Public defence of doctoral dissertation: Johanna Enger on light as a spatial and sensory experience

The research project explores light as a spatial and sensory experience. The dissertation seeks to bridge the gap between design practice and scientific research, and to contribute new perspectives on how the perceived qualities of light can be understood and given a language in practice.

A central point of departure is the lack of an established terminology for perceived lighting quality. The work develops new ways of describing and analysing perceived lighting quality in spatial environments, and examines how this often elusive knowledge can gain a foothold in the built environment through design and planning processes. Through experimental studies, a semantic method for investigating the spatial experience of light environments is introduced: LENS (Light Experience & Nomenclature Structure). The method is based on the relationship between perceived light level and perceived contrast, and on how they interact to shape the atmosphere of a space. The work also explores the intersection of the measurable and the immeasurable, as well as that between different knowledge traditions, through light.

Konstfack's Department of Design, Interior Architecture and Visual Communication
Opponent: Ellen Kathrine Hansen, AAU Copenhagen
Examining committee: Martin Avila, Konstfack, Peter Boyce, RPI, Troy, US and Stavroula Angeliki, KTH, Stockholm
Supervisors: Hillevi Hemphälä, LTH, Lund and Lisa Tan, Konstfack, Stockholm
Chair: Mathew Gregory, Konstfack, Stockholm

Konstfack c/o Lumafabriken, Lumaparksvägen 7, Stockholm, the Tvärbana line to Luma