Fred Oberkircher has devoted 35 years to lighting, working to advance and develop the profession in both organizational and educational terms. He studied architecture at Pennsylvania State University in the US, then dedicated himself to lighting, serving as a professor and as head of the lighting programme at Texas Christian University in the US.
During his 35 years of teaching, he was progressive in the ideas and proposals he put forward for the lighting curriculum. He succeeded in setting up a lighting laboratory within the university and then in introducing lighting as an independent elective course for students.
His current efforts, as president of the IES, focus on bringing together a number of lighting organizations to form a “partnership” that would act with a common goal: promoting lighting and integrating it into the overall design of buildings.
As Fred Oberkircher puts it, “we are living through a period of cultural change in the lighting industry… This change is being driven by a combination of circumstances that shape the culture of our time – a growing awareness of energy conservation, among both the public and organizations.”
Fred Oberkircher and other supporters of integrating lighting into overall building design welcomed the debut of the Building Integration pavilion at Lightfair 2010 (the world’s largest architectural and commercial lighting conference, held in Las Vegas, US, on 12–14 May). The move reflects the need for trade shows to go beyond the simple presentation of lamps and luminaires and to showcase buildings and lighting solutions as a whole.
Achieving this requires lighting organizations to work together and to jointly develop a regulatory framework for state and local energy codes. Oberkircher explains that “the leadership of the relevant lighting organizations has concluded that design and construction are parts of a whole, and that progress will come from groups and organizations that communicate with one another… We have to address environmental problems as a whole.”
For the past two years, the IES, with Fred Oberkircher’s contribution, has been working to establish a number of strategic changes in how it is organized and how it communicates with its members. The IES aims to move away from what has until now been a passive role of writing, publishing and distributing technical documents, and to build a dynamic presence in the industry. It hopes to bring together the bodies that hold lighting knowledge and then turn that knowledge into action that benefits the public.
In this latest initiative, Fred Oberkircher has the support of organizations and colleagues who recognize his remarkable career and his contribution to the advancement of the profession.
Text: Katerina Latoufi
Source: Mondo Arc
