Katja Bülow

The Daylight Laboratory as a Pedagogical Resource 

The Light Lab potentials to teach and learn about light in architecture are an ongoing research interest to me. In a recent co-authored article published in the Danish Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, I explore the pedagogical value of the Daylight Laboratory at a time when digital tools are becoming increasingly central to architectural education.

Drawing on two case studies, the article investigates how working with physical scale models at the Daylight Laboratory can deepen students' understanding of daylight as a spatial and architectural phenomenon. The study argues that the Daylight Laboratory is not an obsolete analogue tool, but an important complement to digital simulations, offering sensory and experiential insights that cannot be fully replicated on a screen.

Conducted in collaboration with colleagues from the research cluster Light in Architecture and Design, the research highlights the value of combining physical and digital approaches in architectural education and reinforces the role of the Daylight Laboratory as a unique learning environment.

The article is in Danish

Link to article: https://tidsskrift.dk/dut/article/view/159527

One research area I repeatedly return to is light in the urban night-time environment. Looking back, the project LED in Urban Spaces (2012–2016) unfoldet the impact of street lighting and how it adds to spatial qualities in the city after dark.

Together with lighting design practitioners and educators at the School of Design, Jesper Kongshaug and Claus Asp, I mapped the light sources installed in Copenhagen’s street lighting system to explore the potential implications of the Municipality of Copenhagen’s forthcoming transition to LED technology. The project sought to establish a detailed understanding of the existing lighting conditions before the large-scale replacement of conventional light sources.

Combining municipal lighting data with photographic surveys of selected urban routes, we documented and analysed the distribution and characteristics of street lighting across the city. The resulting maps and analyses were published in the book 'Into a Mapping of Copenhagen Street Lighting 2014', which presents both the methodology and findings of the study.

The publication is one of four books produced as part of the research project LED Lighting: Interdisciplinary LED Lighting Research, led by Karin Søndergaard. Bringing together perspectives from design, architecture and technology the project contributed new perspectives on how emerging LED technologies may influence our environment. 

Link to the book: https://issuu.com/kadk/docs/mapping_of_copenhagen_street_lighti