The Fabric of our Society

February 2023

Lighting Design Program at Parsons School of Design

Craig Bernecker
Professor of Lighting Design and Director of the MFA Lighting Design program at Parsons School of Design
Founder and Director, The Lighting Education Institute

While many of you might know of Parsons lighting design program or know some graduates (or have even hired them), you may not be familiar with the details of our program. And since Parsons grads are interwoven into the “Fabric of Our Society,” I thought it would be beneficial to share a quick synopsis.

Parsons is actually one of five colleges of The New School, a university that’s different from most in that it incorporates a full-scale design school embedded in what might be considered a typical university. Within Parsons School of Design, the lighting design program resides in the School of Constructed Environments (one of five “schools” that make up Parsons, including the School of Fashion, for which Parsons is also well known). In addition to lighting, the School of Constructed Environments also houses the architecture, interior design, and product and industrial design disciplines.

Interdisciplinary Coursework
The lighting program offers three graduate degrees, the 2 year Master of Fine Arts in Lighting Design, the 3 year double major in Interior Design and Lighting Design, and the 4 year Master of Architecture and Master of Fine Arts in Lighting Design dual degree. These three degrees are emblematic of the interdisciplinary nature of the lighting program and the other programs within the School of Constructed Environments.

In addition to the emphasis on interdisciplinarity, the lighting program emphasizes social responsibility (one of the pillars of The New School), human factors design, environmental responsibility, and evidence-based design. These priorities play out in a variety of ways. In the Thesis Studio in the final semester of each degree, Parsons students’ work has been recognized through paper presentations at the IES Annual Conference and as finalists and winners of the (now-defunct) PLDC Challenge program held internationally, among others. “Design students conducting research,” has become the tagline for the work by thesis students.

Beyond the graduate degrees, the lighting program recently implemented an online Interior Lighting Design Certificate program: three, 5 week courses offered sequentially three times a year. Targeted toward interior designers and practicing lighting professionals, the certificate program delivers lighting education to a broader audience. Most recently, this program also offers an entrée to the graduate lighting program as well.

Reintroduced after a hiatus due to the pandemic, the Summer Intensive Lighting Design Studio is a 7 day, immersive studio experience. Lighting professionals return to the studio environment to refresh and reinvigorate their design practices and learn about cutting-edge techniques in lighting.

Finally, I’m very excited to share that for the first time, we will be offering an intensive on curatorial lighting held at Parsons Paris, focusing on museum and gallery lighting, in the "City of Light."

Design Students Conducting Research
Interwoven with the educational programs is a developing research program. It’s related to individual student theses, but also addresses broader industry and design needs. Among these are the 14 different connected lighting systems installed on The New School campus as a part of the Next Generation Lighting Systems (NGLS) program of the US Department of Energy. Monitoring all aspects of design, installation, commissioning, and use of these systems provides a long-term view of the effectiveness of connected lighting systems.

The pandemic was a catalyst to explore “outside the box” of traditional lighting. Four germicidal UV radiation systems are integrated into lighting systems, and these continue to be evaluated at the School of Constructed Environments’ Light + Energy Lab. We’re exploring not only the amount of UVC delivered by the systems, but also their ability to deactivate a surrogate for SARS-CoV2.

The UVC project work has largely been conducted by students in parallel with their individual thesis projects. Similarly, thesis students have been involved in a project called Revitalite, where existing lighting systems are repurposed to minimize waste and cost while improving the efficiency and quality of those systems. This project has an aspect of social justice, in that underserved communities benefit from better lighting than they otherwise might be able to afford.

There are loads more details about educational and research activities, as well as other aspects of the Parsons lighting design program, than can be covered here. But hopefully this provides an overview of the program and its students, and some news on recent developments. IESNYC has long provided great support for the Parsons lighting design program in a variety of ways over the years. The faculty and the students are most grateful for that.

For folks who want to learn more about the program or get involved with our students, please join us for ProTango on March 2nd, our table at LEDucation on the 3rd floor in front of the Grand Ballroom, or an open house we are holding for our Lighting Partners and potential new partners on March 8 following LEDucation. See you there!