Thomas Schielke, born 1973, studied architecture at the University of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany. During the course of his studies he worked as a research assistant at the department for Building Design and Lighting Technology for Prof. Harald Hofmann.

He has been in charge of the didactic and communication division at the lighting manufacturer ERCO since 2001 where he designed an extensive online guide for architectural lighting, leads lighting workshops and publishes internationally articles on lighting design and technology. He is author of the book "Light Perspectives - between culture and technology". This book covers the actual qualities of light, the relationship between light and space, finally, the dimension of light as it relates to culture - based on paired terms to explore the design dimension of light.

Additionally, he has taught lighting design at different universities and was invited for lectures at institutions like Harvard GSD, MIT, Columbia GSAPP and ETHZ. His dissertation at the University of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany, analyses architectural lighting. His research interests focus on qualitative lighting design. Thereby, he examines in which way light could be used to interpret architecture and to express a semantic quality. Further, he explores the development of contemporary light patterns, technologies and visualisation techniques to detect historical influences and to critically discuss the progress of light and architecture.

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> Interview by Flynn Talbot