Contributing to the advance of lighting science
The atelier’s practice rests on scientific work. Diana Delnegro leads the international standard for the lighting of urban elements, holds a UCL doctorate on the image of the city at night, and teaches and examines research at several universities.
The CIE and the international guide
The CIE, Commission Internationale de l’Éclairage, is the international authority on light and lighting. It began in 1900 as a commission on photometry and took its present form in 1913. What it produces are the definitions, measurement methods and standards that industry and designers follow worldwide, and its standing as an international standardization body is recognised by the International Committee for Weights and Measures, by ISO and by IEC.
Diana Delnegro chairs technical committee TC 4-59, responsible for the international guide to the lighting of urban elements, the document setting out how monuments, façades, squares and city furniture should be lit, superseding the 1993 guide. Chairing a CIE committee means steering the work of specialists from several countries into a text that becomes a worldwide reference.
Portugal has never had a national committee at the CIE, and only members may take part in its technical work. Diana Delnegro is a member through the British committee, which opened that door. She is the first Portuguese person to chair one of the organisation’s technical committees.
- Committee
- CIE TC 4-59, Guide for Lighting Urban Elements
- Presentations
- CIE tutorial, Istanbul 2023 · Italian committee, 2022
- Jury
- CIE representative, 1st Shanghai International Lighting Festival, 2024
Research
The doctorate, completed at The Bartlett, UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, studied the effect of artificial lighting on legibility and wayfinding in the city at night. That work underpins the atelier’s approach at urban scale.
- PhD in Urban Lighting, The Bartlett, UCL, 2016: “The image of the city at night: the effects of artificial lighting on legibility and wayfinding”
- MSc in Rehabilitation and Conservation of the Built Heritage, Instituto Superior Técnico, 2007
- Portuguese coordinator of the EPSRC-funded project “Do external lighting conditions affect pedestrian movement? An epidemiological study”, UCL with Instituto Superior Técnico, 2017
- Member of CiTUA, Center for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism and Architecture, Instituto Superior Técnico
- Del-Negro & Mansfield, “Urban Lighting Masterplans: sustainability and environmental guidelines”, The International Journal of Environmental Sustainability, vol. 9, 2014
- Reviewer for Lighting Research & Technology and The International Journal of Environmental Sustainability
Teaching
- Guest lecturer, MSc Light and Lighting, The Bartlett, UCL, London, 2010–2016
- Guest lecturer, Diplomado Iberoamericano de Iluminación, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Buenos Aires, 2022, with participants from twelve countries
- Guest lecturer, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, 2021
Juries and review
- Doctoral thesis jury, “A iluminação artificial externa no edifício arquitectónico histórico em ambiente urbano”, Lisbon, 2023
- Master’s thesis jury, Instituto Superior Técnico, 2023
- Paper review committee, Professional Lighting Design Convention, Paris 2017 and Rome 2015