Ecology of Light: A Daylight Talk by James Carpenter, JCDA/Studio James Carpenter
James Carpenter, Founder of the cross-disciplinary design firm Studio James Carpenter/ JCDA (US), will present Daylight Talk #26 titled ‘Ecology of Light’ in collaboration with Aalborg University Copenhagen. The Daylight Talk will be moderated by Ellen Kathrine Hansen, Programme Lead MSc Lighting Design at Aalborg University Copenhagen.
Watch on the D/A website: 27 May 2026
Daylight Talks are organised by the VELUX Group in collaboration with individual schools of architecture and they are endorsed by the International Union of Architects (UIA) and the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE).
Daylight Talk #26: Ecology of Light
James Carpenter’s talk will focus upon the trajectory of his work that brings agency to the presence of light. His studios work uses the presence of light as the key organizing principle in addressing every design project regardless of scale. Each project strategically deploys light in a specific way, that enhances the individuals’ reading of light and its embodied presence, creating a deeper connection to nature within the built environment. James will talk about his career and work, highlighting a series of projects done over fifty years that have explored his unique approach to engaging with the public realm.
About James Carpenter
James Carpenter’s distinctive vision is conceptually grounded in the exploration of light and its interaction with light responsive surfaces, materials or atmospheric states, as they reveal the presence of nature. Originally studying architecture before concentrating on the fine arts, Carpenter exhibited in North America and Europe through the 1970s, creating immersive film installations. He established his studio in 1979, applying this broad range of aesthetic and technical expertise to transforming the public realm with both individual commissioned works to many significant collaborations with architects around the world.
Carpenter has been recognized with numerous national and international awards, including the Velux Stiftung Daylight Award, an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Smithsonian National Environment Design Award.
He holds a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and was a Loeb Fellow of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Carpenter has taught at numerous Universities including a Mellon Teaching Fellow at the University of Chicago, Harvard University GSD, MIT, University of Stuttgart, University of California, Berkeley and AHO, Oslo. Carpenter is an Honorary Member of the RIBA, and Honorary Member of RSA, Royal Designer for Industry.
About Aalborg University Copenhagen
The Lighting Design Lab and the Master’s programme are part of the Department of Architecture, Design, and Media Technology at Aalborg University. Within a cross-disciplinary and international environment at the Copenhagen campus, the field of Lighting Design is explored through both research and teaching. The work builds on distinctive Danish and Nordic traditions that merge the aesthetics of light with the physical and technical properties of materials to enhance quality of life and well-being. Across the fields of architecture, engineering, and technology, the programme seeks to develop solutions that improve the built environment through applied knowledge of lighting design.
Researchers, private business partners, municipalities, and graduate students collaborate to address relevant societal challenges. Through this transdisciplinary design-research approach, processes involving analysis, creation, implementation, and evaluation are embedded in real-life contexts such as hospitals, schools, public spaces, and cultural events. Experiments using scale models, photo-realistic simulations, and full-scale dynamic lighting mock-ups on-site are conducted to investigate how light influences human experience across diverse environments.
About Ellen Kathrine Hansen
Ellen Kathrine Hansen holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and a PhD from Aalborg University. She is the founder of the international MSc Lighting Design program and the associated Research Lab at Aalborg University in Copenhagen. With more than 30 years of experience in architectural lighting and daylight design, she has led numerous student and research projects exploring new potentials through the innovative integration of daylight and artificial lighting in architecture. Her work puts strong emphasis on research-based design, where experimentation, scientific inquiry, and creative practice are combined to develop new knowledge and design strategies. Her projects are structured according to the model developed in her PhD, Architectural Experiments, which integrates knowledge and methods from technical, humanistic, and industrial domains within a transdisciplinary and research-driven design process, fostering innovation in architectural practice and education.
