Professor of Lighting Design, Director MFA Lighting Design Program
Parsons School of Design, The New School
Despite the proliferation of light emitting diodes (LEDs) there are currently 964 million fluorescent luminaires in use and 1.5 billion sockets that contain some
type of incandescent bulb in the United States. Although there are certainly many of these systems being upgraded through complete replacement, as well as retrofit kits that are used to upgrade existing systems, there remains an overwhelming number that remain, many of them in locations with underserved or economically-deprived populations. Moreover, both of these approaches, replacement and retrofit, are fairly costly and involve a significant amount of waste -- even retrofit kits involve removing and disposing of most of the components, with only the housing remaining.
Repurposing these systems, as opposed to what is typically considered as retrofitting, involves replacing the legacy fluorescent and incandescent sources with permanent but affordable LED technologies while minimizing the amount of materials removed from the systems, limiting the amount of waste going to landfills.
In particular, this project focuses on fluorescent luminaires commonly used in school, office, and institutional environments. It explores the luminaire typologies typically used in these environments, including recessed troffers, suspended industrial-like fixtures, and suspended direct-indirect luminaires. Each technology is explored to identify the optimal repurposing.