Artery Residence Integrated Lighting is Taking Shape

Below are a few snap shots of selected interior spaces taken during a recent site visit.  After several years of design and construction, the careful integration of light with architecture is finally coming to fruition - a particularly exciting moment in construction to witness the unique personality of the house come to life.  Construction completion scheduled for fall 2015.  Architect: Hufft Projects.  

Pulse Field Installation Underway at Wichita Art Museum

Ground screw and stem installations are almost complete after three long days in the Kansas summer heat and occasional rain.  Remaining details to wrap up today (weather permitting) include plumbing stems, cropping the tops to a level datum and capping the stem/ground screw connection.  Prairie grass landscaping will be installed soon with luminaire installation - the final crowning moment to the Pulse Field installation - scheduled for early September.  The official public opening of Pulse Field and the new Wichita Art Museum Art Garden is September 26.   

Wichita Art Museum Sculpture Lighting Mockup

Last night, working into the wee hours of the morning and contending with a dusty construction site, Derek Porter Studio and Lightworks conducted lighting mock-ups in the new Art Garden.  The recently installed sculptures allowed us to explore luminaire placement, light intensity, shadow patterns, correlated color temperature and glare potential within the context of the actual site.  In addition to these technical considerations, this investigation allowed us - lighting designer, museum staff and the extended design team - to examine how electric lighting affects the perceived nighttime character of the artworks.  This information is now used to inform the final lighting design.     (photos by Terry Berkbuegler of Confluence).  

Derek Porter Studio receives three International Merit Awards

Derek Porter Studio received three 2015 International Illumination Awards of Merit through the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.  Projects include the Kansas Leadership Center in Wichita Kansas (Architect: Opus Group), Crossroads Residence (Architect: Gould Evans), and the Chicago-Bucktown Residence (Architect: Min | Day).  Congratulations is due to all design team members and stake holders that contributed to the successful designs.      

Kansas Leadership Center

Kansas Leadership Center

Crossroads Residence

Crossroads Residence

Chicago-Bucktown Residence

Chicago-Bucktown Residence

Wichita Art Museum Pulse Field - Installation Begins June 23

After several months of development, Pulse Field, a permanent art installation that I designed for the Wichita Art Museum, begins to take form.  Composed of 120 solar powered luminaires that are mounted on stems ranging from 8' to 16' tall, Pulse Field establishes a fixed datum over a 200' long gently sloping berm.  This implied ceiling plane establishes a reference point against the contoured landscape aiding the viewer's ability to more keenly recognize topographical change.  The stem mounted luminaires slowly pulse  and the stems gently sway in the breeze, further animating the tension between technology and nature.   Landscape Architect: Confluence, Art Fabricator: DuraComm Lighting, Installer: Suburban Landscape Management.   

Derek Porter Teaches at Cornell University

For the second straight year I had the good fortune to teach a 4 week module on Lighting Design to architecture student in the School of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University.  This discipline specific module, part of the larger Environmental Systems II course, introduces natural and electric lighting concepts, technologies and applications to both graduate and undergraduate students.  Additionally, a great deal of focus is offered on human factors so that design for the built environment that humans inhabit is appropriately contextualized.  It was a please to share the interests of light, space, human perception and integrated design - topics highly valued at Parsons - with a new and diverse group of students.  

Support Container at Parsons - A limited time remains

Container is a new student led and operated journal that includes projects and critical writing by Parsons students in the School of Constructed Environments.  The journal epitomizes the aspirations of SCE as being an incubator for cross-disciplinary design and critical debate in architecture, product, interior and lighting design.  The students have launched a kickstarter campaign to raise funds for this inaugural printing and have limited time remaining to meet their goal.  Please consider supporting this most important initiative yourself as well as pass this message along to others that you know in architecture, design and academic fields that support such interests.  Your contribution today will greatly expand the student's personal intellectual pursuit as well as advance the creative communities that shape the world within which we occupy.  

Luminous Talks 3: The Changing Room is just 3 days away

Luminous Talks 3: The Changing Room is the third installment of an annual symposium that is sponsored through a partnership between Parsons The New School for Design and Philips Lighting.  Each year the symposium features presentations and panel discussion surrounding a pertinent topic in lighting design.  This year, The Changing Room explores the dynamic potential of environments in which both natural and artificial forms of light activate interior spaces. 

The symposium includes a live event in New York City on November 12 at 4:30pm (eastern standard time).  The event will also be live streamed for those who may be interested and unable to attend in person.  Please spread the word.  The event is sure to be packed with lively debate.  Click on the hyper links for more information on the Luminous Talks Series and  registration for The Changing room.  

One Kansas City Place Lobby Renovation

I'm working with BNIM Architects on the lobby renovation of this 1980's high-rise tower - an iconic element to the downtown Kansas City skyline.  The renovation, which is largely lighting related, is intended to bring a new and more current personality to this featured entry.  A significant part of the lighting design concept is a large custom chandelier that "swings" through this 2-story space - engaging occupants as they pass under, around and through the cloud-like mass.  The cumulative effect of thousands of dynamic white LED's combined with reflections on the glossy interior surfaces is a dazzling immersive environment of luminous spectacle.  Combined with an elaborate theatrical control system and individual control channels per module, programmed shows will create time based movement through altering light intensity and warm-to-cool tonal fades throughout the day.  Chandelier engineering and fabrication by DuraComm.  

Parsons Students Focus Lights at Sheila Johnson Design Center

This week i worked with a group of lighting students to focus lights in the Sheila Johnson Design Center - the main public exhibition space at Parsons.  The process starts with a gallery tour with the curator in order to understand the exhibition context.  Students subsequently develop a lighting scheme and make all physical modifications to the track lighting system.  This process takes 8-10 hours of late night, hot and dirty work.  It involves carefully navigating around the exhibition works, removing and relocating luminaires, changing light sources, modifying optics, screening output, building accessory hoods and modifying control programming.  It has proven to be an invaluable hands on experience - offering students a truly tangible understanding of lighting design. 

It just so happens that the exhibition examines the work of Victor Papanek who was a great design thinking and educator at my alma mater, the Kansas City Art Institute, as well as the University of Kansas.  Nice to have the midwestern link.  

Audio Block

Double-click here to upload or link to a .mp3. Learn more

Parsons and Philips collaborate on Luminous Talks 3

Final planning for Luminous Talks 3 is wrapping up in good form.  This annual public event, now in its third year, assembles experts from academia, design, architecture and science to explore diverse perspectives on a chosen thematic topic in light.  This year's theme is "The Changing Room" which examines the dynamic potential of environments in which both natural and artificial forms of light activate interior space.  Visit the Luminous Talks website frequently for updated information on the flagship event in New York City this November and other educational events related to this ongoing public program series.    

Derek Porter Speaks at the London School of Economics

LSE Cities is an international centre at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science that carries out research, education and outreach activities in London and abroad.  Its mission is to study how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanizing world, focusing on how the design of cities impacts on society, culture and the environment.  LSE hosts public events that bring together academics, researchers and practitioners to discuss specific topics regarding lighting and urban contexts.  I’m pleased to be part of the “Lighting the Local” panel discussion taking place September 22.  My presentation segment will be partnered with Adam Kaasa from the Royal College of Art and moderated by Joanne Entwistle from Kings College.  

Wichita Art Museum Sculpture Garden

Derek Porter Studio is collaborating with Confluence, a landscape architecture firm headquartered in Kansas City, to develop a new sculpture garden for the Wichita Art Museum.  A primary walking path weaves through the landscape which is conceived as a series of linked spatial sequences.  Conceptual spaces and light/landscape demarcations currently under development include: Place, Room, Edge, Path and Entry.  Each has a unique relationship to soft and hard scape. programmed activity and lighting interest.  Variations of illuminance patterns, such as directionality, vertical and horizontal composition, contrast and color temperature, will be applied to clarify unique spatial attributes and connect the pieces as a contiguous whole.  The project is currently in Design Development.  Conceptual plan diagrams courtesy of Confluence.   

Artery Residence Chandelier Mock-up

Today we conducted a final review of the custom chandelier design that we developed for two spaces.  The architect, Hufft Projects, fabricated a massing representation of each chandelier in order for the owner and design team to examine scale, unit spacing and fixture position in relation to the occupant and the corresponding custom furniture pieces located below the chandeliers.  A field of pendants that have six LED nodes each comprise two cloud-like forms that hover over the kitchen island and dining room table.  The result is a compressed spatial zone for social exchange.  We now move into the final phase of detailing and site coordination.  Computer rendering courtesy of Hufft Projects.  

Students Focus Lights at Parsons Sheila Johnson Design Center

Each semester I work with a select group of 6 lighting students who focus lights in the main Parsons public gallery that is part of the Sheila Johnson Design Center.  The process starts with a gallery tour with the curator in order to understand the exhibition context.  Students subsequently develop a lighting scheme and make all physical modifications to the track lighting system.  This process takes 8-10 hours of late night, hot and dirty work.  It involves carefully navigating around the exhibition works, removing and relocating luminaires, changing light sources, modifying optics, screening output, building accessory hoods and modifying control programming.  It has proven to be an invaluable hands on experience - offering students a truly tangible understanding of lighting design.  

Park Residence received International Merit Award

The Park Residence recently received an International Merit Award by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.  The electric lighting design is composed of linear fluorescent coves and recessed low voltage accent lights that are arranged as diagramming agents in support of the architectural parti.   Recessed accent lights are located in programmed spaces that have open views to the natural landscape while linear coves create a contrasting luminous backdrop at the more opaque elevation that faces the street. This asymmetric lighting design reinforcing the building's biased orientation and its steep hillside perch.  Go to our LIGHTING section for more information on the Park Residence.   

Artery Residence is taking form

We started design for this residence in 2011 with Hufft Projects in Kansas City. The building is a sculptural composition of dramatic cantilevers and interior shaft volumes that have dynamic natural and electric light effects. A recent site visit revealed how the geometries are taking form. Electric lighting installation starts soon. Check back periodically for updates. This is sure to be a memorable project.