16|AULA cd Corbusier said:” Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light.” This means that light enables us not only to see but also to create, to design space around us, to make architecture. It is not only about satisfying a very basic need for sufficient illumination of our homes and offices, factories and streets. Standards and building codes on national and international basis do this in the form of minimal quantities that satisfy need for lighting on various fields of our work and living. Good lighting design provides a higher level of spatial quality. It generates lighting ambience. A lighting ambience is a special spatial layer within architecture where quality material architectural elements are properly “supported” by light. (Picture 1) Metodology/how? At the Faculty of Architecture University of Ljubljana an elective lighting course has been established in 2003 with the aim to literally enlighten future architect with some basic knowledge on the field of lighting. This lighting course is two-fold. On one side there is technically oriented matter, speaking about photometric quantities, optics etc., on the other side it is more artistic matter, speaking about architectural composition, rhythms, play of shadows etc. This combination of both ways is essential for better understanding of the role of light in architecture and in incorporating it into every project and design from its very beginning. Also a common language between the architect and lighting technician and/ or electrician has to be established so both sides – creative and executive can communicate on the same basis. Lectures and visiting lectures: standard approach Some of a basic theoretical knowledge has to be presented in an “old- fashioned” way – by lectures for students come to the faculty of architecture with various pre-education, being sometimes more technical or more social. Basic terms in optics, photometric quantities, standards and technical terminology is something that some students have never heard of but it is essential to be aware of. It is also important for future architects to be able to discuss various technical issues with electricians, to be able to understand their way of thinking and vice versa. The main point of the lectures in lighting has never been pouring the knowledge into people’s heads but to provoke an interest in the topic of lighting. Nowadays the lighting technology is developing with extremely fast pace. So it is useless to demand from the students to memorize an enormous quantity of data that will maybe in a few years already be obsolete. Much more important is to encourage the students to be eager for knowledge, to be critical, to ask questions, to discuss with themselves, to think about problems and possible solutions. Strong bond with the economic sector is very important. That is why external experts from practice are regularly invited to give lectures on various topic of lighting. This comes for a few reasons: a connection between academic and real sector is a benefit for both sides – students get the information straight from the practice, the lighting companies get new ideas that will in future be interesting for implementation. Exercises: testing theory in practice Exercises offer a great opportunity for testing the acquired theoretical knowledge in solving simple practical tasks such as expressing an imaginary urban space through a perspective or axonometric hand-drawing. By using white pencil on black paper illuminated surfaces of imaginary facades that come out from the dark are created. A futuristic use of light in most extraordinary ways is intended to encourage students to use their imagination and design a lighting concept that has not yet been implemented in practice or can not yet be implemented in practice for some technical reasons. Sometimes a piece of science-fiction literature is taken as a initiator for a new idea for lighting. A calculation of desired or required illumination has been an issue that has been in the past reserved for electricians and architects mostly avoided it. Nowadays there is a substantial amount of light-calculating software available on the market. Some of them come as freeware. As, for example DIALux that our students use for their lighting calculation. Beside the fact that DIALux is free there is also a big database of DIALux- compatible photometric data available on internet provided by most luminary-producing companies from all over the world. The software also enabled the students to create their own interior or exterior or simply to import a project from other CAD software. It is very important that future architects are able to observe, to “read” their surroundings and to recognize and distinguish between good and not- so-good illumination. For this purpose a 12-point criterion has been established for the evaluation of luminous ambiences. In one of the exercises students select a part of the city by their own choice and analyze and evaluate it using the above mentioned 12-point criterion. At the end of each semester/lighting course the students are given a small task as final exam, where they are confronted with a certain spatial problem they have to address using the most proper lighting solution. (Picture 2) Workshops: construit & fecit Workshops are very welcome supplement to the ordinary curriculum of the lighting course. In general, workshops are becoming more and more established way of the so called “problem based learning”. Usually an idea for a workshop emerges as a result of a faculty – faculty or a faculty – business cooperation. It brings new insights from different perspectives of practice, at most. Workshops address particular real problems in real space. They are conducted within the faculty curriculum – as a part of the design studio workshops within the faculty or from outside – municipal communities and various companies. The main aim of the workshop is that students personally experience the whole process of creating a luminous environment. Every workshop project starts with a spatial problem that has to be addressed using light and also shadow. Brainstorming on this stage is the most welcome