now, my issue is not with the post-degree lighting design offerings. The number of these courses shows how keen the lighting design community is to learn. From the high-end Bartlett MSc in Light and Lighting, through the Lighting Education Trust’s Diploma, to the humble, but vital, LIF/ILP/SLL and Mid-Career College courses, the appetite for learning about lighting is well catered for whatever stage of further education you find yourself at.

After A-level, but before real work, there seems to be a lack of available courses. If you come into lighting design from an undergraduate engineering background you might get some training, but if you are from a design background you will get none.

Now, don’t write in about the undergraduate courses that do exist. There are a few for entertainment lighting - Rose Bruford, Central St Martins and Glamorgan spring to mind - that do touch on architecture. But it is not these lone outposts of excellence that are my issue - it is the sheer lack of degrees in lighting that irritates. An internet search reveals the number of UK degree courses for particular disciplines (source whatuni.com):

Architecture 71
Interior 94
Product 57
Landscape 11
Engineering 1,181

The problem might be that from any of these degrees you could come into lighting design and do OK thank you very much.

So is there a need at all? Is the profession ever going to be big enough to need lots of trained lighting designers/professionals?

I remember a few years ago hearing someone I admire greatly use this argument, stating that the profession is not, and will never be, big enough to cope with the number of graduates and certainly not in the numbers that emerge from some other design disciplines. So let’s be modest and compare the industry with landscape architecture, which has the lowest number of degree courses. Is lighting design as big as landscape architecture? The straight answer is no but it should be.

Again the internet (creativepool.co.uk) says there are 6,000 chartered landscape architects in the UK but, on the website, I see something I would like to see in my own profession: “About half work in private practices… other employers include the construction industry and public sector organisations.”

My hope for lighting design in the future is not more and bigger lighting design practices - that is not why I want better, focused, lighting education. I want more “jobbing” lighting designers, in councils, public organisations and, yes, in architectural and consulting engineering firms. This is the way in which artificial lighting design will get “better” - from the bottom up.