My design process is driven by curiosity and experimentation. Seeing inspiring work, I want to understand the processes and techniques involved and try my hand at them. Lighting installations are one such source of inspiration, which was the catalyst for this project.
Without lighting installations, much of what we consider culture would not have the same impact. With a push towards a more developed night-time economy and more opportunity emerging for innovative lighting design in our urban environment, we are at an inflection point regarding the city's night landscape. Designed lighting strategies have the power to create spaces where we not only feel safe but can serve as somewhere to spend time, socialise and enjoy ourselves.
Light can have a variety of effects on our well-being. We spend most of our time in built environments that provide poor natural light in the day and are artificially over-lit at night.
'Virtual Atrium' creates additional “sunlight” during the day, and at night it dims, giving off no more light than we need. It serves as a piece of social infrastructure and offers the safety benefits of good urban lighting.
Virtual Atrium in an urban environment that lacks direct sunlight. Visualised in Unreal Engine
Virtual Atrium acts as a light at the end of the tunnel, extending its beam of sunlight into a dark transitional space. Visualised in Unreal Engine
In this scenario, the Virtual Atrium is an established piece of social infrastructure. Visualised in Blender
Virtual Atrium installed in an indoor space such as a train station or an airport. Visualised in Blender
Timelapse of Virtual Atrium installed in an urban environment. Visualised in Blender
Physical scale model of Virtual Atrium
Screenshot from my virtual reality visualisation of Virtual Atrium. Unreal Engine, Oculus Quest 2
Research
Bird's-eye view of my user testing VR environment, here a number of early iterations can be seen. Unreal Engine, Oculus Quest 2
Physical scale model iterations
A sample of some of the early explorations I conducted during the research and concept development phase