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Images via Robin Carroll (Students working in last spring’s Integrated Lighting Solutions course)

A course started with funds from a national grant has been added to the Interior Design Program’s curriculum.

ID 4673, Integrated Lighting Solutions, was started last spring with funds from the 2015 Nuckolls Fund Grant. (Read more .)

The course, which is co-taught by Instructor Robin Carroll and Assistant Professor William Riehm, was recently approved by the University Committee on Courses and Curricula (UCCC) to be added to the program’s curriculum and will be offered again this spring.

An interdisciplinary effort across four academic units – interior design, architecture, building construction science and industrial and system engineering – the course addresses the principles of lighting design, incorporating lighting analytics and the understanding of lighting as an integrated part of building systems.

The course utilizes a hands-on, problem-based approach to help students understand the principles and techniques of lighting design as an integrated material. It also addresses changes coming to the lighting industry in the future.

Last year’s course included a variety of hands-on projects:

• Students were challenged to analyze and document the lighting qualities of an existing space both functionally and aesthetically. They measured the footcandles in the space and evaluated their findings as well as documented the interaction between light and space.
• They explored the different lamps and lamp positions and the relation to a variety of different textures and materials.
• Students also studied a variety of filters and translucent materials and analyzed how filters and translucent material types change the lighting conditions of a space.

For more information about the course, contact Robin Carroll at rcarroll@caad.msstate.edu