Last Higher Seminar for the Year
On the 17th of December, at the Research Seminars in Architecture Series, PhD candidate Seren Dincel will present a paper titled Stakeholder Perspectives on Wildlife-Adapted Illumination in a Peri-Urban Green Space.
The opponent for the session will be PhD candidate José Hernández Vargas.
Time: Wed 2025-12-17 13.15 - 16.00
Location: Conference Room 6th Floor of the Architecture School Room A608
Video link: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/67185547897
Outdoor illumination is increasingly implemented within or adjacent to ecological habitats to accommodate extended mobility and social activities beyond daylight hours. With a particular spectral composition and appealing energy-efficient properties, contemporary lighting technologies amplified light pollution by extending artificial brightness into urban darkness, altering the biological and behavioural rhythms of species. Ecological implications of electric lighting have been mostly investigated in lighting technology or ecological science research, whereas broader urban subjectivities, including other-than-humans in the nocturnal planning context, have received far less attention.
This in-progress manuscript brings together perspectives on designing, regulating, and inhabiting spaces within a peri-urban green area in Uppsala, Sweden. The site serves as a testbed and is equipped with a designed prototypical wildlife-adapted outdoor illumination. The research draws on semi-structured group interviews with 11 practitioners and municipal representatives from diverse planning backgrounds, along with structured walks involving 53 residents living near the testbed area. The preliminary results show an overall positive attitude towards the modified lighting intervention aimed at minimising ecological disturbances. Professionals’ underlying assumptions, those concerning public safety and the elderly population, appear to be barriers for shifting towards wildlife-adapted illumination, despite limited empirical support from residents’ contextual experiences.
Bio’s
José Hernández Vargas is an architect trained at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Catholic University of Chile) and a PhD candidate in Civil and Architectural Engineering at KTH, within the Division of Concrete Structures. His research investigates how 3D concrete printing enables the local manipulation of geometry, porosity, and material distribution to produce components with enhanced mechanical performance. His licentiate thesis explored spatially graded modelling and the structural implications of customised internal geometries for reducing concrete consumption while maintaining load-bearing performance. Current work extends these investigations to façade systems and adaptive porosity strategies, contributing to emerging discussions on low-carbon construction and circular use of concrete elements. By linking parametric modelling, robotic fabrication, and structural evaluation, his research aims to position 3DCP as a potential contributor to sustainability goals by reducing waste, enabling functional integration, and supporting new approaches to material efficiency in the concrete industry.
Seren Dincel is a Doctoral Candidate in The Division of Architecture, Technique and Theory at the KTH School of Architecture. Trained in interior architecture and architectural lighting design, she focuses on the spatial, social, and ecological dimensions of outdoor lighting. Her doctoral project is part of the NorDark consortium and funded by NordForsk and the Swedish Energy Agency.