Perspective
TEL- Lighting Design Lab at ETSAB Barcelona & INCUBE LIGHTING
The impact of artificial light in shaping a sustainable future for our cities.
Oslo, Norway
Streets with (new) meaning
Transforming, adapting, reusing
Naturehood – wilder and greener
Image: Andres Barreto, Maria Perdomo, Giovanna Taques, Adrian Muros Alcojor
Thoughtful planing for both natural and artificial light is the key to regenerate our neighbourhoods and and give new life to existing buildings

Light plays a vital role in our daily lives. It is fundamental to our existence, linking cultural, economic, social and political aspects of our global society.
The rapid growth and expansion of cities, emergence of new technologies, and the increasing recognition for healthier, more sustainable and resilient urban environments creates a wide range of opportunities to rethink the design and function of cities at night.
Today, cities are incredibly complex systems. They are made up of an enormous variety of components, all operating within unique cultural, economic and climatic contexts. A city’s structural and environmental diversity is further complicated by an increasing diversity of citizens—from children and young adults to disabled and elderly, from ethnic minorities to tourists and commuters.
We must rethink urban lighting beyond just a functional add-on for safety or beautification and recognize it as an opportunity and fundamental solution to improve the quality of life for urban citizens. Many of our current city structures and systems have evolved to serve car-based urban mobility; street lighting in particular often services the needs of cars, and not pedestrians. With a growing shift towards integrated multi-modal transport systems this approach needs to be rethought. Time and effort should be placed at the start of all urban design and regeneration efforts to explore and define a dynamic narrative that embraces the night-time.
Our input for this Triennale is to show how integrated and holistic lighting strategies that go beyond a focus on public safety and private commercial advertising strategies can be integrated in the city systems in order to enable lighting that is responsive to specific situations and contexts.
We attach a set of sketches that describe the walking path of a person trough the neighbourhood of Grønland Oslo. We finish at the path the Spectrum parking building. We believe parking buildings will become obsolete in the near future and this will allow as to repurpose the building in order to integrate it into the city public fabric. We propose to create a green oasis using a hybrid lighting technology that collects, transports and simulates natural light. Is the same technology that is currently installed and under research at the OBOS living lab in Oslo.

We strongly believe that growing our understanding of the impacts of light on human behaviour could help us design more inclusive and liveable urban environments.

Impact

Light is essential to all forms of life. As we are aiming at transforming our neighborhoods and cities into sustainable eco systems, we need to understand how light is a valuable source: Not only for biological, but also for social processes. This project will increase awareness of thee importance of light amongst architects, public decision makers as well as professionals and citicens involved in city planning. An awareness of how natural, hybrid and artificial light can be brought into the development processs already at an early stage of projects, regeneration initiatives and long term strategig plans.

Visualisation of a lighting master plan for the neighbourhood.

Start of our walking tour. Lighting the natural elements of the city.

Stop 2 of our walking tour. Lighting the infrastructure and the spaces "in between". Possible lighting intervention with the use of new LED technologies

Stop 3 of our walking tour. Enhancing the existing historical architecture. Possible lighting intervention with the use of new LED technologies

Final destination: the Spektrum parking. A possible green oasis in the middle of the city using a hybrid lighting system that collects, transports and simulates natural light inside the building even in the darkest areas. Is an existing technology patent by TEL and INCUBE LIGHTING. Is possible to see the technology at the OBOS living lab in Oslo under request.

TEL- Lighting Design Lab at ETSAB Barcelona & INCUBE LIGHTING

Our team is a collaboration between TEL ( Lighting design workshop) at ETSAB the Barcelona School of Architecture and INCUBE LIGHTING, An Oslo based studio that develops overall natural and artificial lighting design strategies for buildings and urban spaces. They deliver state of the art and cutting edge lighting technologies, putting the users at the center of the design process.

We believe that a thoughtful design of our future cities has to come through a symbiotic collaboration between the academy and the private architectural/design practices.

As a team we have been collaborating for the past 10 years and together we put a team of :
- 15 patents in the field of lighting
- 52 international article and book publications in the field of lighting
- Organisation and participation in international lighting festivals
- 25 Master and PhD thesis in the field of both natural and artificial light
- Multiple ongoing collaborations with public entities and artists

Cross-disciplinary practice
Norway

OBOS Living Lab project in Oslo_ Interior Garden with the use of new lighting technology

OBOS Living Lab project in Oslo_ Interior Garden with the use of new lighting technology