We are happy to announce that Group X member M.Sc.(Arch.) Julle Oksanen, one of the Light & Space Academy leaders, has just become PhD in Architecture, D.Sc.(Arch.), with a dissertation titled “Design Concepts in Architectural Outdoor Lighting Design Based on Metaphors as a Heuristical Tool”.

Julle defended his doctoral dissertation on Wednesday August 18th at Aalto University Department of Architecture, acting as the dissertation’s opponent Professor Ihab Elzeyadi from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and as custos Professor Anssi Joutsiniemi from Aalto University Department of Architecture.

Congratulations Julle!

Architectural outdoor lighting design is currently based on strictly rule and system oriented technical lighting design. This method is totally impervious to external feedback and creative aesthetic development. The focus of the dissertation is on achieving change in the existing architectural outdoor lighting design paradigm by introducing the use of heuristic metaphors, modern – and also forgotten lighting design tools in practical architectural lighting design projects.

The key tool to a successful design solution is “The Law of The Pragmatic Truth”. Pragmatism is a rejection of the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists develop their philosophy around the idea that the function of thought is that of an instrument or tool for prediction, action, and problem solving. We design buildings today according to these laws, although we now know that they are not theoretically perfect, they are however, precise enough for practical calculations and work in real life. “The Law of Pragmatic Truth” can be used as a tool to define pragmatic and collectively accepted “tolerances” between scientific research results and practical values in architectural outdoor lighting projects. Wise use of this tool also saves huge amounts of energy in public lighting.

The dissertation presents important and partly new design elements and their development. The dissertation delves deeper into the principle structures of the design core and its elements than the basic practical architectural lighting design tools. It opens the doors for creative aesthetic architectural outdoor lighting design world and can change its paradigm.

This dissertation is a work of interdisciplinary lighting design research, adding art and science in a harmonious and useful combination, focusing on the new paradigm for architectural outdoor lighting. However, it also provides tools and examples for future research on a change of approach to architectural indoor lighting and also for architectural design generally.

Dissertation’s defense announcement